Perhaps first things you learn as a sexuality researcher is to set aside your preconceptions. So as I prepared for my first Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality regional meeting in Pacific Grove, California, I tried to banish my preconceptions of what a conference on the science of sex would be like. I was pretty convinced it would be everything you don’t really want sex to be – dry, humorless, boring, and a little bit weird.
All of my preconceptions melted away on Friday night as I sat in a lecture hall at the Monterey Bay Aquarium watching Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno with Steven Webster, PhD a founder of the aquarium. He was giving us a lecture on sex and marine life, and he (along with Isabella) introduced us to some of the ocean’s creatures with the most interesting gender and sexual variations. Highlights included male sea horses that get "pregnant", clown fish who are sequential hermaphrodites, and anglerfish whose males are essentially parasites living off of the bloodstream of females.
While the conference did focus on human sexuality and behavior, in particular sexual ontogeny, or sexual development, the contrast to marine reproduction and sexual behavior made a great counterpoint to all of those things we consider “natural” about sexuality and gender. Programs focused on sexuality for older adults, and in doing so presenters undermined assumptions about dwindling desire with age, the role of intercourse in sexual activity, the efficacy of medical interventions and diagnoses of dysfunction, and the stability of sexual/gender identity over a lifespan.
And the diversity of presentations mirrored the diversity of life in the sea. I was able to attend discussions on Kink and Aging, a lecture on historical influences on the development of human psychology, short films on transgender history (my favorite "Trannymals Go To Court"), and an amazing presentation/performance on radical sex education through performance by Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens.
Since I work predominantly with college students, I was also happy to see young researchers present some of the best research at the conference. Several SFSU students presented their research, and I was so proud that one of the SFSU Sexuality Studies master’s students, Richard Garcia, took home the Best Student Paper Prize for his research on “Sexual Literacy: A Framework for Discussing Transmasculine Identity.”
Needless to say, the conference was far from boring and dry, even if it was still a little weird (read fabulous). I'm heading to my next conference tomorrow. Chris and I will be at AASECT in Phoenix Wednesday, May 13- Sunday, May 17th. Look out for more musings from seuxality conferences next week!
