filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
,
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
, performance artist, feminist activist, and former adult film performer and award-winning erotic filmmaker. Young is a prominent figure in the feminist porn movement and is known for their work as a
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
and
kink
Kink or KINK may refer to:
Common uses
* Kink (sexuality), a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behavior
* Kink, a curvature, bend, or twist
Geography
* Kink, Iran, a village in Iran
* The Kink, a man-made geographic feature in remote east ...
-focused educator and an advocate of sex workers’ rights.
Young is the executive producer, director, and television host of the original documentary series ''Submission Possible'', which was first released on Revry TV in 2020, and is the co-host and co-producer of the feminist parenting podcast ''Wash Your Mouth Out''.
Early life
Young was raised in a small town in Ohio. They attended the
School for Creative and Performing Arts
The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) is a magnet arts school in Cincinnati in the US state of Ohio, and part of the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). SCPA was founded in 1973 as one of the first magnet schools in Cincinnati and becam ...
in Cincinnati and majored in theater at
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...
and
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...
.
Young moved to the Bay Area in 2000 and founded Femina Potens Art Gallery, a nonprofit art gallery and performance space in San Francisco. Femina Potens served the
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
and kink communities and curated over 500 events and visual art exhibitions during its 14 year long run.
They entered the world of erotic filmmaking in 2002, initially as a performer and subsequently as a director. During this time in Young’s life, they founded the Erotic Film School, an annual erotic filmmaking intensive which sought to empower underrepresented queer and feminist communities to document their own narratives through erotic film.
Career
Performance and curation
Young curated the Askew Festival, a three-night "experimental, interactive exploration of performance, activism, and counterculture through documentary and experimental film coupled with performance art, readings, and dance" that took place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA in 2012, and again in 2014.
They co-starred in the Queer X Tour, a
sex positive
The sex-positive movement is a social movement, social and philosophical movement that seeks to change cultural attitudes and norms around sexuality, promoting the recognition of sexuality (in the countless forms of expression) as a natural and he ...
cabaret show featuring explicit performance art by six performers who addressed sexuality through a feminist and queer lens. French filmmakers Émilie Jouvet and Wendy Delorme followed the tour through Europe from Berlin to Malmö for their 2011
docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event".
Docudramas typic ...
film '' Too Much Pussy!''.
From 2016 to 2019, Young co-wrote and performed their “one-womxn show,” ''Reveal All Fear Nothing: A Journey in Sex, Love, Porn, and Feminism,'' which examined their personal experience in the world of erotic film as both a feminist porn performer and director. The script was inspired by Annie Sprinkle's ''Post Porn Modernist'' theater production and written in collaboration with Sprinkle. The show influenced actress Maggie Gyllenhaal's work on the HBO series The Deuce.
Young’s other performance art work has been showcased internationally by institutions including the
Museum of Sex
The Museum of Sex, also known as MoSex, is a sex museum located at 233 Fifth Avenue at the corner of East 27th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It opened on October 5, 2002.
History
Founder Daniel Gluck wanted to start a museum dedicated t ...
Young founded Empress in Lavender Media, a production company working to bring queer, transgender, and sex worker stories to mainstream media through filmmakers within those communities. Their first series, ''Submission Possible'', explores "the queer sexual underground worlds of kink, fetish, and BDSM” across the nation. The first season of ''Submission Possible'' was released from 2020 through mid-2022, after delays in production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and features New Orleans, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland. ''Submission Possible'' was screened at the 2022 CineKink Film Festival and has been selected for screening at the 2022 San Francisco PornFilmFestival.
Other media ventures
Writing
Young’s memoir, ''Daddy'', was published in 2014. Young followed their memoir with ''The Ultimate Guide to Sex Through Pregnancy and Motherhood'' and ''The DIY Porn Handbook: Documenting Our Own Sexual Revolution'', both published in 2016.
Young’s writing has also been published in anthologies including ''Rad Families: A Celebration'', ''Subversive Motherhood'', ''The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge'', ''Ropes, Bondage, and Power: Power Exchange Books' Resource Series'', and the Routledge ''
Porn Studies
''Porn Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of pornography. It is published by Routledge and was established in 2014. The editors-in-chief are Feona Attwood (Middlesex University), John Mercer (Birmingham City ...
'' Journal.
Speaking and guest appearances
Young is a noted expert on sex,
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
, and
feminist pornography
Feminist pornography is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and member ...
. Young has taught workshops, given lectures, and acted as a panelist at institutions such as
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
,
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
,
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
, and
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
.
They have been featured on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
, the
History Channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
,
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
's
Logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
, and on
Fusion TV
Fusion TV was an American pay television news and satire channel owned by Fusion Media Group, a multi-platform media company subsidiary of Univision Communications, which relied in part on the resources of its parent company's news division, Not ...
Slutever
Slutever is a punk rock band based in Los Angeles, California, consisting of Nicole Snyder and Rachel Gagliardi, both of whom are from Philadelphia. Gagliardi is also a member of Upset.
History
Snyder and Gagliardi met in high school, where the ...
, Young spoke on the topic of
ecosexuality
Sexecology, also known as ecosexuality, is a radical form of environmental activism based around nature fetishism, the idea of the earth as a lover. It invites people to treat the earth with love rather than see it as an infinite resource to explo ...
, a sexual identity and movement. Additionally, they discussed gender neutral views on parenting and body positivity on Bravo's Extreme Guide to Parenting.
Young has been interviewed for ''
HuffPost
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', ''
xoJane
''xoJane'' (also known as ''xoJane.com'') was an American online magazine from 2011-2016 geared toward women and founded by Jane Pratt and co-published by Say Media. Pratt was the founding editor of '' Sassy'' and ''Jane'' magazines.
In less t ...
'', ''
The Rumpus
''The Rumpus'' is an online literary magazine launched on January 20, 2009. The site features interviews, book reviews, essays, comics, and critiques of creative culture as well as original fiction and poetry. The site runs two subscription-base ...
'', ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
'', and ''
Curve
In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight.
Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...
'', and has been written about in ''The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure'' and ''Pornography Feminism: As Powerful as She Wants to Be''. They have also appeared on Amanda Palmer’s podcast, The Art of Asking Everything.
Awards
Personal life
Young is married to James Mogul, a former adult filmmaker, BDSM educator, and photographer. They have two children together. Young uses the term "queer" for their sexual orientation, identifies as a
nonbinary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...
femme
''Femme'' (; , literally meaning "woman") is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian who exhibits a feminine identity or gender presentation. Alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word, ...
, and uses
they
In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject.
Morphology
In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms:
* ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form
* ''them'': the accusat ...
and
she
She most commonly refers to:
*She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English.
She or S.H.E. may also refer to:
Literature and films
*'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...