The Red Garter Club

This website is designed to be an accompaniment to my Red Garter Club newsgroups that I curently run at Yahoo! and MSN Groups. It is designed to close what I see is a vast void in Left theory and practice, in that it attempts to reconcile progressive political theory and practice with the promotion of what I call "sex-positive" or "sex radical" theory, which attempts to promote a more open-minded, open-hearted, and much more humane theory about sexuality, eroticism, and consensual sexual entertainment.

For too many years, many intellectuals on the Left have ceded the issue of sexuality and sexual pleasure to those on the Right and Center -- and to those few erotophobes on the Left as well -- whom wish to reserve and control sexuality to whatever narrow and restrictive paradigm they personally adhere to. Whether it be the classical "radical feminist" conception of sexual condct, behavior, or commerce being reduced to the charge of "degredation and control of women by men" or a promotion of misogynist "patriarchy", or the "socialist" mantra of non-conventional and dissident sexual behavior being just "a tool of capitialism", or just simple discomfort and ignorance of the personal enjoyment and consumption of sexual material and media, as well as the people and process of the production of such.......it appears that many otherwise compassionate and up-to-date activists who would never allow such ignorance in other issues of concern -- such as battling racism or sexism or corporatism or capitalism or environmental destruction or anti-war activism -- completely allow their personal distrusts and disgusts at the variety and availability of sexual choices to color and cloud their political activism.

In addition, whatever genuine progressive activism does exist on the subject of sexuality and eroticism is usually sporadic and limited to either particular interest groups (such as sex workers or homosexuals or practitioners of BDSM or lobbyists for the production/consumption of erotica/pornography) barely interconnected by a common shared theory (if at all) or a committment to other means of progressive activism. Considering that sexual desire could be considered to be THE main source that drives all the human emotional needs (as compared to the other "basic instincts" of survival, procreation and protection from the elements), such a vast omission from the paradigms of progressive activism and social justice movements can be only described as troubling...especially in the wake of the fierce wave of social and economic reaction that appears to be making such a comeback here in the beginning of the 21st Century.

As a working-class progressive citizen of this world who happens to be both a strong Leftist activist (as an anti-racist African American, a feminist, and a libertarian socialist of the Noam Chomsky school), and yet also happens to be a proud and activist supporter of the concept of sex-positivism and sex radicalism (I am even a unapologetic and proud consumer/fan of many varieties of erotica/pornography, mostly of the more sensual and progressive genres of hardcore and softcore.), I insist that being supportive of the original values of consensual sexual freedom and exploring to the fullest the positive potential of sexual pleasure and eroticism to both heal intimate relationships and bring forth mass radical social change. To me there is NO conflict, NO oxymoron in being both a Leftist and a sexual liberationist; indeed, in my way of thinking, sex-positive radicalism and progressive activism are so tightly interconnected and interwoven that one cannot be effective without the other. It is in this mission that I created the Red Garter group, and now today, this website.

I hope that all who are both sex-positive and politically Leftist -- and even those of you who only meet one of those two criteria but simply wish to add your nickel to the debate -- will have the faith to browse through this site and, if I am successful, enrich yourself with some stimulating conversation and debate. I will include here some essays -- and whenever possible -- links to various sites, events, and commentary on the present state of affairs on the progressive, pro-sex, pro-consensual pleasure view of things; and I may even add a few essays of my own. I do not assume any special expertise or unique knowledge on my own; I simply wish to add my own personal thoughts and further this sorely needed conversation and debate. (I should also note that this will be mostly a political theory and analysis and current events site.

So there......welcome in again, enjoy, and bring me your feedback on the site!!! And if you have any contributions that you want to give here, by all means contact me!!!!

BTW...I now have my own blog called "The SmackDog Chronicles" that I have been posting to....please feel free to check it out here!!!

:-)

-- Anthony Kennerson

Site Manager/Founder

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Update(6-25-06):

Once again, I sincerely apologize for letting the site go dead for so long.

I have decided today to add a new section here called "New Left Sex Nazis"; it compiles a series of debates that took place over the last few years over at Nina Hartley's forum involving the increasing noise of "leftists" who favor in some form or another direct censorship of sexual media and content. It includes commentary by Nina, her husband Ernest Greene, Sheldon Ranz, and a few other regulars of that particular forum, as well as cameo appearances by a few well known cybercelebs.

In addition, I've added three new Nina Hartley essays to the "Sex Positive Essays" section..do enjoy!!!

I promise that there will be more updates coming..and hopefully sooner than usual, too. ;-)

Update (3-12-06):

Well..once again I've allowed the site to stagnate a bit...so now I will begin what I started to do and give it a well-deserved overhaul, with new posts, essays, and other new content.

For this update, I have a special treat: a reposting of the never-before seen on screen interview that adult sex entertainer/educator/progressive Nina Hartley (her [very adult] site is linked here, and her forum is here) did with my pal Sheldon Ranz for the 1989 issue of a Jewish radical print mag called SHMATE. Unfortunately, that mag is now out of print, but about three years ago, Sheldon was kind enough to send me print copies of that interview; and I was able to transfer it to electronic form for my Nina fan group, the Aphrodite Nation club (the link is here, but be forwarned, it is definitely NSFW and adults' only, and requires membership in MSN Groups). Since I consider this interview so important, I have decided to recopy and post it here so that everyone can get access to it.

More updates are forthcoming..I promise.

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Update 8-10-05: Well..a lot of things have transpired since I last updated the site, and I do apologize for not being here for the past few months. For the next few days, I am going to totally overhaul and update this site to reflect current controversies that I am going through, as well as to remove any irrelevant content and refocus it to the original mission of supporting sex-positive and sex radical Leftists.

If you have been following my posts over at my groups or at Nina Hartley's forum, you know that there has been a major revival of antiporn/antisex "feminist" activism amongst the Left recently, and they have become quite successful in imposing their views amongst many high-profile progressive intellectuals. The recent passing of antiporn "feminist" icon Andrea Dworkin has coalesced with the recent offensives of the Bush administration against sexually explicit speech to enable antiporn "Leftist" forces to reassert themselves as a political force, and to further strengthen their hegemony over the discourse over sexuality and free speech. Thus far, they have been able to overwhelm most attempts to challenge their views from the Left through the usual tactics of intimidation, male-baiting, and fear-mongering about "trafficking in women" and "sex slavery"..and they are slowly gaining support among key Leftist organizations and intellectuals.

This makes it all the more important that those of us who are on the Left and who support a more progressive. liberatory, and humane view of sexuality speak out openly and unapologetically against such attempts to integrate such sexual reaction into the progressive movement. At one time there was a distinct feminist and Leftist countervoice to the antiporn "feminists" that was able to answer their slanderous and libelous arguments and their attempts to copy the worst policies of the Christian Right; unfortunately, it faded from public view, assuming that the battle was mostly won. Now more than ever, it is time for those voices to return...and hopefully, this site will offer a setting for pro-sex and anti-censorship and legitimate Leftists to express themselves and carry forward the struggle.

So excuse the construction here...there is a lot of work to do. But enjoy what I have, nevertheless..and join me in the battle for truth, justice. equality....and pleasure.

-- Anthony

8/16-05 Update: Returned after a looooong absence: announced major overhaul/updates of the site; revised Welcome message..

6/16/04 Update: Just added four new links to the "Political Essays" section...please check them out!!!

NEW!!! "New Left Sex Nazis": Featuring Debates with Antiporn "Leftists"!!! Also....New Nina Essays!!!

Welcome!!!!