Annie Sprinkle

In 1996, Sprinkle became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a Doctor of Philosophy in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Sprinkle, who identifies as ecosexual, is best known for her experimental pornography style, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her mainstream pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981). She has also contributed to the rise of the post-porn movement. Sprinkle married her long-time partner Elizabeth Stephens in Canada on January 14, 2007.

Annie Sprinkle studied at Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are pornographic film. Work by Annie Sprinkle is recorded in the collections of Vtape. Distinctions recorded are AVN Hall of Fame, Guggenheim Fellowship and XRCO Hall of Fame.

• Name — Annie Sprinkle • Birth Name — Ellen F. Steinberg • Born — 23 July 1954 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Website — sprinklestephens.org

Sprinkle was born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a Russian-Jewish mother and a Polish-Jewish father. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, when she was five years old, and she lived in Panama City, Panama from age thirteen to seventeen. At eighteen, she began working at the ticket booth at the Cine-Plaza Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, when Deep Throat (1972) was playing. The film was busted, and when Steinberg had to appear in court as a witness, she met and began a relationship with Deep Throat's director, Gerard Damiano, becoming his mistress. She followed him to New York City, where she lived for twenty-two years. Not long after becoming Damiano's mistress, Steinberg began working in porn herself and, at that time, started calling herself "Annie." As her career continued, she says that one night, "as if from the goddess herself," the name "Annie Sprinkle" came to her. She later changed her name legally to Annie Sprinkle. Her first porn movie was Teenage Deviate released in 1975. Perhaps her best known mainstream porn featured role was in Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (co-directed by Sprinkle and sexploitation veteran Joseph W. Sarno) which was the No. 2 grossing porn film of 1981. In 1992, Sprinkle and videographer Maria Beatty produced a humorous sex education video, The Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop: Or How To Be A Sex Goddess in 101 Easy Steps. Sprinkle has also presented many sex workshops with fellow sex facilitator Barbara Carrellas, with whom she presented the stage production Metamorphosex. Sprinkle has appeared in almost 200 films, including hard- and softcore pornography, B movies, loops, and numerous documentaries. She starred in Nick Zedd's experimental films War Is Menstrual Envy (1992), Ecstasy in Entropy (1999), and Electra Elf: The Beginning (2005). She also appeared in various television shows including four HBO Real Sex programs. She has also produced, directed, and starred in several of her own films, such as Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of Porn, Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of Orgasm, and Linda/Les & Annie—The First Female to Male Transsexual Love Story. Her work in adult films earned her a spot on the Adult Star Path of Fame in Edison, New Jersey, and she was inducted to both the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame in 1999. For three decades, she has presented her work as a visiting artist at many major universities and colleges in the US and Europe. Annie Sprinkle is known as the "prostitute and porn star turned sex educator and artist." Her best known theater and performance art piece is her Public Cervix Announcement, in which she invites the audience to view her cervix with a speculum and flashlight. She also performed The Legend of the Ancient Sacred Prostitute, in which she did a "sex magic" masturbation ritual on stage. She has toured one-woman shows internationally for 17 years, some of which were titled Post Porn Modernist, Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of Porn, and Hardcore from the Heart. She then performed two-woman shows with Beth Stephens titled Exposed; Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art, Dirty Sex Ecology, Earthly: An Ecosex Bootcamp, and Ecosex Walking Tour. Her work and publications, spanning over five decades, are studied in courses at numerous universities, in theater history, women's studies, performance studies, LGBTQ studies and film studies courses. Through The New School of Erotic Touch, she has released several video classes, including Female Genital Massage and Amazing World of Orgasm. Her most popular lecture was called "My Life and Work as a Feminist Porn Activist, Radical Sex Educator, and Ecosexual". She has also presented dozens of "Free Sidewalk Sex Clinics", offering free sex education to the public in public space. Sprinkle's work has always been about sexuality, with a political, spiritual and artistic bent. In December 2005, she committed to doing a seven year long art project about love with her art collaborator and eventual wife, Beth Stephens. They called this their Love Art Laboratory. Part of their project was to do an experimental art wedding each year, and each year had a different theme and color. The seven-year structure was adapted to their project by invitation of artist Linda M. Montano. Sprinkle and Stephens have done twenty-one art weddings, eighteen with ecosexual themes. They married the Earth, Sky, Sea, Moon, Appalachian Mountains, the Sun, and other non-human entities in nine different countries including at Montreal's Edgy Women Festival in 2011. She was featured in Maya Gallus's 1997 documentary film Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality. Sprinkle and her partner Beth Stephens became pioneers of ecosexuality, a kind of earth-loving sexual identity, which states, "The Earth is our lover". Their Ecosex Manifesto proclaims that anyone can identify as an ecosexual along with being "GLBTQI, heterosexual, asexual, and/or Other." • Illustration — Sprinkle (right) with Beth Stephens in 2006 Sprinkle identifies as a sex-positive feminist, and much of her activist and sex education work reflects this philosophy. In 2009, she appeared in the French documentary film Mutantes: Punk, Porn, Feminism, speaking about the beginnings of the movement as well as her own contributions to it. In 2017, Sprinkle and Stephens were official artists in Documenta 14. They presented performances and visual art, lectured, and previewed their new film documentary, Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure. Harvard's Schlesinger Library acquired her papers from 1967 to 2010, including those covering work with her partner Elizabeth Stephens.

section Sprinkle is known as a contributor to the development of pornography that intends to be feminist and is known for her disagreement with women against pornography, feminists who do not believe that the creation of feminist porn is possible and argue that porn is a means of hyper sexualization of women, that it is inherently harmful, promotes violence, and objectifies women. In contrast Sprinkle is known for arguing that women should contribute to the production of pornography or other erotic media and that censorship or restrictions on pornography will not cease its production. As a porn actress, Sprinkle drew greater attention to the female orgasm. A stated aim of her performance art and other works has been to expand and deconstruct mainstream ideals of sexuality. Sprinkle and her wife Beth Stephens are known for promoting a combination of environmental activism and sexuality called ecosexuality, and launching the ecosex movement with their Ecosex Manifesto. They state ecosexuality involves imagining nature as a lover. Ecosexuality combines sexuality and ecology and opposes sexual dynamics of dominance and exploitation, placing it adjacent to ecofeminism, which highlights how women and nature are treated similarly in a patriarchal society.

Annie Sprinkle coined the term "post-porn" to describe sexually explicit media that is experimental, conceptual, humorous, feminist, artsy, punk, and outside of mainstream porn aesthetics. In her one-woman touring show "Post-Porn Modernist" (1989–95), she performed Public Cervix Announcement, Sprinkle inserted a speculum into her vaginal canal to display her cervix to the audience in a playful, satirical celebration of the female body. Sprinkle has characterized her own art involving erotic and explicit imagery of the vulva and internal female anatomy as feminist activism. Sprinkle continued this medical discourse later in her career as well. After receiving her breast cancer diagnosis in 2005, Sprinkle made a collage with her radiation treatment plans, surgery photos, and old pin-up photos, juxtaposing the erotic breast with the medicalized breast. The post-porn movement is a countercultural body of scholarship and ideals that were developed within Europe and the USA. Within the post-porn movement there is a critical lens applied to corporations producing pornography and non-corporate pornographic content is instead valued. The post-porn movement also values the production of pornography which centers queer and gender diverse folks and questions the racialization and reliance on stereotypes found in the pornography industry. Sprinkle has contributed to the post-porn movement through her artistic body of work which engages in critical reflection and parody. Sprinkle has also contributed to this movement by challenging who can be represented in porn and which bodies are seen as sexual.

Film and TV credits • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1975 — Blow Some My Way — B.J. • Sue Prentiss R.N. — First Nurse — uncredited • My Master My Love — Margaret's Brunette Client — credited as Annie Sands • The American Andventures of Surelick Holmes — Stewardess — uncredited • Teenage Masseuse — credited as Annie Sprinkles • Kathy's Graduation Present — Anita — uncredited • Sherlick Holmes • Too Hot to Handle — Ellen — credited as Annie Sands • French Shampoo (Homage to W. B.) — Little Mary • Wild Pussycats • Satan Was a Lady — Terry — Directed by Doris Wishman; credited as Anny Sands • Fanny — June — uncredited • 1976 — Pornocopia Sensual — Susan • Honey Pie — Blow Job Annie — credited as Anne Sprinkle • Teenage Deviate — Ella — credited as Annie Sprinkles • Ecstasy in Blue — Hentai • Expose Me, Lovely — Robin — credited as Annie Sprinkles • M*A*S*H'd — Gail • Once Over Nightly • Teenage Cover Girls — Anne Sands — credited as Anne Sands • The Night of Submission — Editor's Mistress • Seduction — Girl at bridge party No. 1 • My Erotic Fantasies — Russian Porn Actress • Bang Bang You Got It! — Rhoda Thomas • Slippery When Wet — Stella Wilkins — credited as Annie Sprinkles • The Double Exposure of Holly — Muff • Call Me Angel, Sir — Tracy Dixon • The Affairs of Janice — Susan — uncredited • Come with Me My Love — Tess Albertino • Funk • Wet-X-Mas • 1977 — The Devil Inside Her — Orgy Girl — credited as Annie Sprinkles • Cherry Hustlers — Sprink — uncredited • Unwilling Lovers — Hooker with Stole — credited as Annie Sprinkles • 1978 — The Ganja Express — Sherry Herring • 1979 — Jack n' Jill — First Caller • For Richer for Poorer — Party Guest — uncredited • 1980 — The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue — Satisfier • Midnight Blue 2 • 1981 — Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle • Twilite Pink — Prostitute — credited as Annie Sprinkles • Centerfold Fever — Annie • Pandora's Mirror — The Queen of the club — credited as Miss Annie Sprinkle • Bizarre Styles — Annie • 1982 — Night on the Town • 1983 — Oriental Techniques in Pain and Pleasure — Annie — credited as Annie Sprinkles • Kneel Before Me — Wife / Justine • Big Busty 3 (Video) • 1984 — Throat... 12 Years After — The Sewer Mother • Electric Blue 12 (Video) — Shelly • 1985 — Spitfire — Lulu • 1986 — Wimps (Video) — Head Stripper • Sweet Revenge • 1987 — The Lingerie Shop • She-Male Encounters 5: Orgy at the Poysinberry Bar • She Comes in Colors • Rites of Passion • 1988 — Tattoo Vampire (Video) • The Horneymooners (Video) — Jane Norris • Hotter Than July • Dreams of Desire • Bazooka County (Video) • 1989 — Young Nurses in Love — Twin Falls • 1990 — The Golden Boat — Waitress • Fantasy Salon • 1991 — My Father Is Coming — Annie — Directed by Monika Treut • Shadows in the City — Ex-Girlfriend — Directed by Ari Roussimoff • Mature Women 2 (Video) • 1992 — 25 Year Old Gay Man Loses His Virginity to a Woman — Self — Directed by Philip B. Roth • Linda/Les and Annie — Directed by Johnny Armstrong, Albert Jaccoma, Annie Sprinkle • War Is Menstrual Envy • Pinned and Smothered (Video) • 1996 — Bubbles Galore — God • 1997 — The Fanny (Video) • 1999 — Ecstasy in Entropy (Short) • 2005 — The Keep (Short) • Electra Elf: The Beginning Parts One & Two • H.C.E. — Various • 2009 — Mutantes: Punk, Porn, Feminism • 2011 — Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will — Self — Episode 4 • 2012 — Lesbian Sex Education: Female Ejaculation (Video) • 2013 — Goodbye Gauley Mountain: an Ecosexual Love Story (Video) • 2017 — Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure — Lead, Director • 2025 — Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency — Director, Producer, Actor

Annie Sprinkle was recorded at birth as Ellen F. The authorities additionally record the headings Annie M. Sprinkle, Annie Sprinkles, Annie Sprinkle Ph.D, Anne Sands and Annie Sands. Her recorded language was English. Her recorded confession was Judaism. She married Elizabeth Stephens. Recorded as television presenter, choreographer, actress, writer and sex educator.