Every Wednesday The CSPH highlights a Sexuality Professional you should keep your eye on. Their backgrounds are very diverse in order to bring attention to the wide variety of amazing people working in the field. This week we bring you Janet Hardy!
1. What do you do in the field of sexuality?
I’ve authored or coauthored eleven books about alternative sexualities; the publishing company I founded, Greenery Press, has published at least 50 more; and I have traveled all over the world teaching about BDSM and polyamory.
2. Where are you based out of?
Eugene, Oregon.
3. What is your focus? What do you do?
It’s changed through the years. I started as a writer and educator about BDSM. Later, I also began writing about polyamory, and still later about attaining ecstatic states through sexual practice. These days, my primary interest is in gender and in breaking down the gender binary.
4. What are your particular goals and passions in the field?
I’m particularly interested in breaking down the artificial barriers that separate one thing from another – male from female, sex from not-sex, love from not-love, relationship from not-relationship, and so on.
5. Why did you choose to work in this field?
It chose me. I used to write high-tech and business-to-business ad copy. Then I lost my job in that field, and it seemed an obvious move to take the skills I’d acquired there and apply them to my own sexual interests. I wrote my first book, a guide for novice women exploring sexual domination, and it all grew from there.
6. Where did you go for school/training?
I’ve had no formal training in sexuality, except the San Francisco Sex Information training. My academic background is in creative writing.
7. Do you have any literature out (websites, articles)?
Eleven books (one of which will be published in the fall), and innumerable articles, interviews, etc. A partial publications list is available here.
8. What would you recommend to future professionals attempting to get into the field?
I have no idea. Given that I didn’t do this on purpose, my advice about doing so seems kind of useless.
9. What is the most challenging aspect for you working in this career?
Trying to keep my own sex life fresh and interesting when I’ve been doing it as “work” for upwards of two decades.
10. One must read-what would you recommend? Why?
Jack Morin’s The Erotic Mind, a brilliant exploration of why sex turns us on.
