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Essay / Annie Sprinkle Analysis - 2003
Annie Sprinkle's works in Post-porn-Modernist (1990-5) capture the workings of the sex industry as she strives to desexualize it through its use feminism and postmodern techniques. Sprinkle captivates audiences in this autobiographical performance of her transformation from shy, suburban girl Ellen to adult film star and sex enthusiast Annie Sprinkle. As the performance develops, we can witness its development through the sex industry. She shares her experiences as a sex worker, activist and her personal life in her various professions: prostitute, porn star and burlesque dancer. She explores the formally taboo subject of sex and the female body, particularly through her performances; public announcement of the pass, 100 pipes, Men and Women I've Loved and the Bosom ballet. “Her exploration of female sexuality, her sexually explicit subject matter, and her use of her own body as a vehicle of investigation places her at the forefront of postmodern feminist performance” (Anniesprinkle.org, 2014). Sprinkle's controversial style allows him to perform topics in a unique and radical format, allowing his audience to experience something unlike other performances. Sprinkle's use of compositional styles, high and low shapes of the female body, to critique modern cultural characteristics through her. use of pastiche in his performance of the ballet Bosom. Pastiche is the modern practice of “white irony”; it is based on diversity and is used to create new meaning within a diverse society, without relying on an established norm. Sprinkles uses it in his performance of “Bosom Ballet”; she mixes high-end styles of classical, musical and modesty with popular forms of sexualization and striptease. This...... middle of paper ......r she challenges us to interpret the ideas she presents in our own way based on our own reality. Sprinkle demonstrates throughout the performance that even though she sometimes makes herself slightly vulnerable through her dialogue or actions, she remains in control of the audience and makes herself vulnerable on her own terms. She displays this power that is of great importance in her ideas by once again questioning our values and society's values when it comes to sex and the female body. She achieves this by constantly working to desexualize herself, creating a clinical image of her body, thereby working to create a reality that there is no shame in our bodies. Sprinkle therefore uses this performance and the dramaturgical techniques which I believe to encourage us to deconstruct these meanings of the female body in order to destroy this patriarchal and sex negative society in which we live...