Culturally Diverse Creative Sexytimes

January 15, 2011 2:17 AM

Who are some good examples of sex-positive performers or sex workers from non-White backgrounds? (Porn stars, burlesque performers, erotic artists, strippers, erotic models, porn producers, erotica writers, etc)

Examples: Jiz Lee, Sunny Leone, Shine Louise Houston, Brown Girls Burlesque, Judy Minx, Syd Blacovich, Margaret Cho

I'd especially appreciate people with some sort of web presence, and I'd like some examples from outside San Francisco (or the US) since my list so far seems to be SF-heavy.

posted by divabat to media & arts (25 answers total)

Asia Carrera
posted by mnemonic at 2:22 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

First person that came to my mind was Josephine Baker but I gather you're looking for contemporary performers, so I offer you Yumi Umiumare.
posted by goshling at 2:56 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do you have Athena Douris?
posted by parmanparman at 2:57 AM on January 15, 2011

ooo Josephine Baker's a good one (it's for a presentation and it's great to have some historical perspective)
posted by divabat at 3:02 AM on January 15, 2011

Do you know Shannon Barber? She's a black woman who writes great queer erotica and has a blog here.
posted by lollusc at 3:17 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Midori.
Kumimonster.
posted by mollymayhem at 3:24 AM on January 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Came to endorse Midori (met her a couple times, she's great), but Molly did that already. Consider this a second.
posted by rokusan at 3:42 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sook-Yin Lee
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:10 AM on January 15, 2011

Zane, a Black erotica writer. She was also one of the producers of the former late-night Cinemax series, Zane's Sex Chronicles (which featured a predominantly non-White cast).
posted by fuse theorem at 4:22 AM on January 15, 2011

Masuimi Max
posted by K.P. at 4:33 AM on January 15, 2011

Mollena is awesome, a sex educator. Can't search on my blackberry too well but I think she's at mollena.org
posted by By The Grace of God at 5:22 AM on January 15, 2011

Grace is talking about The Perverted Negress, actually at www.mollena.com.

And I know this because we (obviously) share the same bookmarks.
posted by rokusan at 6:02 AM on January 15, 2011

I've worked with Akynos, she's a good resource for this kind of thng.
posted by The Whelk at 7:46 AM on January 15, 2011

Ignacio Rivera.
posted by sea change at 8:22 AM on January 15, 2011

Kelly Marin/Dragonlily and Satine Phoenix (ex-porn star, now makes comic books and plays D&D!).
posted by yeloson at 8:45 AM on January 15, 2011

Simone de la Getto and the Harlem Shake.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:13 AM on January 15, 2011

Are you interested in drag queens and other queer performers?
posted by gingerbeer at 9:13 AM on January 15, 2011

The fabulously-named Alotta Boutte.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:16 AM on January 15, 2011

The Shanghai Pearl, Asian American burlesque performer.
posted by liketitanic at 9:56 AM on January 15, 2011

Sophia St. James.
posted by treblemaker at 10:57 AM on January 15, 2011

gingerbeer: yes!
posted by divabat at 11:30 AM on January 15, 2011

Hyapatia Lee.
posted by virago at 1:50 PM on January 15, 2011

Nenna Joiner

Her site also has porn for & by persons of color, so there are some more performers for you.
posted by rhiannonstone at 7:46 PM on January 16, 2011

Recently happened upon May Ling Su, and her blog is sex-positive and interesting to read. Sometimes her journals are a bit personal in terms of her experiences, but informative and you definitely have the feel that she's a real person instead of someone that just happens to have sex and posts it online.
posted by xtine at 11:39 PM on January 16, 2011

Annabel Chong, sort-of-yet-not. I haven't seen anything she's participated in, but I saw part of a documentary about her on Channel 4 years ago (it was probably this) and I thought she was trying very hard to be (or convince everyone and herself that she was) the sort of person you're describing, but wasn't really. According to wiki, she quit her porn-career 7 years ago and wishes to have it never spoken of again.
posted by K.P. at 8:47 AM on January 17, 2011