Theme 17: Sex

El sexo vende, pero ¿qué es exactamente lo que nos vende? Nos vende coreografías de género y sexualidad altamente conservadoras e hiperconsumistas.

A healthy sex life, free of shame, is a basic human right.

We should aim to free ourselves of whatever tends to make us overlook people's uniqueness and individuality of experience with sexuality, desire and gender.

How people are developing their sense of sexual identity and their sexual expression; it's not really coming from them.

I as a writer always think, "You have to write about what scares you." But this, I didn't write about what scares me; I wrote about what terrifies me.

Be fully you and create magic.

Break down gender stereotypes

La sexualidad no es nada más que nuestra identidad o que la identidad más personal esta absolutamente emparentada y profundamente relacionada con la sexualidad.

I think that's one thing we don't allow ourselves: the time to think. There's this fear that you need to be rushing.

When I first started working, before people knew my name, there was an assumption that I had to be a man because of the material and the few number of female sculptors at the time.

Working in cowhide and being a black female in South Africa comes with a whole lot of baggage.

Find that person that inspires you.

It's really important to have those people in your life who push you to be better, different.

The more connected you are to the work, the better it is.

Sometimes a milk mustache is just a milk mustache.

Everything, and I mean everything, is about strong, powerful women.

We use words, we don’t hide.

We have to get over ourselves and put sex aside. Then you go ahead and make the best product you possibly can.

The true challenge with what we do is that it involves money and money and sex has never been a positive association.

Si la supuesta virtud de la virgen María hubiera sido un orgasmo sagrado, ¿como sería ahora el sexo?.

Esta comprobado científicamente que una mujer bien cogida, es una mujer feliz.

Is your message simple enough for a six year old to carry?

Behavior change is a journey. It's not fixed in time.

If you don't believe me, ask yourselves.

Sex is emotional. It's carnal. It's intense. It's funny. It's healthy.

The problem is that sex isn't science, but we keep attacking these issues with squeaky clean very di-sexualized logic.

All these men don't get it, clearly this isn't going to change unless women get involved and start making changes to what's available to us.

Each and every one of you has a gift. You have a talent.

If you are not willing to share yourself, share your gifts, share your talents, you're not going to go very far.

Communication with your partner is the most important thing that you can do. It protects us against disease, it protects us against heartbreak—it protects us against a lot.

One of the things I've learned about the topic of sex is that it is a gateway to everything else.

I am affectionately dubbed the Lesbian Laureate.

A woman, no matter how perfect she is, she always thinks she's a little too fat.

Performing burlesque has been instrumental in me accepting myself, accepting my own sexuality, and being able to put it out there for other people to see.

More often than not, burlesque dancers leave the stage with less clothing than they came on with.

I got into photography because I thought it was fun and I thought it was sexy, but I didn't expect to change anybody's life.

I was turning my experience into a creative expression, and ultimately a product for sale.

Things can work out, you just have to Believe and envision something Greater than you See.

Confidence and sexiness, everyone can own that.

There's no one size fits all for how someone is going to feel sexy.

Your body is not a given, it's not forever.

No one comes in for kama sutra unless their sex is horrible.

Fear does not exist. It exists as a by product of success because you're too afraid that you're going to do too well

Like tattoos, you just can't have one. You need a giant collection of sex toys.

When I started shopping for sex toys, even the nicest sex toys were still creepy.

At a burlesque show it's really not all about you... We want to entertain you, but we also want to make you think about stuff. And we do it all through the magic of nudity. People have short attention spans, you know?

The idea of it was [enticing], while in reality, everybody was a little bit floppier than you expect.

Krispy Kreme donuts are my favorite and I was eating one and thought, 'Man, this is going to mess up my lipstick.' And my friend said to me, 'You know that's kind of like sex; you're willing to do it even though it'll mess up your lipstick.'

Creativity is intellegence having fun.

Sex is something we all have in common. It's part of humanity.

Women challenge the status quo because we are never it.

We have to pave our own way. We have to break down the business barriers in our path if we want to build and scale our venture into a billion dollar business.

Our tagline is: Pro-sex, pro-porn, pro-knowing the difference.

The issue isn't porn. The issue is a complete absence in our society of an open, healthy, honest, truthful conversation around sex in the real world.

I am doing something about what everybody knows and nobody ever speaks about.

What happens when today's total access to hardcore porn converges with our society's equal total reluctance to talk openly and honestly about sex?

Instead of saying, I gotta get it right, you just gotta get it out.

Sex is only a byproduct of the actions that you do that lead up to that intense moment you share with a person.

Statistics are nothing more than markers. They're something for you to jump over. They're never something to stop you.

Your no's are never 'no.' They're really, 'no, not right now' or 'no, I don't know what you're talking about' or 'no, I can't do it, but maybe someone else can.'

Does anybody here have a dream that they want to get out?

There's this frustration that happens to say, look, I need to do something about this and if I don't, I'm going to die.

There's a form of sex or intimacy that you must have with yourself to bring your visions to life.

Fear of what other people will think is the single most paralyzing dynamic in business and in life. The best moment of my life…was the day I realized that I know longer give a damn what anybody thinks. That’s enormously liberating and freeing, and it’s the only way to live your life and do your business.

There are as many different ways to perform burlesque as there are performers.

That negative chatter... you just go "Shh, I'm busy being awesome".

I think Edmonton, like any city where there are human beings, is a sexual city.

It's a space for you to be fearless.

As an artist, you're here to create and stand with integrity and stand for what you believe in.

Like in life, you have to react to what's coming to you.

I don't teach them, I just give them permission.

My body is my medium. The narrative of how I go from costumed to mostly naked, or sometimes fully naked, is the dialogue for what I do and my art form.

Always having the dialogue open, took the shame away from sexuality and from our bodies. It opened up a conversation.