Stefanie Iris Weiss advocates for a greener shade of love and intimacy in her 2010 book, Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make your Love Life Sustainable.
For the past few years, Earth Day has turned a racier shade of green thanks to the work of eco-sexuality advocates, such as Stefanie Iris Weiss, author of Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable (2010). A long-time adviser to the Green Love column, Ms. Weiss isn’t one to shy away from provocations, especially when the wellbeing of the planet and her inhabitants are at stake. From using safer forms of lubrication to advising tree-humpers on how to prevent pregnancy, Weiss dishes out her insights in delightfully green doses.
In our exclusive interview, this committed GINK (Green Inclined, No Kids) explains how her bottom line philosophy combines sexuality with ecology, and why even environmentalists are sometimes afraid to admit to hard truths with regards to the toughest question of all: How many babies should we be having on our overcrowded planet?
Greenprophet.com: You wrote your groundbreaking book, Eco-Sex, in 2010. Tell me when you first heard of eco-sexuality, and why you decided to write this book.
Stefanie Iris Weiss: I think I first heard the term used in 2006 or 2007. I’d been thinking about these issues for years, and finally found a word that perfectly described the natural merging of these two fundamental arenas: sexuality and ecology.
GP: Ecosexuality is a new-ish field, with not a lot of consensus yet on what the term actually means. How would you define it?
Weiss: Ain’t that the truth! It’s a very new field, so we’re just beginning to figure out what it all means. From my book’s perspective, Eco-Sex is about finding healthy, safe, non-toxic ways to be sexual and sensual. It’s a way to enhance your sex life by developing a new relationship with your own body — one built on putting only truly natural substances on it and IN it. (That’s why I go from soup to nuts in the book — from beauty products to sex toys).
For others in the ecosexual world, it’s more theoretical — for instance the amazingly brilliant Annie Sprinkle’s tagline for ecosexuality is: “Make the Earth your lover, not your Mother”. She believes that we shouldn’t see the planet as an entity that’s here to take care of us — we need to treat it as an equal, nurturing, stimulating, and serving it in mutually beneficial ways. I love that concept.
Our kids can learn to recycle, eat organic food, compost, and use the right light bulbs. That’s all good, but the sad reality is that it’s not going to save us from what’s coming. Only deadly serious changes at the governmental level will, and that’s not looking terribly likely when mega-corporations pretty much rule the world.
GP: Changing one’s habits isn’t always easy, and marketers tell us that many of us talk one way, and walk another when it comes to living sustainable lives. What are some baby steps you recommend to folks to help them become more ‘greenish’ in their sex lives?
Weiss: Lube is a great place to start. Ditch the chemical-laden KY and go for something organic and glycerin-free. Or just buy a jar of organic coconut oil and use it for massage, with a few drops of your favorite essential oil. (Be careful, though — don’t use coconut oil with latex condoms, because it will degrade them.)
GP: You’ve made it clear in the book that population growth is a critical component to creating a more sustainable global community, and that to that end, you won’t be having biological children of your own. But that’s a difficult pill for many to swallow, and they’ll argue otherwise. I’ve read environmentalists’ comments that suggest greenies should have babies to raise more conscious citizens! And in the Middle East, where large families are the norm based on census data, many take offense to the suggestion that they limit family size. Care to comment?
Weiss: The article that I recently wrote for the Huffington Post about my decision to adopt instead of having biological children indeed generated a ton of controversy. It’s important to note that I never, ever told anyone what they should do with their own lives — I just told my own story. And I think that having environmentally-aware, sustainably-savvy kids is an absolute must if you’re going to breed. I know tons of green mothers raising green kids, and I know they will do their best to make the world a better place.
At the same time, these kids will be growing up in a world where rampant, deadly overpopulation is the rule, and there is nothing we can do to stop that — except have fewer children. I wish there was a better way to address it, because I truly worry about what kids under ten years old are going to have to deal with in fifty years, when the ravages of flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, drought, water wars, and melted ice caps will be just another day in the neighborhood — everywhere on the planet.
Our kids can learn to recycle, eat organic food, compost, and use the right light bulbs. That’s all good, but the sad reality is that it’s not going to save us from what’s coming. Only deadly serious changes at the governmental level will, and that’s not looking terribly likely when mega-corporations pretty much rule the world.
Happy Earth Day!
More eco-sexuality news:
The GINK Manifesto: Childless, Loud and Proud
The Ins and Outs of Personal Vaginal Lubrication
Five Ways to Make Love to One Another and the Planet
Tinamarie is a regular contributor to Greenprophet.com. Follow her @ModernLoveMuse. She blogs at www.tinamariebernard.com.
Author: Tinamarie Bernard
Tinamarie combines her interests in two of her favorite topics – relationships and the environment – for Greenprophet.com. As our eco-sexpert, she explores ways to make our personal lives more sustainable, whether it’s between a couple, the sheets or our ears. While eco-sexuality is a new term and still unfamiliar to many, being conscious about what we use in moments of intimacy is connected to better stewardship of the planet. The idea that green is sexy and sex can be green is one she is thoroughly enjoying discovering. This married mom of two also believes we owe it to our children to teach them to love themselves, each other, and the environment for futures to come. Intimacy isn’t something we are born knowing. Neither is good stewardship of the earth. In her spare time, she muses about sacred sexuality, conscious love, intimacy, feminism and parenting as the top-rated Modern Love column for Examiner.com and several other media outlets. She composes poetry (mostly in her heart), mediates (when time allows), rides horses in the Galilee, and searches for delicious parve dessert recipes. She considers chocolate a righteous sin, and won’t give up a single pair of red shoes. You can find...
What a nut job !