What a pleasant surprise! I’m particularly excited to be nominated for “Innovator”. Most of my adult career — as with other aspects in my life — I’ve chosen to work through an organic path, feeling my way as I go through intuition and aloha. With what I’m doing there’s not really much in sense of a role model, though there are many people who have paved the way. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do, and have taken a lot of risks, and have learned a LOT.
It feels wonderful to be recognized for being outside the box; to be honored for trying new things.

And! I’m also thrilled to see some familiar names in the list, including Rachel Kramer Bussel, Megan Andelloux, PVVOnline.com, NoFauxxx.com, and the book SOVENIR by RubiCane. Also, I love Juxtapoz. I can’t wait to learn more about the other nominated finalists. Here’s the complete list.

Finalists Names

ARTIST

Sharlena Wood (Canada)
Sharlena Wood is an accomplished and highly creative visual artist and teacher who loves both vibrant colour and the sensuality of smudged charcoal. Sharlena’s erotic work portrays a rare tender passion and raw connection of sex and lust. She collaborates with her erotic muse, Rubyyy Jones, and their work together will be featured in a series with Lover Magazine, an e-zine focused on the fusion of art and women’s sexuality.

stormyartist.tumblr.com

Genetic Moo (UK)
These artists create massive interactive video installations where people come face to face with sexy and sexual aliens. Virtual creatures are constructed from choreographed nature video clips and fused with images of the artists’ bodies and reproductive organs. The visuals are programmed to respond to the audience’s motion and they amuse, titillate and delight!

geneticmoo.com

Brett Ryder (UK)
Brett Ryder is a prominent illustrator whose work appears in the New Scientist, The Observer and other publications that use quality images. We find his work sexy and charged, with many layers. When asked, he agreed to do this special image for The Erotic Awards, titled: “Lost and Found”.
Brett Ryder told us he had never been asked to do anything erotic before, but was a keen fan of the old Screwcovers. We are thrilled with his contribution.

brettryder.co.uk

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BLOG

Molly’s Daily Kiss
Molly Moore is a blogger and speaker and has one of the most powerful, honest and provoking sex blogs on the Internet. In the diary of a collared, submissive slut, wife, Mom and truth seeker, Molly gives so much to her readers through prose and photography. Though the focus of most of her blog is her potent individual expression and experience, she has created a warm community available to anonymous bloggers with no place for their sexual voice and for those writers wishing to boast about their Pussy or Period Pride.
mollysdailykiss.com

Rachel Kramer Bussel (USA)
Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York-based author, editor, blogger and event organizer. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and writes the Secrets of a Sex Writer column for SexIs Magazine. Editor and contributor to dozens of collections, Rachel has received most praise for her “Best Of…” series. Her blog is about her and her work, which is fabulous, because she’s doing so much!
rachelkramerbussel.com

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Stripping the Illusion (UK)
Chasmal’s blog is devoted to exposing the untruths in anti-sex campaigning, which is gaining speed, and is trying to put an end to striptease and porn. These abolition campaigns are run by radical feminists and religious conservatives who have a growing influence on newspapers and councils. They are having an increasingly devastating effect, and erotic clubs throughout the United Kingdom are being subjected to ridiculous pressure and endless interference by borough councils. Some clubs have already closed. Chasmal alerted Andrew Gilligan and The Telegraph and is gaining support, and the legal bodies representing the clubs have requested Chasmal’s positive evidence.
strippingtheillusion.blogspot.co.uk

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CAMPAIGNER

Ricci Levy (USA)
Ricci Levy runs the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, which campaigns for sexual freedom in the USA — not an easy task these days! On Sexual Freedom Day (around the 22th September) they hold a conference in Washington and then publish the enlightening content of the presentations. This initiative unites the individuals standing for sexual rights, and Ricci uses the research to lobby and combat prohibitionist trends.
woodhullalliance.org

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Edie Lamort (UK)
Edie Lamort is a striptease artist and campaigns for the rights of people to perform as they wish. Edie almost single-handedly took on a hostile gaggle of anti-stripper activists, including Beatrix Campbell, at a “debate” in Tower Hamlets in October 2011, called “Lap-dancing — A Choice or Exploitation?”. She has broadcast the outcome widely, to show everyone what is happening to these performers and their work places. Edie also contributed to Moron Watch’s Campaign for Womens’ Rights to Sexual Expression and we applaud her as she continues with the fight.
thierryschaffauser.wordpress.com

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Brook Campaign for Sex and Relationship Education (UK)
Brook have set out to educate the powers that be, on the importance of sex education in schools, through campaigns, petitions and debate. It is our belief that the earlier an individual has their questions about sex answered, the higher their eventual sexual wellbeing, and that many of the crimes being committed stem from basic ignorance. Therefore, we feel that this Brook campaign is very important. We appreciate their enormous efforts and applaud their commitment to involving young people in their campaign.
brook.org.uk/sex-positive

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EROTIC FILM SOCIETY AWARD

Presented by the Erotic Film Society in recognition of a significant contribution to the appreciation of the art and history of erotic cinema made during the past year.

Director Peter de Rome. Publisher/Distributor BFI Video

In the late 1960s, Peter de Rome started documenting his ”eternal search for the perfect prick” on Super 8 film. What began as a personal record, won a prize at the 1971 Wet Dreams festival in Amsterdam – where it proved as popular with women as it was with gay men – leading to a feature-length compilation of his intimately explicit short films. This outstanding BFI DVD of his pioneering work includes not only that 1973 feature but also several extra shorts and a documentary which firmly establishes de Rome’s place as a true artist in the annals of erotic cinema. http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_15967.html

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FASHION

Am Statik (UK)
Absolutely amazing rubber clothing, intricate and unique, arriving just when we thought we’d seen it all and nothing new could ever be made in rubber! Created by Amy Day, each garment is dynamic in its colours, details and contours, and is totally desirable clothing for both those curious or those immersed in the scene.
amstatik.com

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Second Coming (UK)
D. is a historic and much-loved figure on London’s Vintage and Fetish/ Sexy clothing scene, who sells her recycled clothes at fetish markets and festivals. D says she gains pleasure from seeing people being transformed by the clothing she sells them, because the transformation is more than skin deep. D. creates something sexy in the demure, something alluring to all in extreme fetish clothing, and produces kinkiness in the very ordinary.
facebook.com/pages/Second-Coming-Fan-Page/190429094302678

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Monsterlune (France)
Monsterlune is the brainchild of Estelle Riviere, an outstanding costumier, artist and seamstress who resides in North London. Her outfits are dramatic animalistic and mysterious, often using masks and a delightful combination of the grotesque with the delicate.
facebook.com/monsterlune

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FILM

Match Mates by Liselle Bailey (UK)
A former drama teacher and a newcomer to directing porn movies, this is Liselle Bailey’s first film. In Match Mates, she brings together her pornstar friends and allows them to play, organically, connecting with the ones they fancy, allowing a free flowing sensuality to blossom and then supporting with direction and a sexy eye. They are all appealing performers. It’s a jolly romp — and a fascinating outcome!
twitter.com/lisellebailey


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Rubber Bordello by Snakeoil Media (USA)
This is a very high production value, hard core fetish movie with pretty women and men, and an amusing Western storyline. The whole film is filtered in Sepia, in full period costume, with subtitles and authentic saloon music tinkling in the background. The attention to detail is stunning as the story flows and builds to climax.
rubberbordello.com



The Last Day by Lucus Entertainment (USA)
Many hours of hot, gay masturbatory material set in beautiful scenery, with some very tender and some stunningly sexy shots woven together with a lovely storyline. The standard of performance and production are exceptionally high and the men are very attractive and very real: not all young things and not all hunks. It’s simply beautiful, gripping and incredibly sexy.
lucasentertainment.com/tour/movies/view/the-last-day

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INNOVATION

Jiz Lee (USA)
Jiz Lee is an award-winning, formidable genderqueer porn performer who promotes queer pornography as a genre which presents a far truer picture of sex than most, providing a much deserved validation to queer and underserved communities. Jiz successfully launched an experimental erotic art philanthropy project “Karma Pervs” as a membership section of the website, to raise money for sex-positive, queer, and kink-friendly organizations within their community.
JizLee.com

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Pleasures in Stone (UK)
Stuart Hughes sculpts and polishes beautiful marble, onyx and granite erotic creations. They are precious sensual objects that can enhance play, retaining the heat or cold, lovely items to have in and by your bed: elegant, delicious to feel against tender tissues, and comfortingly organic. They are a timely new development, which we hope will inspire the sex product industry to wake up to the fact that nature is part of sex too.
pleasureinstone.co.uk

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Holly Revell’s DARKROOM Installations (UK)
Holly Revell has taken an old photographic technique and turned it on its head, to create an amazing erotic experience and very fascinating, often heavenly images. Directing her subjects to sometimes be dynamic and unbashed, and at other times calmly centered and sensuous, her images are unique, highly creative, and great fun to produce. Snapping and posing people all over London, Holly now offers workshops for those seeking to capture and revel in their Darkroom side!
hollyrevell.co.uk

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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Ben Dover (UK)
Ben Dover has been performing in porn since his 20s (then known by the name Lindsay Honey), when he became a fast favourite. Now in his 60s, he is still performing, providing entertainment and amusement through his films, appearances and politics. Fitter than ever, he’s enjoying life and bringing an old-fashioned British humour to the porn scene. Ben Dover is that perfect balance of salt of the earth and star!
ben-dover.biz

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Dolores French (USA)
Dolores French changed the lives of many through her book “Working: My Life as a Prostitute” which was published in 1989. It was the first of all the sex workers’ autobiographies and was a very brave publication, as sex work was (and still is) illegal and highly stigmatized, in most of the USA. Her book is beautiful stylistic, raw and with vivid descriptions. Dolores has spent her life engaged in pro-sex writing and lobbying for sex workers’ civil rights and we salute her for her courage and tenacity.

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Empress Stah (Australia)
Empress Stah is a highly creative performance artist who loves to balance shocking sweetness and quirky fierceness. She has influenced erotic performance, and she works with the famous and successful. Her shows are always extremely creative and push lots of buttons with sex and wit, like few others. An international, innovative performance artist of many talents with one unforgettable face, we honour Empress Stah and thank her for her contributions to the community.

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OUTSIDERS AWARD

Barry Roberts (UK)

Barry has been a welcome addition to the Outsiders Support Network, and is becoming a Trustee. Outsiders members love him, and he has flattered us by saying he’s never felt such warmth as in the Outsiders Club. Barry has been a wonderful handy-man, inspiration, and intermediary between the various areas of the Outsiders activities.

Thank you Barry

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PERFORMERS

Loz (UK)
Loz is a performance artist who specializes in aerial suspension and twisted stories. At our 2012 Semi Finals Event, she climbed to dizzying heights, lay back and read a newspaper, and then took our breath away with a costume — and gender — change! The audience was totally stunned and we wait, with baited breath, to see what she will do for the finals! Loz is also an accomplished costumier and prop maker, often working in theatre.

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She Loves Matt Damon (China)
She Loves Matt Damon is an amazing young performer who can work her body in head-turning ways: she can smoke a cigarette from her toes, over her head, fold in half, and not only bend backwards to expose all sorts, but then twist and turn so one does not know what is going where! The audience was transfixed during her 2012 Semi Finals performance, and we are thrilled to have her as a finalist

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Roxy Velvet (UK)
Roxy Velvet puts her wicked hot heart and creative soul into being as outrageous and sensually shocking as she can be. An innovator in performance and costuming, Roxy is a highly sought-after performer in circus, burlesque and cabaret. Fabulous at the Semi-Finals, we’re looking forward to her galloping glamour at The Night Of The Senses.
roxyvelvet.com

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The Late Night Shop (UK)
This collective of four innovative young ladies are in a league of their own. Highly creative, evocative and smart, they are an unstoppable troop of talented trollops we love. Their walk-about performance at the 2011 Night Of The Senses Ball had all our guests talking and, after a successful 2011 working the sexy arty party and cabaret circuit, they are back for our 2012 Ball in the Finals, with more punch, more fabulous outfits, and more deviance!
thelatenightshop.co.nr

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PHOTOGRAPHER

Deborah Griffin (UK)
Deborah has been on the theatre and fetish art scene for a long time and has recently been working on her own art projects. They are images of sculpture and powerful installations which demonstrate her punk rock anarchist roots. The photos she has submitted to us are a treasure trove of stories, centering around her own genitalia, we loved these thought-provoking pieces. She wrote “I didn’t fight The Punk Wars to reductionise the emotional breadth of my work with a glib slogan… oh I just did!”
myspace.com/deborah.griffin

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Adam Stockman (UK)
We found Adam Stockman’s photographs unique, with a mix of powerful imagination and mysterious subjects, and very very sexy. A playful and erotic mind, Adam writes, “Sex, love, betrayal, greed, desire, religion are themes I always have to return to…I want to create an enhanced reality that is richer and more concentrated, more vivid, almost a hyper version of our world.” We believe he succeeds!
adamstockman.com

Miron Zownir (USA)
Miron Zownir’s stark photos capture real life sex in action, in hidden but thriving scenes around the world. His work is an extraordinary testimony to the wild sexuality that is being enjoyed and courageously shared, a free sexy part of society that deserves to be empowered and Miron’s photos make that so. Raw and explicit, these are not for the more vanilla at heart but there is love and connection in all kinds of sex, and we appreciate the intimacy and bravery in his work and from his muses.
mironzownir.com

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PIONEER

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy (Egypt)
Student, atheist and blogger, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, posted nude pictures of herself on her blog to show her “screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy”. Sharing and embracing her body, her femininity, particularly at a time when Islamists in Egypt are trying to secure power, was the ultimate act of rebellion. Today, the nude pictures have been taken down but their powerful ripple, a fist upwards to freedom, remains.
facebook.com/aliaa.magda.elmahdy.blog

Global Network of Sex Work Projects (UK)
The NSWP was established in 1990, as an informal, sex worker-led network, to advance male, female and transgender sex workers’ human rights and health, and influence policies worldwide. They have built a community and are leaders among sex workers. They facilitated the development of many regional sex work projects. The NSWP participation in the global response to HIV/AIDS was largely responsible for the term “sex worker” replacing “prostitute” in many languages, lessening stigma and encouraging pride in the work. They are based in Edinburgh.
nswp.org
Megan Andelloux (USA)
Megan is the founder and director of The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health in Pawtucket, RI. It is a sexuality resource centre designed to provide adults with a safe, physical space to learn about sexual pleasure, health, advocacy issues and discussions on a wide range of topics: “De-Mystifying Pudendal Neuralgia”, for example. The centre has publications and resources from today’s and yesteryear’s great sexual thinkers, a huge inventory of sex toys, and the largest handmade vulva doorframe in America. Megan lectures internationally on sexual pleasure, politics, and erotic justice.
ohmegan.com

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POLE DANCER

Ville Kinos (Finland)

Ville Kinos is the strongest and most agile male pole dancer we’ve ever seen. He holds himself at right angles to the pole, with precision and grace and then swings effortlessly into another pose. It was a high highlight of our 2012 Semi-Finals show. His body is a temple, his face sweet with a piercing gaze and on top of it all, he’s a sweetheart and we’re excited to see him swinging in again at our Ball.

modelmayhem.com/1103181

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PUBLICATION – Illustrated

Souvenir (UK)
Ian Bruce is one-part performer and one-part artist. Under the name RubiCANE, he has produced a book of pornographic drawings with accompanying prose by pornstars, playwrights and poets. It’s a beautiful silk-bound art book; the drawings are all done by Ian, based on porn images from many orientations, physical bodies, and sexy scenarios. The text is about porn, its limitations and triumphs, sex clubs, disability, and sex in society.
rubicane.com

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Mammoth Book of Gorgeous Guys (UK)
A triumphan,t small but fat book of photographs for women to ogle and treasure. Barbara Cardy has sourced a huge and sexy mix of pictures of men; some are really Renaissance kinda beautiful, some rough hard-core, some soft and submissive, from all around the world. The book has a certain joy that we miss in much of today’s erotic material. Perfect for the coffee table or the bedroom, this is a book take can be enjoyed on many levels!
amazon.co.uk/The-Mammoth-Book-Gorgeous-Guys/dp/1849013748

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Juxtapoz (USA)
Juxtapoz is America’s biggest circulation art magazine, which is actually quite underground and sexy. They run a website which devotes much space to hot but not-so-explicit erotica and they also publish explicit books on erotic art featuring by far the most exciting material from all over the world. These Erotica books are so popular that they are being regularly reprinted.
juxtapoz.com


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PUBLICATION – Non-Illustrated

Smut by Alan Bennett (UK)
Alan Bennet’s fictional book comprises two stories, both about very “ordinary” English people who, like most “ordinary” people, have shocking and sensual things happening behind closed doors. The characters get up to extraordinary sexual shenanigans and it is an incredibly charged and horny read, especially considering it comes from such an established writer at the age of 77!
literature.britishcouncil.org

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Madam — Prostitutes, Punters, Puppets by Becky Adams (UK)
A really funny, heart-warming book that takes you through the naive beginnings of Becky’s career, and through all the subsequent highs and lows, showing her to be a lady with a strong heart and an honest willingness to learn and grow. Becky’s story is fueled by her wish to improve the lives of others; she wrote “I really wanted to get the book out before the Olympics, to try and counteract some of the hysteria the Government are peddling about trafficking”.
madambeckyadams.co.uk

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There Is No Word For It by Laura Bridgeman and Serge Nicholson (UK)
This is a very important, unassuming book, for it gives us insight into why some people feel they have to change gender, and how they cope with their trans journey and self, socially and sexually. It should be required reading in sex education and for all those who still have fears, suspicions, or confusion about trans individuals. It is engaging, funny, and very moving.

transmanginamonologues.com

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SEX WORKER

Dolly Mopp (UK)
Dolly Mopp has been on the TLC website (for disabled men and women to access responsible sex workers) since its inception, and she’s wildly popular there, as everywhere. She describes herself as a courtesan. Dolly was inspired at an early age by Dolores French and is still very enthusiastic. She writes, “Every meeting feels like the first time. I get super excited about a new man! It’s not all about the sex, it’s about the whole experience, a new personality, a new friend. It really teaches you humanity, empathy, all about people, their souls.” Her aim is to please!

thedollymoppfiles.co.uk

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Tom Wolf (UK)
Tom came recommended as a good, honest gay leatherman who cares for his clients so well that they often become regulars. He enjoys the intimacy and sex he has with his clients, and is happy to learn more about them, listen, and try to just be there for them. Tom is an excellent fister, even though he has large hands! He’s very proud that he is providing a service to many men who, for many various reasons, wouldn’t be able to have the kind of sex they enjoy unless they were lucky enough to know someone like him.

rentboy.com/AlLeatherTop

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STRIPTEASE ARTIST

Keda Breeze (UK)
Keda Breeze is an established performance artist, specializing in striptease and fire. Red hot at the 2012 Semi Finals, she wears a smile of wonder (and not much else!) as she dances, which is quite enchanting and very cheeky. She moves gracefully and is a lovely vision behind her expertly handled flames.
kedabreeze.co.uk

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Kitty Bang Bang (UK)
Kitty Bang Bang is a dynamic performer taking the world by storm! Kitty wowed us with her fierce, hot, and skilled performance at the Semi Finals, and we wish her luck as she takes to the stage to compete in the Debut category at the Burlesque Hall Of Fame. Already an established UK performer, Kitty is performing more internationally and her mix of cute hotness and dancer precision are sure to serve her in the Erotic world and beyond!
kittybangbang.com


Edie Lamort (UK)
Edie Lamort starts her strip as a radical campaigner, wielding protest signs, wrapped in police tape, and hooded. Slowly, up the pole and semi-naked, she removes the hood to expose her beautiful face with bright red hair and a lovely smile. Then all is exposed, all curves and dimples. She offers on view her heavenly body, peeps at her pussy, and views from all angles. For us, a perfect striptease, a balance of explicit entertainment and art.
thierryschaffauser.wordpress.com
Simulation (UK)
A classic male striptease show, with teasing, flirting, getting the girlie on stage and blind-folded, lots of cream, muscle and flexing. This man gives his all, and everyone was glad he was there at the Semis, representing the roots and the classic styles which still entertain many today!
stimulationmalestripper.com

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VOLUNTEER

Solitaire (UK)

Solitaire has been performing for us since almost the very start: table dancing, stripping, pole dancing and lap-dancing, raising much welcome cash for our charity. She will be there with us again this year, even though she’s stopped doing this sort of thing for a living, now she’s in love. We appreciate the many amazing contributions she has made to us and our charity.

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WEBSITE

Erospirit.ca (Canada)
Caffyn Jesse is qualified across a number of disciplines and has taken the most valuable bits and pieces from these doctrines and developed a user-friendly website with “new age”, scientific, sex therapy, sex and body work, to be really helpful and positive. It is ideal as a resource for people embarking on a journey of erotic discovery. She lives and works on Salt Spring Island and we can see the influence of nature and spirit in her work and site.
Erospirit.ca

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nofauxxx.com (USA)
No Fauxxx was created by Courtney Trouble in 2002 as an indie queer porn site. It started a big buzz in the queer community, then the media, when the wider adult industry sat up and took notice. NoFauxxx features a wide variety of sexual and gender identities with the main aim to create sexual arousal through thoughts, photos and videos which are artistic, intelligent and fun. There is a wonderfully diverse members’ area and — most importantly in porn — there is a huge respect for women and their experience.
nofauxxx.com

PVVOnline.com (USA)
This is a website run by Chauntelle Anne Tibbals Ph.D, a sociology academic who specializes in porn. Chauntelle takes a serious but positive attitude to porn to try to help people understand it. She writes, “Just like real life, porn is multi-dimensional and complex, and every discrete element is also part of a wider socio-cultural past, present, and future. PVVOnline/Porn Valley Vantage engages these complexities, connecting the dots and offering readers a unique take on the adult industry.” Great for education at all levels of sexual sophistication!
pvvonline.com

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WRITER

Friday AM (UK)
Friday AM writes succinct, punchy short poems about beautiful encounters, odes to genitalia, and accounts of love and lust lost. They are unexpected, delightfully gracious, and composed with wit and a thoughtful heart.
fridayerotica.blogspot.com

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Zoe Margolis (UK)
Zoe Margolis, also known as Girl with a One-Track Mind, has written the sequel to the original bestseller, leading up to the fallout from her public outing and the direction her life has since taken. It’s just as compelling as the first. Very open and with a strong voice, she writes about sex without censor, never letting a page go by that does not impart an insightful personal sexual revelation, technique or preference to amaze, inform and delight even the most seasoned reader of sex books.
zoemargolis.co.uk
Lori Smith (UK)
Lori Smith writes on her blog Rarely Wears Lipstick, is the sex and relationships writer for Bitch Buzz, and has contributed to various blogs, sites and conferences as an expert in sex, media and personalized style. An activist for positive non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships, she has been featured in The Guardian and on the radio speaking about her orientation and lifestyle, and empowers others to do so through a blog series on her site. Also a performer, event producer, and feminist, Lori Smith is a multitalented maven to watch!
lori-smith.co.uk

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