Editing Annie Sprinkle (section)

== Life and career ==
Sprinkle was born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954, in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania,<ref name="Sprinkle 1998 p12">{{cite book |last1=Sprinkle |first1=Annie |title=Annie Sprinkle [Post-Porn Modernist: My 25 Years as a Multi-Media Whore] |date=1998 |publisher=Cleis Press |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-1-57344-039-4 |page=12 |quote=I was born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954, 11:34 {{small caps|a.m.}} in Philadelphia, the first of four children.}}</ref> to a [[Russian-Jewish]] mother and a [[Polish-Jewish]] father.<ref>{{cite episode |last=Kramer |first=Tamara |url=http://shtetlmontreal.com/2011/02/18/dr-annie-sprinkle-on-shtetl/ |title=Annie Sprinkle |series=Shtetl on the Shortwave |via=''Shtetl: Your Alternative Jewish Magazine'' |airdate=February 18, 2011 |publisher=CKUT-FM |location=Montreal |type=podcast |time=6:32}}</ref> Her family moved to [[Los Angeles]], California, when she was five years old, and she lived in [[Panama]] from age thirteen to seventeen.<ref name="Ecosex Herstory">{{Cite web |title=Annie's Ecosex Herstory |url=http://sexecology.org/annies-ecosex-herstory/ |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=Sexecology.org}}</ref> At eighteen, she began working at the ticket booth at the Cine-Plaza Theatre in [[Tucson, Arizona]], when ''[[Deep Throat (film)|Deep Throat]]'' (1972) was playing.<ref name="rialto">{{cite web |date=April 7, 2013 |title=Annie Sprinkle: The Early Years – Podcast 05 |url=https://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/04/07/annie-sprinkle/ |website=The Rialto Report }}{{self-published inline|date=January 2023}}</ref> The film was busted, and when Steinberg had to appear in court as a witness, she met and began a relationship with ''Deep Throat's'' director, [[Gerard Damiano]], becoming his mistress. She followed him to New York City, where she lived for twenty-two years.<ref name="rialto" />

Not long after becoming Damiano's mistress, Steinberg began working in porn herself and, at that time, started calling herself "Annie." As her career continued, she says that one night, "as if from the goddess herself," the name "Annie Sprinkle" came to her.<ref>{{cite web |last=Reyes |first=Dean Luis |title=Annie Sprinkle |work=Miradas: Revista del Audiovisual |language=es |url=http://www.eictv.co.cu/miradas/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=531&Itemid=93 |author=<!--anonymous author, no byline--> |publisher=Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión |location=Havana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501234022/http://www.eictv.co.cu/miradas/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=531&Itemid=93 |archive-date=May 1, 2008}}</ref> She later changed her name legally to Annie Sprinkle.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Turner |first1=Jen |title=Famed sexologist doesn't beat around the bush with sex lectures |url=https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2006/04/famed-sexologist-doesnt-beat-around-the-bush-with-sex-lectures |website=The Eagle |publisher=American University |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |access-date=April 3, 2022 |date=April 24, 2006}}</ref> Her first porn movie was ''Teenage Deviate'' released in 1975. Perhaps her best known mainstream porn featured role was in ''Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle'' (co-directed by Sprinkle and sexploitation veteran [[Joseph W. Sarno]]) which was the No. 2 grossing porn film of 1981.<ref name="Little 2009">{{cite news |last=Little |first=Reg |date=June 18, 2009 |title=Iffley and the former porn star |work=Oxford Times |url=http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/features/4435987.Iffley_and_the_former_porn_star/ |access-date=November 11, 2013}}</ref>

In 1991, Sprinkle created the ''Sluts and Goddesses'' workshop, which became the basis for her 1992 production ''The Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop – Or How To Be A Sex Goddess in 101 Easy Steps.'' The film was co-produced and co-directed with videographer [[Maria Beatty]], and it featured music by composer [[Pauline Oliveros]]. Sprinkle pioneered new genres of sexually explicit film and video such as edu-porn, gonzo, post porn, xxx docudrama, art porn, and feminist erotica.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last=Chandler |first=Meghan |date=October 2014 |title=The erotic anatomies of Charles Estienne and Annie Sprinkle |journal=Porn Studies |issn=2326-8743 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=391–401 |doi=10.1080/23268743.2014.958385}}</ref> Sprinkle has also presented many sex workshops with fellow sex facilitator [[Barbara Carrellas]], with whom she presented the stage production ''Metamorphosex.''<ref name="Rees1" />

Sprinkle has appeared in almost 200 films, including [[hard-core pornography|hard-]] and [[softcore pornography]], [[B movie]]s, loops, and numerous documentaries. She starred in [[Nick Zedd]]'s experimental films ''War Is Menstrual Envy'' (1992), ''Ecstasy in Entropy'' (1999), and ''Electra Elf: The Beginning'' (2005). She also appeared in various television shows including four [[HBO]] ''[[Real Sex]]'' programs. She has also produced, directed, and starred in several of her own films, such as ''Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of Porn'', ''Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of Orgasm'', and ''Linda/Les & Annie—The First Female to Male Transsexual Love Story''. Her work in adult films earned her a spot on the Adult Star Path of Fame in [[Edison, New Jersey]], and she was inducted to both the [[List of members of the AVN Hall of Fame|AVN Hall of Fame]] and the [[XRCO Hall of Fame]] in 1999. For three decades, she has presented her work as a visiting artist at many major universities and colleges in the US and Europe.

Annie Sprinkle is known as the "prostitute and porn star turned sex educator and artist."<ref>{{cite book |title=Seductive aesthetics of postcolonialism |first=Rekha |last=Menon |publisher=Hampton Press |date=2010 |isbn=978-1-57273-973-4 |quote=How can one miss, the ''Sex Goddess,'' Annie Sprinkle (the postporn modern artist), Tantric inspired cosmic Kali, Sprinkle as the Neo Sacred Prostitute / Goddess. She is known as the prostitute and porn star turned sex educator and artist. Sprinkle's work has always been about sexuality, with a political, spiritual, and artistic bent. |page=51}}</ref> Her best known theater and performance art piece is her ''Public Cervix Announcement'', in which she invites the audience to "celebrate the female body" by viewing her [[cervix]] with a [[speculum (medical)|speculum]] and flashlight.<ref name=":8">{{cite book |title=Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum |first=Terri |last=Kapsalis |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1997 |pages=113–134 |isbn=978-0-8223-1928-3}}</ref> She also performed ''The Legend of the Ancient Sacred Prostitute'', in which she did a "sex magic" masturbation ritual on stage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ksander |first=Yael |date=2015-09-16 |title=The Ecosexuals: Tree-Hugging And Then Some |url=https://indianapublicmedia.org/arts/treehugging.php |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=Indiana Public Media}}</ref> She has toured one-woman shows internationally for 17 years, some of which were titled ''Post Porn Modernist'',<ref name="czekay1">{{cite journal |last=Czekay |first=Angelika |date=Spring 1993 |title=Distance and empathy: constructing the spectator of Annie Sprinkle's post-Post Porn Modernist – still in search of the ultimate sexual experience |url=https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/jdtc/issue/view/140 |journal=Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=177–192 |quote=Today, after seventeen years in the porn industry, ex-sex worker Annie Sprinkle is a performance artist. In her recent performance piece ''Post-Post Porn Modernist Still in Search of the Ultimate Sexual Experience'', Sprinkle talks about her life as a former porn star and ex-prostitute.}} [https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/jdtc/article/viewFile/1876/1839 PDF.]</ref><ref name="Williams 1993">{{cite journal |last=Williams |first=Linda |author-link=Linda Williams (film scholar) |date=Winter 1993 |title=A provoking agent: the pornography and performance art of Annie Sprinkle |journal=Social Text |volume=37 |issue=37 |pages=117–133 |doi=10.2307/466263 |jstor=466263 |quote=Beginning her professional performance career as a masseuse, soon after becoming a whore, Sprinkle next expanded into burlesque and live sex shows, then to writing for sex magazines and performing in pornographic films and videos, where she eventually became a director.}} Reprinted in: {{block indent|em=1|{{cite book <!--|last=Williams |first=Linda |chapter=A provoking agent: the pornography and performance art of Annie Sprinkle--> |title=Dirty looks: women, pornography, power |pages=176–192 |year=1993 |editor1-last=Church Gibson |editor1-first=Pamela |location=London |publisher=BFI Pub. |isbn=978-0-85170-403-6 |author-link=Linda Williams (film scholar) |editor2-last=Gibson |editor2-first=Roma}} }}</ref> ''Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of Porn'',<ref name="Smith 2012">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Tyler Stoddard |title=Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession |date=2012 |pages=98–99 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Tyler Stoddard |contribution=Hustling for a higher cause |publisher=Adams Media |location=Avon, Mass. |isbn=978-1-4405-3605-2}}</ref><ref name="Rees1">{{cite book |last=Rees |first=Emma L. E. |url=https://archive.org/details/TheVaginaALiteraryCulturalHistory |title=The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History |date=2013 |publisher=A & C Black |isbn=978-1-6235-6871-9 |pages=249–253 |url-access=registration}}</ref>  and ''Hardcore from the Heart''. She then performed two-woman shows with [[Elizabeth Stephens|Beth Stephens]] titled ''Exposed; Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art'', ''Dirty Sex Ecology'', ''Earthly: An Ecosex Bootcamp'', and ''Ecosex Walking Tour''.<ref name="Hopman p146">{{cite book |last1=Hopman |first1=Ellen Evert |last2=Bond |first2=Lawrence |author1-link=Ellen Evert Hopman |title=People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out |date=1996 |publisher=Destiny Books |location=Rochester, Vt. |isbn=978-0-89281-559-3 |pages=146–151 |url=https://archive.org/details/peopleofearthnew00hopm/page/146/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}} Reissued as: {{block indent|em=1|''Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans & Witches Today''. Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books. 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-89281-904-1}} }}</ref>

Her work and publications, spanning over four decades, are studied in courses at numerous universities, in theater history, [[women's studies]], [[performance studies]], LGBTQ studies and [[film studies]] courses. Through The New School of Erotic Touch, she has released several video classes, including ''Female Genital Massage'' and ''Amazing World of Orgasm.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Annie Sprinkle Ph.D. {{!}} New School |url=https://csb.eroticmassage.com/teacher/767 |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=csb.eroticmassage.com}}{{dead link|date=January 2023}}</ref> Currently her lecture presentation is called "My Life and Work as a Feminist Porn Activist, Radical Sex Educator, and Ecosexual". She has also presented dozens of "Free Sidewalk Sex Clinics", offering free sex education to the public in public space.

Sprinkle's work has always been about sexuality, with a political, spiritual and artistic bent. In December 2005, she committed to doing seven years of art projects about love with her art collaborator and eventual wife, Beth Stephens. They called this their ''Love Art Laboratory.'' Part of their project was to do an experimental art wedding each year, and each year had a different theme and color. The seven-year structure was adapted to their project by invitation of artist [[Linda M. Montano]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Benn |first=D. |title=Annie Sprinkle on the Adult Star Path of Fame: 43 Stars Laid in New Jersey |url=http://www.pornonewsnetwork.com/news.php?id=863 |website=Porno News Network |date=2006}}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Sprinkle and Stephens have done twenty-one art weddings, eighteen with ecosexual themes. They married the Earth, Sky, Sea, Moon, Appalachian Mountains, the Sun, and other non-human entities in nine different countries including at Montreal's [[Edgy Women]] Festival in 2011.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Johns |first=Merryn |date=March 1, 2011 |title=Top Ten Reasons We Love...: Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens |magazine=Curve |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=80 |url=https://digital.curvemag.com/curve/curve-march-2011/flipbook/82/ |issn=1087-867X}}</ref>

She was featured in [[Maya Gallus]]'s 1997 documentary film ''[[Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality]]''.<ref name=kennedy>{{cite news |first=Janice |last=Kennedy |title=Exploring female sexuality: Documentary a revealing look at women's erotica |work=Ottawa Citizen |issn=0839-3222 |date=February 10, 1999}}</ref>

Sprinkle and her partner [[Beth Stephens]] became pioneers of ecosexuality, a kind of earth-loving sexual identity, which states, "The Earth is our lover". Their Ecosex Manifesto proclaims that anyone can identify as an ecosexual along with being "GLBTQI, heterosexual, asexual, and/or Other."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sexecology.org/research-writing/ecosex-manifesto/ |title=Ecosex Manifesto |website=Sexecology.org |access-date=December 9, 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Beth-n-Annie.JPG|thumb|Sprinkle (right) with [[Beth Stephens]] in 2006]]
Sprinkle identifies as a [[sex-positive feminist]], and much of her activist and sex education work reflects this philosophy. In 2009, she appeared in the French documentary film ''Mutantes: Punk, Porn, Feminism'', speaking about the beginnings of the movement as well as her own contributions to it.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1576434/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm |title=Mutantes at IMDb |website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=December 9, 2014}}</ref>

In 2017, Sprinkle and Stephens were official artists in [[Documenta 14]]. They presented performances and visual art, lectured, and previewed their new film documentary, ''Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure''.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/15/nature-ecosexual-annie-sprinkle-porn-star-queer |title=Nature is your lover, not your mother: meet ecosexual pioneer Annie Sprinkle |last=Theobald |first=Stephanie |date=May 15, 2017 |work=The Guardian |access-date=January 14, 2018 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGx-s9gj6rM |title=Documenta 14: Annie Sprinkle ('Ecosexual Walking Tour' of female porn activist in Kassel) |publisher=Kunst und Film |date=Jul 12, 2017 |via=YouTube |access-date=January 14, 2018 |type=video}}{{cbignore}} Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/FGx-s9gj6rM Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190204050131/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGx-s9gj6rM&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}</ref>

Harvard's Schlesinger Library acquired her papers from 1967-2010, including those covering work with her partner [[Elizabeth Stephens]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sprinkle |first1=Annie |title=Papers of Annie Sprinkle, 1967-2010 |url=https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99155750162303941/catalog |website=Schlesinger Library |publisher=Harvard Library |access-date=30 March 2023}}</ref>