after pornified europe tour

Program page for my book's official launch in Berlin

I gave a reading at the local independent bookstore in town last week and it went really well. The place was packed so that was fun, and the audience mixed: college students, parents, younger and older women and men, and of course some friends and even family visiting from out-of-state.

This Friday I'm off for my Europe tour with stops in the Netherlands, England, and Germany. I arrive Amsterdam Saturday morning on the 20th and will get only a few hours to rest before my first event that afternoon (here's hoping I'll be somewhat intellectually coherent). This will be a panel disccussion with me on the role of positive porn and my After Pornified book at Mail & Female, a woman-owned and inclusive women-friendly sex shop that has a solid tradition in hosting and fostering discussion on what the role of positive porn by women is. They have worked with numerous celebrity names in the field in the past and I'm happy to contribute to their awareness-building efforts.

porn in the house and babysitters

The mom of a twelve-year-old girl who was going to babysit our daughter expressed concern her daughter might get her hands on some of my porn while she was here. She explained in an email:

I figure to research your book you probably have some porn in your house. While I figure this material is safely out of the reach of a 4 year old, I am just writing to make sure that it is also out of sight of curious 12-year-olds. I remember running into porn at a home as a babysitting teenager and of course I had to look at it. The father of the family kept magazines on his bedside table and I still have clear memories of some of the photos.

In any case, I would prefer that my daughter not have a similar experience at this age. I am sure you understand. Maybe someday we can chat about any ideas you have on how to discuss porn with your children.

check out "porna" or porn for women at dusk!

Dusk!

I only recently found out about Dusk!, a Dutch digital cable TV channel solely devoted to providing erotic material to straight women 24/7. I wish I had come across it sooner; it features many of the films I feature in my After Pornified book and is well worth checking out.

Dusk! is the only channel of its kind in the world and has been available since 2009. The channel is now being rolled out into Belgium and is looking to expand into several other European countries.

Dusk! does its own comprehensive research on what sort of porn they should be showing via a panel made up of over 1500 women. Each month every panel member reviews 6 to 9 porn film fragments of a variety of sorts of porn, including both hardcore mainstream and from a female point of view. After looking at a film, the women are asked to fill out a survey, rating and responding to the snippets. Before Dusk! arrives at any final conclusions about a film it is first viewed and rated 100 times. 

after pornified reading at monkey see monkey read

Launch party at Smitten Kitten

I'm happy to report that the US launch party in Minneapolis last Friday was a blast! This week has been busy preparing for my Europe tour this fall with more readings and events in London, Berlin and Amsterdam. But first: a reading at my local bookshop in our small college town; an event I am very excited and pleased about!

Event details: Anne Sabo Reading Oct. 11

Please visit Monkey See Monkey Read for an evening with Anne G. Sabo, a former St. Olaf college professor turned author and mama- & sex blogger on Thursday October 11th at 7:30 PM for a reading and discussion of After Pornified: How Women Are Transforming Pornography & Why It Really Matters, a book about how women have seized the means of representation to create a positive counterweight to pornified media and porn as it’s been known.

Though her book will no doubt appeal to women who already show an interest in porn, After Pornified is primarily addressed to all the women who are skeptical to porn as she was, and who value asserting ownership of their bodies and sexuality against the media’s discriminating sexualization of women.

With more young people exposed to porn, Sabo’s book is also aimed at them; to empower young people to read porn critically and to see that there is a positive alternative.