Carol Queen (born 1957) is an American author, editor, sociologist, and

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists a ...

active in the

sex-positive feminism Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. Sex-positive feminism cen ...

movement. Queen is a two time Grand Marshal of San Francisco LGBTQ Pride. Queen has written on

human sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

in books such as ''Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture''. She has written a sex tutorial, ''Exhibitionism for the Shy: Show Off, Dress Up and Talk Hot'', as well as

erotica Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...

, such as the novel ''The Leather Daddy and the Femme''. Queen has produced adult movies, events, workshops and lectures. Queen was featured as an instructor and star in both installments of the ''

Bend Over Boyfriend ''Bend Over Boyfriend'' (''BOB'') is a series of sex education videos covering the practice of a woman penetrating a man's anus with a strap-on dildo (known as pegging). The first of the two videos, which was released in 1998, became the best-se ...

'' series about female-to-male

anal sex Anal sex or anal intercourse is generally the insertion and thrusting of the erect penis into a person's anus, or anus and rectum, for sexual pleasure.Sepages 270–271for anal sex information, anpage 118for information about the clitoris. ...

, or pegging. She has also served as editor for compilations and anthologies. She is a sex-positive sex educator in the United States.

Good Vibrations

Queen serves as staff sexologist to

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record ...

, a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

sex toy A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibratin ...

retailer. In this function, she designed an education program which has trained many other current and past Good Vibrations-based sex educators, including

Violet Blue Violet Blue is an American journalist, author, editor, advisor, and educator. Blue wrote a weekly sex column for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' until 2010. In her podcast, Open Source Sex, she reads erotica and discusses topics such as feti ...

, Charlie Glickman, and Staci Haines. She is currently still working for GV as The Staff Sexologist, Chief Cultural Officer, curator, and historian.

Writing

Queen is known as a professional editor, writer, and commentator of works such as ''Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture'', ''Pomosexuals'', and ''Exhibitionism for the Shy''. She has written for juried journals and compendiums such as The Journal of BisexualityRM Lawrence, C Queen, ''Bisexuals Help Create the Standards for Safer Sex: San Francisco, 1981–1987'', Journal of Bisexuality, 2000. and The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality. She contributed the piece "The Queer in Me" to the anthology '' Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out''.

Absexual

The

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

''absexual'' has also been introduced by Queen, although it was coined by her partner. Based on its prefix wikt:ab-, ab- (as in "abhor" or in "

abreaction Abreaction (german: Abreagieren) is a psychoanalytical term for reliving an experience to purge it of its emotional excesses—a type of catharsis. Sometimes it is a method of becoming conscious of repressed traumatic events. Psychoanalytic origins ...

"), it represents a form of

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

where someone is stimulated by moving away from sexuality or is moralistically opposed to sex.

Betty Dodson Betty Dodson (August 24, 1929October 31, 2020) was an American sex educator. An artist by training, she exhibited erotic art in New York, before pioneering the pro-sex feminist movement. Dodson's workshops and manuals encourage women to masturb ...

defined the term as describing "folks who get off complaining about sex and trying to censor porn." absexuality is not an official

psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psy ...

term. Queen proposed inclusion of the concept in the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

DSM-5 The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric ...

Darrell Hamamoto Darrell Y. Hamamoto is an American writer, academic, and specialist in U.S. media and ethnic studies. He was a scholar of Asian American media and professor for almost 23 years at the University of California, Davis before retiring in 2018. Educ ...

sees Queen's view of absexuality as playfully broad: "the current 'absexuality' embraced by many progressive and conservative critics of pornographic literature is itself a kind of 'kink' stemming from a compulsive need to impose their own sexual mores upon those whom they self-righteously condemn as benighted reprobates."

Development of SHARP

In 2000, Queen together with her partner Robert Morgan Lawrence published a jointly written essay in the Journal of Bisexuality detailing the role of San Francisco bisexuals in the development of safe sex strategies in response to the emerging AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Queen detailed her and Lawrence's development of a safe sex version of the SAR or Sexual Attitude Reassessment training, which they termed Sexual Health Attitude Restructuring Process or SHARP. Originally a program started by the IASHS, SHARP is described as a combination of "lectures, films, videos, slides, and personal sharing", as well as "massage techniques, condom relay races, a blindfolded ritual known as the Sensorium which emphasized transformation and sensate focus, and much more." In 2007, Queen expressed the intention to revive the SHARP training, now referred to as SARP or Sexual Attitude Reassessment Process.'

Personal life

Queen is a

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...

n. She is

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

Works

Author

*''Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture'' (

Cleis Press Cleis Press is an American independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It later moved to ...

, 1997) - reissued 2002 with new introduction and updated Recommended Reading list. *''Exhibitionism for the Shy: Show Off, Dress Up and Talk Hot'' (

Down There Press Down There Press is an independently run feminist book, DVD, and audiobook publisher that focuses on sexuality. It publishes both visual and literary erotica, and is known for its publications on youth and adolescent sexuality. Down There Press ...

, 1995; Quality Paperback Book Club Edition, 1997) - excerpted in the German book Dirty Talking (Schwarzkopf und Schwarzkopf, 2002); also translated into Chinese (Hsin-Lin Books, 2003) *''The Leather Daddy and the Femme'' (Cleis Press, 1998)

Editor

*''More 5 Minute Erotica'', (Running Press, 2007) *''Whipped: 20 Erotic Stories of Female Dominance'' ( Chamberlain Bros., 2005) *''Best Bisexual Erotica (Best of Series Vol. 1)'', with Bill Brent (

Circlet Press Circlet Press is a publishing house in Cambridge, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was founded by Cecilia Tan, who is also its manager. It specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre, and its publications often feature BDS ...

, 2003) *''5 Minute Erotica'' (

Running Press Running Press is an American publishing company and member of the Perseus Books Group. The publisher's offices are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with many of the corporate functions taking place in Perseus' New York City headquarters. I ...

, 2003) *''Speaking Parts: Provocative Lesbian Erotica'', with

M. Christian M. Christian is an author and anthologist working in a variety of genres including horror fiction, horror, science fiction, erotica and crime. Much of his work combines sexual themes with the horror or science fiction genre. Selected bibliography ...

(

Alyson Books Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, was a book publishing house which specialized in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the ...

, 2002) *''Best Bisexual Erotica Vol. 2'', with Bill Brent (

Circlet A circlet is a piece of headwear that is similar to a diadem or a corolla. The word 'circlet' is also used to refer to the base of a crown or a coronet, with or without a cap. Diadem and circlet are often used interchangeably, and 'open crowns' wi ...

Black Books ''Black Books'' is a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan, and written by Moran, Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Linehan and Arthur Mathews. It was broadcast on Channel 4, running for three series from 2000 to 2004. Starring Mo ...

, 2001) *''Best Bisexual Erotica'', with Bill Brent (

, 2000) *''Sex Spoken Here: Stories from the Good Vibrations Erotic Reading Circle'', with Jack R. Davis (Down There Press, 1998) *''PoMoSexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality'', with

Lawrence Schimel Lawrence Schimel (born October 16, 1971) is a bilingual (Spanish/English) American writer, translator, and anthologist. His work, which frequently deals with gay and lesbian themes as well as matters of Jewish identity, often falls into the genres ...

(Cleis Press, 1997) - winner of a 1998 Lambda Literary Award *''Switch Hitters: Lesbians Write Gay Male Erotica and Gay Men Write Lesbian Erotica'', with Lawrence Schimel (Cleis Press, 1996) artially reprinted with new material in German under the title Sexperimente (Querverlag, 1999)

Film

* ''Carol Queen's Great Vibrations: An Explicit Guide to Vibrators'', Blank Tapes, ~1997.

References

External links

*
The Center for Sex and Culture

Fatale Media
producer of the ''Bend Over Boyfriend'' video series.
Woodhull Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Queen, Carol 1957 births American bloggers American sex columnists American women columnists American erotica writers American feminist writers American self-help writers American sexologists American Wiccans BDSM writers Bisexual feminists Bisexual writers Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality alumni Lambda Literary Award winners LGBT Wiccans American LGBT writers Living people Actresses from San Francisco American sex educators Sex-positive feminists Sex worker activists in the United States University of Oregon alumni Wiccan feminists Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area American women bloggers Women erotica writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century LGBT people