NINA HARTLEY
Nina Hartley has been a porn star and stripper since the early 1980s, appearing in more than 500 films. She is also a registered nurse, writer and activist promoting sexual freedom, free speech and pro-sex feminism. Her trailblazing efforts, high-spirited exhibitionism, beauty, intelligence and tireless public appearances have earned her a huge cult following among both men and women.
OFFICIAL HOMEPAGE
Nina Hartley's official website has a personal diary and information about upcoming appearances. As of August, 2001, the diary page includes an entry about the recent demise of her longtime three-person marriage.
Nina.com
WRITINGS BY NINA
Hartley's classic 1993 essay "Reflections of a Feminist Porn Star" eloquently argues that those two identities are not mutually exclusive. "I believe 'feminist' is a self-applied label, and I am angered that a few women, granted lots of coverage by the press because of their extreme views, are being touted as the only voice of feminism. I reject the notion that there is some secret feminist orthodoxy, some single standard of measuring who is a 'real' feminist. If feminism is about the promotion of equality between women and men, then I am one. If feminism is about the right of women to follow the paths of their lives with minimum outside interference, then I am one and proud of it. If feminism is about male-bashing or the fetishization of the concept of woman-as-eternal-victim, then I am not a feminist."
Gauntlet
Gay.com features a sex advice column by Nina Hartley entitled "Dear Nina."
Gay.com
On Our Backs features sex advice from Nina Hartley in a column called "Probe Nina."
On Our Backs
Nina Hartley answers a very sensitive question in her advice column at On Our Backs. "My girlfriend and I recently started having oral sex. She's great at it. I want to give her as much pleasure as she gives me, but there's a problem. Every time I go down on her, the smell from her pussy becomes too much for me to handle. I have to back off. Is there some way to address the problem without breaking the mood?"
On Our Backs
INTERVIEWS
Moxie editor Carly Milne talks to Nina Hartley over lunch about feminism, sexuality and pornography. About her early years doing porn and stripping, Hartley says, "There wasn't really a word for a sex positive feminist, so we started talking about how she would sound and what she would say -- what would she stand for? Could I be a stripper and still be a feminist? . . . Because I'm a cause person. I came from Berkley, and my parents were cause people and my grandparents were cause people, my husband and wife are cause people. I like meeting the new people I meet through this everyday, and it is for the greater good. And the initial greater good was role modeling: what does a healthy, erotic, proactive woman look like? One that is aggressive about being ball busting, and one that is demanding. From the very beginning I wanted to talk to press and academia about it, because at that time there was no educated feminist voice in the business."
Sins (via Soap Box Girls)
The editors of Talking Blue interview Nina Hartley about here recent projects.
Excalibur Films
Claudia drags her boyfriend along to the O'Farrell Theater to see Nina Hartley dance, then interviews Nina Hartley about her life and work.
Homotiller Media (1994)
Chris Parcellin interviews Nina Hartley about growing up, entering the sex industry, Boogie Nights and more.
D-Filed
Descanso Literary Journal ran an interview with Nina Hartley by Diane Constantine in its first issue in 1997. The journal's website features a lengthy excerpt from the interview online. "DC: This is an industry run by men, and men are still the predominant consumers. Is it tough to hold your ground? NH: I don't have a problem staying grounded, because I have my belief system, and my husband and girlfriend, who are part of the original Sexual Revolution. I think the sex business, the strip clubs, are tattered remnants of the Temple of Aphrodite, which was run by women. I think the sex business is the natural domain of women, should be run by women with more spirituality, who have an understanding of the power of sexuality."
Descanso Literary Journal
ARTICLES & REVIEWS
This extended profile of Nina Hartley ran in the Globe and Mail before a speaking engagement in Toronto.
Globe and Mail
Carol Queen describes her wild evening with Nina Hartley and Midori in San Francisco, first joining them for dinner at "a sparsely-filled North Beach Chinese joint," then to the Crazy Horse to catch Nina and Midori on stage.
The Spectator
Society for Human Sexuality has a nice review of Nina Hartley's Guide to Foreplay, part of her video sex instruction series.
Sexuality.org
College Life USA reports on a speaking engagement by Nina Hartley at UC-Berkeley, sponsored by Take Back the Night, a student group which raises awareness about rape and domestic violence.
College Life USA
A Southern California rabbi has invited Nina Hartley to share her sexual insights with his congregation as part of the temple's adult education series. Rabbi Mark Blazer says he invited Hartley because she's "very intelligent, articulate and passionate about people feeling comfortable with who they are sexually."
San Francisco Chronicle
