Author: serenagaia

Is Mass Incarceration Ecosexual? No!

Is mass incarceration ecosexual? No. Is the “war on drugs” ecosexual? No.

JimCrow What is then? Devotion to the virtues of plants. Freedom to appreciate their power serenely and with joy. Awareness of their presence as partners with the lover we all share. Moderation in their use as medicine.

A new “Jim Crow” is of course not ecosexual, but being aware that it’s happening largely on account of plants is. Awareness of how this affects young people of color, immigrants, their families, and communities under the current police regime is ecosexual as well.

Thanks Michelle Alexander. Your interview with Democracy Now! is great. I remember your book and your presentation two years ago in Hartford, CT. It made me cry, and helped me to understand my own predicament and the predicaments of those I love.

Remember: It’s time to make love the ecology of our life. It’s time to allow nature to inspire the arts of love. Namaste,

SerenaGaia

What are People Saying about Ecosexuality?

What are people saying about Ecosexuality? “A sumptuous feast.” Susan M. Block, The Bonobo Way. “The blueprint the world needs.” Robyn Vogel, Intimacy Coach. “Truly inspiring.” Dr. Anya, Author. “The potential to define a new era for humanity.” Christiane Pelmas, Author. Time to mark your calendars for the book’s release in May, 2015. The posted flier has the latest updates. A PR tool kit is available. We accept blurbs, gigs, keynotes. Connect with Lindsay Hagamen or Serena Anderlini. Stay in touch when you “like” the page. Visit the book’s website for updates. Enjoy the week. Make love the ecology of your life. Allow nature to inspire the arts of love. Gear up for abundant ecosexual love.

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

What Is BiTopia? Adrienne Williams of Bi Social Network Inerviews BiTopia Editor, Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio

Listen to internet radio with Bi Social Network on Blog Talk Radio

Saving the Bonobos May Very Well Save the Peaceful Animal Who Lives Within You

A Review of The Bonobo Way by Susan M. Block. Beverly Hills, CA: Gardner and Daughters, 2015.

It is a real pleasure to read Dr. Susan M. Block’s most recent book. It is a pleasure on all counts: the style is fun, humorous, at times satirical with a touch of the surreal. It is very warm, fuzzy, and down to Earth too, with its main points made very clear. The book’s philosophy is meaningful, persuasive, and especially significant at this time in the evolution of our species, when we are in desperate need of new paradigms to shift toward more inclusive, fluid, and sustainable practices of love. Thanks Dr. Suzy!

Susan M. Block’s research is very significant too. The book proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Bonobos are the missing link in the natural chain that connects bisexuality, polyamory, and ecosexuality. The bi love that reaches beyond genders and the poly love that reaches beyond numbers are just preludes to the ecosexual love that reaches beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with significant and enduring rights. Which is exactly what Bonobos do, and what we humans could also do if only we were more willing to learn from our amorous cousins.

There is no history of interspecies murder among the members of this species. Isn’t that something? And all styles of recreational sex are practiced with the pleasurable result of effectively keeping the social peace. Bonobos are the cousin ape species that proves the power of a repressed aspect of human nature we would do well to embrace more fully: the one that loves love and is loved back with the gift of peace.

Bonobos, reasons Dr. Suzy, are also the non-human species whose culture proves that “nature” is replete with all forms of sexual and amorous expression well beyond what’s required for the continuation of individual genes. There is nothing more natural to Bonobos than practicing what has for way too long been considered “perverse” in humans, including such feats as erotic expression between males, between females, among multiple players, across generations, and with the added options of anal pleasure and of making out in full public view. How interesting for those who disapprove of these behaviors in humans as “unnatural.” More observation of “nature” reveals the ideological meaning of Darwinian concepts of evolution through competition. When Capitalism is dressed as “science” it can pass as a poor justifications for violence with a touch of Victorian prudishness.

Are we really the pinnacle of evolution and the species “made in god’s image”? Or are we just one of many ape species who would do well to leave that pedestal voluntarily before our hubris destroys the lover we all share: Gaia, or the third planet Earth?

We’ll leave the answer to your wisdom. Meanwhile, aping the apes may provide all the experiential knowledge one needs. And as you get to read this highly recommended book, you’ll be blessed with more lessons from the art of analytical observation as practiced by Dr. Suzy. Her research on Bonobos proves that the kind of amorous behaviors many of us believe to be the exclusive mark of human love are actually natural in a much wider sense. For instance, Bonobos practice their own style of French kissing, they make love face to face with abundant eye-to-eye gazing, they take care of each other when in need, while also enjoying abundant mutual grooming. Romantic, no? Perhaps, in defining our species as distinct from “nature” we have been a bit too hubristic too. How could we be the inventors of “true” love if our apish cousins do it too? And, if romance is just as natural as an orgy to Bonobos, could this wide range of erotic and amorous expression not be natural for us humans too? “No couple is an island,” claims Dr. Suzy. And of course it isn’t, as even old-pal Dante knew when he wrote: “love which will not absolve a beloved from loving (someone) in turn,” and then proceeded to explain that Paolo and Francesca kissed while turned on by the courtly love book they were reading. “Amor ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,” reads the original. Perhaps love, as this ancient poet knew, is “the force that moves the sky and other stars.” It’s the ecology of life: the ecosexual energy that connects all live beings, as our team of authors claim in Ecosexuality. Bonobos seem to have a real sense of this: they build social networks of mutual support and sustainability via erotic and amorous behavior. They honor wisdom, age, and femininity, which is another way to allow nature to inspire the arts of love.

This brings me to the very significant political point of the book. “The evolution of peace through pleasure” invoked by Dr. Suzy will really happen if we all get to release our inner Bonobo. In a process of Deleuzian reminiscence, Susan M. Block suggests we can resuscitate the “animal” within. As announced by the visionary French theorist, “becoming-animal” is the transformative process that sets the tone of humility, and yin energy, and vulnerability that will make our species more capable of learning from our more “natural” cousins. Let’s ask the ecosexual primates whose life is more connected to Gaia’s metabolism, the lover we all share. What can we do about the problems that besiege our time, including endless wars, climate change, and the relentlessness of extractive industries? Releasing our inner Bonobo may be it. I hear your skepticism. “Evolving peace through pleasure? It’s just a pipe dream,” you may pout as you read this.

Well, here’s the good news. The Bonobo Way offers the scientific context to believe we can do it. It injects the humor that makes one want to act on this idea. And it provides the step-by-step guidance to actually engineer the transformation. How do we become “Bonobos”? The 12-step program designed by Dr. Suzy is very well engineered to evolve peace through pleasure on a personal and planetary scale. It leads Earthlings like us through the stages of observation, introspection, imitation and experimentation, creation of community, biophilia, and planetary awareness.

Saving the Bonobos might very well save the peaceful animal that lives within. As a person who takes pride in living my life as an experiment in the ecosexual arts of love, I have enjoyed most of the practices described in the program and am eager to experiment with those that are new to me. My world has become a lot safer for that, healthier, happier, and one where I am at peace. Like Ecosexuality as we do. We’ve invited Dr. Suzy on our team for this upcoming book, and hope she accepts.

I can’t recommend Susan M. Block’s Bonobo book too much, and I wish a lot of joy to all those who follow Dr. Suzy’s wisdom.

~~~~~~

Dear Earthlings:

For all the above mentioned reasons, I, SerenaGaia have decided to name 2015 the Year of the Bonobo. Please “like” the Facebook page for our upcoming Ecosexuality book.
Oh, and if you feel you need some personal coaching on how to become a Bonobo, please feel free to browse my Bonobo Coaching practice and connect with me. I will pass my lessons along.
Thanks for your interest. Stay tuned for more good news.

Namaste.

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Like Latest Book Ecosexuality
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecosexuality-Notes-for-an-Orgasmic-Earth/1393535414244382
Become a Fan of the Book Gaia: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Go to Author’s Page/Lists all Books:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

Read and Download Academic Works:
https://uprm.academia.edu/SerenaAnderlini

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Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse

bisexuality Bonobo Deleuze ecosexuality Gaia peace pleasure Dante polyamory

3 of 3: The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

Dear Earthlings:

Have you enjoyed visit one and visit two? We sure hope you have. Here goes the third one:

The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame, cont’d

On this third visit the gifts are more magical, the lessons are deeper, and the threads come together in an interwoven tapestry. Now I have a vast experience in the interdependent dynamics of co-creativity in a wider horizon of amorously inclusive collaborative alliances where dyads, albeit open, still count. As a sexigenarian, I’ve

explored a vast array of relational possibilities in my life. I have learned to love the person beyond gender because I have satisfied all my cravings for same-gender love. I’ve come to the age of wisdom when one is at peace with premature recycling. And I’ve organized my emotions around entire networks of interwoven relational tapestries where fluidity abounds, negotiation is an art, and safety keeps people in balance. I also have a vast experience in collaborative writing, with men, with women, in same-age groups and dyads, and across generations. I would not be where I am if Franca had not opened her door to me in that far back 1984.

I do know why Franca Rame inspired me to explore the co-creative dynamics of her dyadic relationship with Dario, and why her initiatory power brought magic to my life.

It was a very wise decision indeed. I pledge to honor her magic and am humbled by her initiatory power.

SerenaGaia, a.k.a. Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Playa Azul, Puerto Rico, 2014

Works Cited and Consulted

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio. “Franca Rame: Her Life and Works.” 1985. Theater: 17: 1: 32-39.

______ . “Franca Rame donna e attrice.” (Translation.) 1990. Il Ponte: 65: 6: 99-110.

______ . “When Is a Woman’s Work Her Own? An Interview with Franca Rame.” (Translated by Tracy Barrett.) 1991. Feminist Issues: 11: 1: 22-52.

______ . “From The Lady Is to be Disposed ofto An Open Couple: The Theater Partnership of Franca Rame and Dario Fo.” Atenea: 20: 1: 31-52. Republished in Walter Valeri ed. Franca Rame: A Woman on Stage. West Lafayette, Indiana: Bordighera Press, 2000. (183-221.)

______ . “Holistic (Dis)Organizations: Gaia at Alcatraz, Italy.” 2005. Rhizomes: 10 (Spring) http://www.rhizomes.net/issue10/index.html. Also in Utopia Matters: Theory, Politics, Literature and the Arts. Vieira, Fatima and Marinela Freitas eds. Editora da Universidad de Porto.

Note: To read and download more of SerenaGaia’s scholar activist work, visit here page on Academia.edu: https://uprm.academia.edu/SerenaAnderlini

Dear Earthlings:

This is the end of the article. It’s been a joy to be back on this blog site. Thanks for staying with us. Now we have much more to come as our teamwork book on Ecosexuality goes into production. All about this amazing collection at these links:
http://orgasmicearth.org/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecosexuality-Notes-for-an-Orgasmic-Earth/1393535414244382

Enjoy the love of the universe and all dear ones. Stay tuned and check our social media websites.

All good wishes for a joyful Holiday Season.

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Like Latest Book Ecosexuality
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecosexuality-Notes-for-an-Orgasmic-Earth/1393535414244382
Become a Fan of the Book Gaia: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Go to Author’s Page/Lists all Books:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

Read and Download Academic Works:
https://uprm.academia.edu/SerenaAnderlini

Go to Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Go to Website: www.serenagaia.com

YouTube Uploaded Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

2 of 3: The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

Hi again dear Earthlings:

as promised, here goes the second visit of my mentor and initiator Franca Rame.

Enjoy!

The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

The second visit was on the occasion of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Dario, in 1997. His awareness of his wife’s talent and lack of embarrassment at publically recognizing it turned on my interest in them again. I never had the shadow of a doubt that the Prize was deserved. I just realized how often collaborative efforts are overlooked in the arts and humanities. And was

impressed with his eagerness to redress this. I thought, “well, perhaps now he knows his wife is an author, and they’ve co-evolved as a dyad to feel comfortable about it.” This compelled my attention for an article on the integration of their respective creative energies in works that neither could have managed without the other. The result was the article “From The Lady Is to Be Disposed of to An Open Couple: Franca Rame and Dario Fo’s Theater Partnership.” In Open Couple, I felt an affinity for Franca’s character, and her obsessions with her partner’s affair-persons. Their pheromones were in the air, and “pussies” were hiding everywhere: in a shoe, on the soap bar. She sensed their sadness and felt called to rescue them, as I also have in my early experiences of amorous inclusiveness. This guided me to appreciate the rhetoric of polyamory, a responsible form of non-monogamy that assuages competition and rivalry. The lovers of one’s lovers are called “metamours,” or lovers by interposed person.

In the interim period between then and now, I became interested in the creative output of their son Jacopo Fo. I designed a research project around the intentional community

of Alcatraz, visited repeatedly and wrote about it. I was curious: “how would someone growing up in a theater family handle communal life?” As I found out, Jacopo invented Alcatraz as the answer. It combined the joy of living in nature with the expanded sense of “family” that theater companies are organized around. It offered education in the arts of loving and sexual expression within a closed dyad. And training in the arts of keeping one’s personal ecosystem healthy and well balanced. It was for me a step in the path of exploring forms of sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness that respect the integrity of dyadic relationships, and their respective cultural variants. That resulted in the article “Holistic (Dis)Organizations: Gaia at Alcatraz, Italy,” in the open-source journal Rhyzomes, 2005. All of this helped me assess a cross-cultural understanding of intentional and open lifestyles and eventually coalesced in my overarching interest in Ecosexuality.

To be continued a week from now. Come back for the “second visit” on December 2, 2014.

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Go to Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Go to Website: www.serenagaia.com

YouTube Uploaded Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

1 of 3: The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

Hi dear Earthlings:

“Long time no see,” as the sage said. Yes, I’m back and I bring you news of one of my

mentors and initiators: late actress, writer, activist, and senator Franca Rame, much missed, also wife and lifetime collaborator of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, who dedicated the prize to her.

This article was a request by fellow Italianist Donato Santeramo, for the first (of many i hope) collection of writings about Franca Rame. I accepted. It was also the third time she visited my life. She’s welcome back any time, and the article will appear in three “visits” here too. Enjoy the first one!

Thanks for your patience. I am well and happy to be back. Much more good and exciting news to come. Namaste.

The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

Franca Rame is coming back into my life. For the past three decades, she has inhabited my imagination in one way or another, as we shared the same living planet. As a young woman, I looked upon Franca and Dario as an enviable dyad: two people with equally magnanimous souls and talents, yet differentiated enough to grow together as they grew apart. It was difficult for me to behold that. I felt the danger of flying too close to the sun, as the daughter of a successful and honest politician whose first wife imploded in their relationship as a conventional couple. I was searching for alternatives, and, as a young woman and mother, Franca represented a role model for me when I was healing from my own mother’s early death from cancer. Later, I learned to diversify my emotional investments and overcome the fear of same-sex love. As a happy sexigenarian, I welcome this visit. I remember feeling the void the day from Facebook I realized the ultimate recycling had happened for Franca. May this first in-absentia volume initiated by younger colleagues be the time for me to reflect, in my wisdom years, on the wisdom of engaging with Franca when my career started.

I am grateful to the collection for hosting my 1984 interview with Franca Rame, a long- winded “confession,” oral-history style. It may be a measure of the divine feminine manifesting its power to

know that, in late life, Franca became a senator. I imagine her ambling the halls of Palazzo Madama where I felt intimidated when I was young. It is sad that she felt compelled to resign, in the same way that my father had felt compelled to reject executive positions in his own time. I’m happy to write this introductory reflection as I’ve become more cognizant of Franca’s initiatory role in my life. Aside from the sadness of parting, this third visit is an occasion to confirm Franca Rame’s legacy as initiatory and magic.

The first visit came about three decades ago, in the mid eighties, when my focus was separating Franca’s work from Dario’s, for recognition of hers, in a gender dynamic infected with male dominance as a cultural standard. I wanted her to admit she was an author and she wouldn’t. “Why did I do it?” I’ve often wondered. It was dissertation time, and I felt called to something that far exceeded my comprehension. I didn’t dare to presume I could interview Franca. And yet she wanted it. I was healing from my family tragedy, as the beautiful and auspicious couple my parents formed had imploded with my mother’s demise. I was exorcizing her destiny as I removed myself from the position of emotional recipient for, and physical obstacle to my father’s healing from that trauma. At 27, with a young child of my own, I had picked up the pieces of my life and moved from Rome to Riverside, California to get my doctorate. As dissertation time came about, a grant funded my trip to Florence for the appointment with Franca. My blended family at the time was composed of my young Italian daughter and the fellow student who was my French partner. They were waiting for me back at UCR. In retrospect, I was moved by my own path of seeking a place of co-creativity out of the masculine shadow of patriarchal domination and fear of inadequacy.

The train from Rome to Florence ran in the dark night. I was alone in the compartment when my mother visited. The apparition was very tangible. I kept my cool even as it occurred to me I was probably hallucinating. She said: “this is what you were meant to do. Go for it! It will save your life.” I’ve rarely talked about it. Yet it was this visit that summoned my strength as I met Franca. I’m now 5 years older than Franca was at the time, and 12 years older than my mother ever was. The results of that moment of meeting were the article on Theaterthat acknowledged Franca’s entity as a co-author, the interview in Italian on Leggere Donna, and its translation into English on Feminist Issues.

To be continued a week from now. Come back for the “second visit” on November 25, 2014.

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Go to Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Go to Website: www.serenagaia.com

YouTube Uploaded Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality – EcoSexuality (2 of 2)

Entry: Ecosexuality

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Cont’d

As an emerging movement, Ecosexuality sustains the initiation of the human species into a new phase of its evolution: from a needy child accustomed to depending on a mother’s resources, humanity is called to evolve into a responsible adult who treats the planet that generously hosts human life as a lover deserving all reverence, equality, and reciprocity in love. The scientific origins of the movement can be traced to what is known as the Gaia Hypothesis: a new epistemological paradigm that establishes the interconnectedness of all life forms as a new foundation for knowledge or episteme. This integrated, self-sustaining web of life is made of interconnected ecosystems and generates its own homeostasis. A key principle in this new style of amorous expression is that bodies are ecosystems, ecosystems are bodies: equally deserving of love, care, and affection.

As a new galvanizing force in cultural transformation, ecosexuality also means different things to different people. Two avatars of the movement, performance artists Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, expressed their ecosexual vision in LoveArtLab, a seven-year project involving a series of ecosexual weddings where the artists married the sun, moon, sky, rocks, coal, snow, sea, a lake, and other nature entities. In these 17 performative events around the world, they “changed the metaphor from Earth as mother to Earth as lover,” and vowed to “love, honor, and cherish the Earth until death brings us closer together forever.” This work seeded a number of cultural environments with the intent to “make the environmental movement more fun, sexy, and diverse.” The bride-artists integrated activism for marriage equality with the affirmation of ecosystems, natural elements, and forces of nature as participants in the generation and fruition of the force of love. The practice of ecosexual weddings extended to the 1^st EcoSex Symposium, which was organized as a honeymoon after the Purple Wedding to the Moon in 2010 in Los Angeles. More symposia have come together in subsequent years, along with convergences, workshops, festivals, courses, digital discussion groups, more weddings, and intentional communities dedicated to the exploration of ecosexuality as a central trope for the organization of cultural action and energies.

A definition of ecosexuality would be premature at this point, and would limit the cultural trope’s transformative potential, which is largely untapped yet. One way in which ecosexuality has been described is as “the style of love that reaches beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.” This description has been adopted in the introduction to a forthcoming reader tentatively entitled Ecosexuality: Notes for an Orgasmic Earth. It has the effect of supporting amorous practices that interpret ecosystems as bodies, and bodies as ecosystems in an interdependent network of interconnected nodes that auspicate a new planetary consciousness.

Sources

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena and Lindsay Hagamen eds. Ecosexuality: Notes for an Orgasmic Earth. Contributed volume. Forthcoming.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena and Robert Silber. “Ecosexuality: A Course in the Arts of Conscious Love.” Varallo, Italy. July 16-21, 2011. Poly Planet GAIA. http://drserenagaia.wpengine.com/?p=324, November 28, 2013.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena, et al. “Ecosex at U Conn. Course Production from Spring, 2013 Seminar in Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love. Storrs Campus. http://drserenagaia.wpengine.com/search/label/EcoSex{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}20at{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}20U{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}20Conn: November 28, 2013.

Bernard, Tinamarie. “Fundamentals of Eco-Sexuality: Is Conscious Love the Way Towards Global Peace?” Green Prophet, May 22, 2011. http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/05/eco-sexuality-conscious-peace/: Novemebr 28, 2013.

Cordova, Gabriella. “EcoSex Symposium.” Portland, OR. June 29, 31, and July 1^st, 2012. http://www.ecosex.org/index.html: November 29, 2013 Dixon Luke, Annie Sprinkle, and Beth Stephens. “1^st International EcoSex Symposium.” Colchester, Essex, UK. July 14-18, 2013. http://ecosexlab.org/, Novemebr 28, 2013.

Ecosexual. Definition in Macmillan Dictionary. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/ecosexual.html, November 28, 2013.

Ecosexual. Definition ins Wikitionary. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ecosexual, November 28, 2013.

“Ecosexuality, a new sexual identity where you are lovers with the Earth.” Examiner.com. April 10, 2012. N. A. http://www.examiner.com/article/ecosexuality-a-new-sexual-identity-where-you-are-lovers-with-the-earth, November 28, 2013.

Iris Weiss, Stefanie. EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make your Love Life Sustainable. New York: Ten Speed Press/Random House, 2010.

Sexecology. Wikipedia definition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexecology

Sprinkle, Annie, and Beth Stephens. “Ecosex Symposim I.” Highways Performance Space. October 24, 2010. http://www.loveartlab.com/PDF/ecosex_sym1_program.pdf, November 28, 2013.

Sprinkle, Annie, and Beth Stephens. “Ecosex Symposium II.” Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco. June 17-19, 2011

http://sexecology.org/ecosex-symposium-2/, November 28, 2013.

Sprinkle, Annie, Elizabeth Stephens. LoveArtLab. www.LoveArtLab.org, November 28, 2013.

Stephens, Elizabeth. “Becoming Eco-Sexual.” Canadian Theater Research: 144 (Fall 2010): 13-19.

Windward Community. “Surrender: An Ecosexual Convergence.” June 14-16, 2014. Windward, WA. http://www.ecosexconvergence.org/, November 28, 2013.

Wagner, David. “Beyond Tree Hugging.” San Francisco Chronicle. 7/16/2011.

Our Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality is complete for the moment. But everything always already is a work in progress. Would you like to add an entry? Let us know. . . .

Sending much love and all good wishes to all of you and your loved ones. Thanks you for listening and opening up. Stay tuned for more coming. With all good wishes for a happy spring and summer. Thank you!

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ Website: www.serenagaia.com

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings
Go to Author’s Page/Lists all Books:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA
YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality – EcoSexuality (1 of 2)

Entry: Ecosexuality

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Ecosexuality is a new sexual identity and the cultural trope that is likely to galvanize a movement of movements that places love and its infinite modes of expression at the gravitational center of cultural formation, dynamics, and organization. As a sexual identity, ecosexuality denotes a desire to organize practices of love around well-being, care, and ecosystemic health rather than any given oppositional rhetoric. As a catalyst for cultural transformation, ecosexuality offers a new interpretation of love that aligns sexuality with ecology and inspires a cross-pollination of the ideas and metaphors contained within these two traditionally distinct discourses.

The term “ecosexual” initially emerged in the personal ads as an environmentally conscious correlative to “metrosexual.” Regardless of sexual orientation, an ecosexual date connotes as somebody who would likely enjoy a visit to a farmers market or a raw-food meal. Ecosexual have been described as an “environmentally conscious person(s) whose adherence to green living extends to their romantic and/or sexual life.” Ecosexuals made their appearance at a time

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when sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness were largely accepted in open-minded online dating forums, and when “eco-living” was rising in acceptance and popularity. In the capacity of a tool of discernment in the current dating system, the practice of ecosex helps to guide consumers toward practices of love and products thereof that respect the ecosystemic balance of the human bodies engaged in them. Sexecology is a correlative that “seeks to make environmental activism more sexy, fun, and diverse and to involve the LGBTQ community” in such activism.

As a trope of cultural transformation, ecosexuality galvanizes action in the arts, activism, theory, and practice to effect change in the metaphors by which we humans interpret the relationship with our hostess Gaia: the planet who, thanks to four billion years of symbiotic processes that began with bacteria (our first ancestors), has evolved a biota capable of sustaining the life of our species. How do we imagine this relationship between Gaia and our species? Are we friends or enemies? When we see nature as an enemy to be controlled, we produce the exact opposite of what we want, because, as Gaia science explains, the Earth is sovereign and its powers are supreme. All species are subject to being welcome in Gaia’s existence.

EcoSex Flag, by Cindy Baker

But then suppose we want to be friends: suppose we do have a desire to align with Gaia’s power, to second her will, as in all styles and practices of the environmental movement. That’s when metaphors for this relationship become significant. Is our relationship with Gaia based on kinship or is it elective? When we say “mother Earth” we inadvertently endorse the assumption that terrestrial resources are available to us ad infinitum and no cost. Mothers are our kin: they don’t choose us and we don’t choose them. We are all too often culturally programmed to simply exploit them with no price tag or return. When we imagine Gaia as a lover we begin to realize how much we have been taking for granted. Are we humans a respectful partner in the relationship or an abusive one? If our behavior is abusive, wouldn’t Gaia do well to end the relationship? And what would that scenario look like for us? Life on Earth started with bacteria. In Gaia science, the existence of these simple, fun loving microorganisms also marks the beginning of consciousness, choice, love. In this perspective, we humans as a species are just a new kid on the block: we could very well be the first one to go. Gaia is a Latin word that literally means gay. The Earth is sovereign and happy to exist in and of herself. As a cultural trope, Ecosexuality brings awareness to the possibility that life could very well happily continue to thrive after we, as a species, are gone.

To be continued . . . . . come back next week, same time.

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ Website: www.serenagaia.com

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality – The Gaia Hypothesis (3 of 3)

Entry: The Gaia Hypothesis

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

3. Conclusion: Gay Nature

Lovelock’s macroscopic perspective emphasizes the risk of taking for granted that Gaia, the Earth, will always be hospitable to human life, or even life in general. As an animated

entity, Gaia has a biography: and if we don’t pay attention, Lovelock admonishes, the biota could dry up and Earth become just as barren as its neighbors Mars and Venus. Margulis’s microscopic perspective compounds this awareness from an evolutionary viewpoint. The process of autopoiesis has evolved complex organisms like us humans out of those simple, loving, resource-sharing bacteria. We, the new kids on the block in evolutionary terms, have some lessons to learn. The global ecology that sustains life as we know it is symbiotic: it is the expression of love that results in the infinite acts of sharing resources and collaborating within and across species and biological realms. To put it more simply: love is the ecology of life. Take love out of the equation, and you turn Gaia, with her beautiful blues, greens, yellows, whites, reds, and blacks into a brownish rock like its dead neighbors. So the Gaia Hypothesis is also an axiomatic statement that life is essentially “gay”: capable of loving for fun and across conventional gender lines. If love is the ecology of life, if health, pleasure, joy have been the purpose of lovemaking since our first ancestors bacteria populated the Earth, then we may as well hypothesize that Gaia, our hostess planet, is gay! And we better keep her gay, happy, cheerful. How? It’s simple: by practicing love in symbiotic, fluid, fun, erotic, ecosexy, gay, imaginative, and inclusive ways.

Or else.

List of Sources

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. New York: harper Collins, 2011.Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001.

Lovelock, James. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth. New York: Norton 1995.

______ . Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press, 1979.

______ . The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

Margulis, Lynn. Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution. New York: Basic Books, 1998.

Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan. Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origin of Species. New York: Basic Books, 2003.

______ . Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution. University of California Press, 1997.

______ . Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan eds. Slanted Truths: Essays on Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution. New York: Copernicus, 1997.

Golding, William. Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Golding, November 23, 2013.

Lovelock, James. Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock, November 23, 2013.

Margulis, Lynn. Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis, November 23, 2013.

Ryan, Christopher and Cacilda Jetha. Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships. New York: Harper Perennial. 2011.

To be continued . . . . next entry: EcoSexuality. Come back next week, same time.

Sending much love and all good wishes to all of you and your loved ones. Thanks you for listening and opening up. Stay tuned for more coming. With all good wishes for a happy end of winter, spring, and summer. Thank you!

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ Website: www.serenagaia.com

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com