…or really, any sex-positive, body positive, queer positive, generally-very-positive-and-sexuality-related event. I am happy to answer questions about this event, event organization in general, or any of the ways that we developed or produced it. This was the first one, both for Cameryn and I as organizers, and for Montreal…we learned a few things that will help the next one run more smoothly!
The number one question that we got, which I will answer right off the bat, is: why did we have a different pricing scale for masturbators/women and non-masturbating men? Because we were encouraging voyeurs, we really wanted to avoid a situation where a bunch of men showed up just to gawk and make people feel uncomfortable or unsafe. We figured a pricing tier would discourage any men who were expecting a personal porn show. It seemed to work very well — we only had 3 guys who showed up clearly expecting the room would be full of skinny cis ladies masturbating for them, and they left after about twenty minutes when it became clear the event was about all shapes, sizes, genders, and styles. Encouraging guys to register as masturbators to get the cheaper ticket price was also a way to encourage event participation without forcing anyone to sexually perform if they were nervous.
Helpful links include:
SF Weekly’s (extremely NSFW) article about SF’s 11th Masturbate-a-thon
Head and Hands (the organization we raised money for)
Also, if you are interested, the wonderful print on the wall behind me (it says “Practice Radical Self Love”) is from artist Phoebe Wahl, whose work I cannot recommend highly enough.
Claire Litton, Sexologist & Coach 