hanne blank
Writer, editor, and historian Hanne Blank's work “…does for sex what feminism does for women: it gives us context” (Libido), and The Village Voice raves “…the perfect poster girl, clearly confident… a huge helping of stereotype busting, old-fashioned feminist consciousness raising, and self-esteem elevation.”
In 2006, Blank published Virgin: The Untouched History (Bloomsbury USA), the first ever cultural history of virginity in the Western world. Other books including Unruly Appetites (2003, Seal Press), Best Transgender Erotica (2002, Circlet Press), and the groundbreaking Big Big Love: A Sourcebook on Sex for People of Size and Those Who Love Them (2000, Greenery Press), situate her work firmly at the center of the contemporary public discourse and debate about sex, gender, the body, and the intersections of the personal and the political, the body and culture.
Ms. Blank and her work have been featured and reviewed in Utne, The Village Voice, FHM, OUT Magazine, Libido, MODE, and other periodicals, and she has been featured on radio and television programs in the US, UK, and Canada, including National Public Radio, BBC 4, and Canada's CityTV. A classically-trained musician and former Tanglewood fellow who is also formally educated as an historian, she has served as an instructor at institutions including Tufts University, Brandeis University, and Whitworth College and was the 2004-2005 Scholar of the Institute at the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women at Towson University, Maryland.
Hanne Blank speaks on a range of topics related to her work and life, including:
- virginity vs. "abstinence," political, historical, and personal perspectives on what it means to not have sex
- hymen wars: one legendary membrane, 2000 years of controversy
- virginity as sexuality
- body image, body size, and sexuality
- transfeminism
For more speakers on queer issues, see: T Cooper, Julia Serano, Catherine McKinley, Irshad Manji, Noelle Howey, Jennifer Baumgardner
For more speakers on sexuality, see: Shelby Knox, Loretta Ross, Paula Kamen
For more speakers on body image, see: Nancy Redd, Periel Aschenbrand, Courtney E. Martin, Aimee Liu
