Anal Tears, Breastfeeding on the Porn Set, and more…The Podcast w/ Madison Young
Hallo Loves.
Greetings from a new air BNB filled with boxes. If you missed my moving news, it’s here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/46915092.
But right now. less moving, more porn.
This week’s The Art of Asking Everything question is a great one.
CAN PORN BE FEMINIST? I’m sure you may guess what my answer will be, but still…..
FIRST UP!
THIS WEEK’S “THE ART OF ASKING EVERYTHING” PODCAST is OUT: “Can Porn be Feminist? (Spoiler: Yes, it can)” with Erotic Artist, Filmmaker & Feminist Activist Madison Young.
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF PLACES TO LISTEN:
https://linktr.ee/AskingEverything
NEXT!
THIS WEEK’S PATRON-ONLY CROWDCAST CHAT/Q&A with me and Madison Young (this week’s guest) is scheduled for this THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4th starting at 5pm ET new york time!
COME! And….ask us anything about our experiences. This one’s gonna be GOOD. You can log in NOW to RSVP and start leaving questions in the feed. Please upvote questions you like.
If you click on this link, the page will show you the start time IN YOUR TIME ZONE.
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/aoae-ep19
you’ll need to log into patreon to access this webcast as it’s patron-only.
as always…..the live cast Q&A will be recorded and you can always view the archive recording at the same link above, any time after the live stream ends.
….
AND NOW….
This is my relatively new friend Madison Young, proudly showing off “Best Lesbian Vignettes” for Women Reclaiming Sex on Film (2014).
YESSSSSS.
Madison – probably best known for being an erotic film actor, is also a bondage model, published writer, sexual educator, mom, activist, podcaster….
Like me, she is a lot of things, and we have a ton in common. Talking with her was really thrilling, and I hope you find your head nodding off your shoulders as you listen.
Not just the universal birth experience of forgetting about your body in the thrill of bringing a human into the world, then finding out six months later that your child has stolen your ass and replaced it with two deflated balloons, but all the winding and weird career stuff as well. As I touched on briefly when I wrote “The Art of Asking”, I was a stripper and a dominatrix in my twenties. Our conversation about shedding shame and learning to understand your body in the context of pleasure starts in unfamiliar territory….but I am pretty sure you’ll all recognize the experiences.
We talked about so much other stuff…..Motherhood. Porn. Kinks. Opening a Feminist Art Gallery (YAY).
Anal tears.
It’s so weird writing that. Not TEARS, like the sad kind that flow down your face. TEARS, like the ones in an old sofa. But my imagination is going wild with the OTHER KIND OF ANAL TEARS, the crying kind. And let’s just stop right there.
It’s a lot to process in an hour and I want to encourage you to please please participate in the shadowbox discussion on the podcast. It’s a safe place to talk about all the (weird and wonderful) topics we touch on in the episode as well as related content. The Shadowbox is FOR ALL OF YOU….to meet, to share, to discuss, to open up in a way you’re not really able to on twitter, facebook, reddit, and other social media. This is a safe place, for us. (AND we’re actually working right now on getting more moderation, to make sure that’s truly true.)
Also, new news:
I want to share this essay by Kelly Welles from Team AFP. She’s been working for us for a few months on the Podcast. I met her ages ago because she was helping the Guilty Feminist podcast on twitter, and we made friends. When I was flailing and needing help with social media, Kelly was the only person I knew who really GOT IT and could do it. I asked her to come help us, and she said yes. She’s….so awesome. And so very smart.
Anyway, she’s also like a bonus commentator, fact-checker, and insider AFP intellectual go-to and literati all in one.
She wrote this essay on her own dime after working on the Madison episode and it’s available in full, here:
https://kellywelles.com/2021/02/02/madison-young-why-to-build-a-woman/
The focus is of the essay is part of the conversation about an image of Madison breastfeeding her daughter Emma that ended up causing controversy within her profession as well as outside.
This might seem surprising….but Kelly points out that even the most open minded people are vulnerable to an instinctive reaction when they see art that challenges their cultural norms.
She writes….
This is why I FUCKING love this podcast!
I can bring you all people like Madison, who’s at the front line, keeping those boundaries at bay using her magnificent and challenging art!
And we all need to keep supporting these efforts.
Madison has a patreon, which, if you’re reading this, you already recognize as the best way to contribute to artists you love.
SO PLEASE DOOOOOO IT. Madison currently has 17 patrons. I know even a dozen more people would mean the world to her. So if you’re moved by her work, her life, her voice, her activism….please, support her.
https://www.patreon.com/MadisonYoung
More links!
Here’s a trailer for Madison’s new TV show, “Submission Possible”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Og2suBlVE
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THE PODCAST ITSELF – HOW TO LISTEN:
….audio for all of the podcast episodes are embedded on my website, including today’s episode: http://amandapalmer.net/podcast
OR….
go here, select the podcast venue of your choice (i.e. apple podcasts), and click on the most recent episode.
https://linktr.ee/AskingEverything
and it’s FREE, and AD-FREE!
BECAUSE PATRONAGE!
WE THANK YOU.
……..
The Art of Asking Everything
Madison Young: Can Porn Be Feminist? (Spoiler Alert: Yes, It Can)
Show Description:
Amanda Palmer presents an intimate conversation with Madison Young, recorded June 11, 2019 in Portland, Oregon.
Madison Young is an erotic artist, filmmaker, and performer. She entered the world of erotic filmmaking first as a performer in 2002 and later started directing films in 2005.
She is a noted expert on sex, BDSM, and sexual power dynamics.
Madison has taught workshops, given lectures, and acted as a panelist on the topics of sexuality, feminist porn studies, and the politics of BDSM at institutions such as Yale University, UC Berkeley, and the Berlin Porn Film Festival.
She is the founder of the Erotic Film School, a three-day erotic filmmaking training program held in San Francisco, CA, that introduces students to the pre-production, production, and post-production process of making erotic film.
She is also the founder of the now-closed Femina Potens Art Gallery, a nonprofit art gallery and performance space in San Francisco that served the LGBTQ and Kink communities.
Along with Moorea Malatt, she hosts the podcast, Wash Your Mouth Out.
Madison published her memoir Daddy in 2014.
In this interview we talk about Madison’s life as a sex worker, being a bondage model, transitioning to director, the body as an artist medium, creating a queer performance space in San Francisco, our fandom of Annie Sprinkle, black box theaters, and the importance of being a pleasure activist.
Website:
https://iammadisonyoung.wordpress.com
Podcast:
http://www.washyourmouthoutpodcast.com
Instagram:
@therealmadisonyoung
Book:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17341771-daddy
…..
FURTHER DISCUSSION…..
last month i OFFICIALLY renamed the patron-only “podcast book club” category on the shadowbox discussion forum, since we have been going so much wider than BOOKS. it’s now called the “patron-only podcast discussion”. as you know, the commenting system on these patreon posts is annoying, and the box is a way better place to hold discussions, so i’d love you to head over there for some robust chat about what you think and feel after listening to the podcast:
here you go, and don’t forget, the podcast forum is patron-only, so the public can never access it:
Here’s a thread about Madison’s book, Daddy:
https://forum.theshadowbox.net/t/madison-young-daddy-book-club/6807
and as I mentioned above…..a separate thread on BDSM, kink and covid, also patron-only. It’s already getting some great comments.
https://forum.theshadowbox.net/t/bdsm-kink-covid-and-all-that/6808
(to access the patron-only categories aka sub-forums, make sure you register your account on the shadowbox with THE SAME EMAIL ADDRESS that you use for patreon.)
……..
some words from Madison:
Hi All!
It was such an immense joy to be interviewed for Amanda’s podcast when she came through Portland on tour. When we met I felt a deep knowing that we had met before and that we have been at this work of slaying the patriarchy and fighting for justice for many lifetimes.
This interview was recorded in 2019 and sooooo much has shifted and changed since that time both on a global and personal level.
So much goodness poured in after this interview – the filming of my explicit web series for Lust Cinema – Fragments starring Jiz Lee and Siouxsie Q, which addresses topics such as reproductive rights, coming out, kink and navigating polyamory.
The premiere of my first television show – Submission Possible– at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan, my tv series was picked up by the super rad streaming channel Revry TV, and then COVID hit and my world turned upside down.
Just a week after my tv series was picked up we went into lock down. Schools shut down, production shut down. It was an adjustment to say the least.
I took pause. I returned to breath. I returned to the present moment. I let go of all expectations and embraced/surrendered to the moment that we are in, taking in all of its lessons.
In so many ways this past year has been deep and internal. I’ve felt intrinsically connected to Persephone in her journey to the underworld as I confront my own shadows and greet them with deep radical healing love and compassion.
This year was unexpected but the medicine my soul so deeply needed. All the challenges that emerged only forged an even deeper gratitude for the immense joy and pleasure in small simple moments.
I have spent more time with my family – my two beautiful children and my partner – than I ever have before. Before the pandemic it was always either myself or my partner zipping around the country immersed in work. But we have really worked together through the pandemic, through homeschooling, and even escaping the fires of Oregon to take care of one another.
It’s been an emotional time. We all deeply miss our community and friends. We have days where we just need to release emotion with tears and screams or howling at the moon and so that is what we do and we hold space.
It has also been a time of immense emotional and spiritual growth. My 9 year old daughter and I worked together to self publish a children’s book about the emotions that arose during quarantine. I watched as her art work developed and left me absolutely awe inspired.
We are discussing creating a children’s animated series based on her illustrations that focuses on a family of witches and clairvoyants.
I had the pleasure of working with the brilliant illustrator Clover Brown on a powerful new children’s book on a day in the life of a non-binary 4 year old kiddo as they navigate touch, communication and consent with their friends and family.
I emerged creatively with a 30 minute drama series script that is now in preproduction and I’m knee deep into writing an experimental post-modern memoir that explores matriarchal magic, intergenerational wounds, and radical resilience.
Schools remain shut down here in Portland Oregon and my day to day life is that of interweaving art and care for myself in the moments between setting up zoom classes for my kids and preparing meals and cleaning house, kitchen dance parties, messy art projects, holding space for tears and laughter and all the big emotions that pour forth from the magical small humans that I share my life with and I’m eternally grateful for it all.
With so much love,
Madison Young
photo by Lydia Daniler
………….
Back to me, AFP.
To Madison: THANK YOU. Thank you for doing this podcast, but thank you for being this kind of voice in the world.
YOU ARE AMAZING, and WE NEED YOU.
………….
THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
We’ve attached a pdf of the transcript of the podcast the patreon post. To view it, you can download it by visiting this patreon post on the web, if you ain’t there already. (it’s a hyperlink at the very bottom of the post with a little paper clip attachment symbol next to it….you’ll see it).
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PODCAST CREDITS
Thank you so much to my guest, Madison Young, for her incredible bravery, truth-telling, shameless awesomeness. (Can you tell that I want more guests like Madison? Time to call up Midori, my pro dominatrix friend, and get her on the line.)
You can check out her podcast, cos she’s got one too, it’s called Wash Your Mouth Out, her memoir again is called Daddy, you can find that online, and in your local bookstore, indie please. Check out her web-series Submission Possible on RevryTV, and Fragments is on Lust Cinema.
Our interview was recorded by Sonia Parrish at KBOO in Portland.
For all the music you heard in this episode, you can go to my website, and the section for the podcast is amandapalmer.net/podcast
This podcast was produced by FannieCo. Lots of thanks as always to my incredible team: Hayley Rosenblum, Michael McComiskey, Alex Knight, Kelly Welles, my manager Jordan Verzar, all of them have been wearing lots and lots of various hats and doing tons of stuff to make this podcast, and all of the stuff around it, possible.
And this whole podcast would not be possible at all without my patrons. All of them, there’s about 14,000 right now, make it possible for this podcast to have no ads, no sponsors, no censorship, no bullshit, just the media, doing what we do.
So many thanks right now to my high level patrons: Simon Oliver, St. Alexander, Birdie Black, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Leela Cosgrove, and Robert W. Perkins. Thank you to them, and to all of you who are contributing even a dollar to make it happen
……………
THANK YOU TO ALL YOU PATRONS, FOR SUPPORTING THIS PODCAST.
This whole undertaking would not be possible, in this manner, without patronage. At current count, there are about 14,000 of you.
YOU make it possible for this podcast to have no ads, no sponsors, no censorship, no bullshit, we are just the media, doing what we do.
because of you:
No ads.
No sponsors.
No censorship.
NO….TIMELINE!!! 🙂
We.
Are.
The.
Media.
I love you all.
See you soon.
x
a
——THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS———
1. if you’re a patron, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol. that’s always nice for me to see, so i know who’s reading.
2. see All the Things (over 100 of them) i’ve made so far on patreon:
http://amandapalmer.net/things
3. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/
4. new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff (at least up until a few years ago, this desperately needs updating) on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/
5. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net