Susie Bright

Susie Bright in 2012

Susannah "Susie" Bright (born March 25, 1958 in Arlington , Virginia ; also known as Susie Sexpert ) is an American author, journalist, radio presenter and lecturer. Her main theme is sexuality . Bright was one of the first women to be called a sex positive feminist .

Youth and education

Bright grew up in an Irish Catholic family. Her father was the linguist William Bright . While in high school, she published an underground school newspaper called The Red Tide, which dealt with topics such as contraception . The newspaper was regularly confiscated by the principal of her high school. In 1974 she sued her right to publish the paper without prior censorship and won the Susannah Bright v. the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1977 before the Supreme Court of California .

After school she got involved in various left political groups and was active in the anti-war movement. She is one of the co-founders of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union . After the group broke up, Bright decided, contrary to her earlier beliefs, to go to college. She first studied Women's Studies and Theater at California State University, Long Beach, and then graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Community Studies .

Career

Susie Bright, 2007

From 1982 to 1986 she worked at Good Vibrations , a sex shop, and wrote short stories and poems on the side. After reading one of her poems in a bookstore, Myrna Elana approached her, who was preparing the first issue of the lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs . Bright initially took over the magazine's advertising department. After Elana left On Our Backs after the first edition, Bright took over her position as editor-in-chief from the second edition. Her On Our Backs columns later formed the basis for Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World books. Her involvement with On Our Backs ended in 1990 after a dispute with the second founder, Debi Sundahl.

Since she did the job as an editor almost free of charge, she continued to work at Good Vibrations. until the Penthouse Forum in 1986 offered her a monthly column as a film critic for erotic films. Since then she has been earning her living as a freelance journalist. She became the X-Rated Critics Organization's first pornographic film critic that same year . In 2002 she was elected to the XRCO Hall of Fame for her services.

She also founded the first erotic book series for women, "Herotica", and acted as editor for the first three editions. In 1993 she started the "The Best American Erotica" series, which is still released today. She worked as a choreographer and consultant for the film Bound .

At the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia , California , she taught "The Politics of Sexual Representation", the first seminar on pornography at a university.

Bright also hosts a weekly radio show on Audible.com , "In Bed with Susie Bright" , where she talks about topics such as sex and free speech .

Private life

Susie Bright claims to be bisexual. In the early 80s, she was in a relationship with photographer Honey Lee Cottrell , who also worked for On Our Backs . Bright now resides in Santa Cruz , California with her significant other and daughter .

Works

• Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex Reader. Cleis Press, 1992.
• Susie's Sexperts sex world for lesbians. Krug & Schadenberg, 1993, ISBN 3-930041-01-4 .
• Susie Sexpert's dissolute lesbian worlds. Krug & Schadenberg, 1995, ISBN 3-930041-05-7 .
• The Sexual State of the Union. Simon & Schuster, 1997.
• Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World. Cleis Press, 1998.
• Best of Susie Sexpert. Krug & Schadenberg, 2001, ISBN 3-930041-03-0 .
• How to Write a Dirty Story. Simon and Schuster, 2002.
• Mommy's Little Girl: Susie Bright on Sex, Motherhood, Pornography, and Cherry Pie, Thunder's Mouth. 2004.

supporting documents

1. ^ The Sixties Project

Web links

• official page
• Literature by and about Susie Bright in the catalog of the German National Library
• Susie Bright in the Internet Movie Database (English)