Tristan Taormino ’93 lecturing on her college book tour. All images c/o Taormino.
The editors of The Village Voice wanted someone to write about sex. Dan Savage’s weekly advice column “Savage Love” was gaining popularity and had outgrown its place in the back of the paper, alongside 900 numbers and ads for escorts. Sex needed a new section.
They convened a meeting. The late Don Forst, editor-in-chief at the time, asked if anyone had a writer in mind. One editor suggested the “Adventure Girl” columnist from the lesbian feminist publication On Our Backs. Was that the same woman who wrote that book on anal sex, another editor asked. A third wanted to know if she used to run her own ‘zine.
All three had in mind the same person: Tristan Taormino ’93, author, feminist pornographer, and now, sex columnist. They brought her into the Village Voice offices.
“They said they had one concern: Is there really that much to write about sex? Can you keep that going for a while?” Taormino said. “And of course, I kept it going for almost a decade.
“My answer then, and proves to be, yes.”
As Taormino has shaped her career, her brand of feminism has promoted realistic views of sex and sexuality by keeping politics and ethics at the forefront of her work. She had to carve her own path, but in doing so, she paved the way for dynamic change.