UNLV lecture to promote sensual take on Earth Day

This April 22, Elizabeth Stephens and her wife Annie Sprinkle want to help Las Vegas experience the erotic side of Earth Day.

They want valley residents to marry the planet, to hug trees, to massage the earth with their feet, worship the sun, caress rocks and admire the Earth’s curves. In their words, they want to grow the ranks of ecosexuals.

Well, if not that, then they want you to at least understand what all of that means.

The couple will be staging a lecture/art performance combo at the Marjorie Barrick Museum at UNLV at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Sprinkle, a former porn star with a PhD in human sexuality, and Stephens, a professor at UC Santa Cruz, founded sexecology, a new field which explores the intersection of sex and ecology.

Event-goers should not expect a boring lecture. Sprinkle says their goal is to make environmental protection something that is fun and sexy.

The lecture will detail the ecosex manifesto, available at sexecology.org, explaining the concept of ecosexuality and what it means for the earth.

“Ecosex, according to us, is the idea moving from ‘Earth as mother’ to ‘Earth as lover,’ and the idea is that, well, we have this idea that Earth will just take care of us and give and give and give, and we’ll just take and take,” Sprinkle said. “Whereas a lover, it’s more of a reciprocal: We buy our lovers gifts, and we give them massages and pamper them, we love them up, give them pleasure.”

Stephens and Sprinkle began collaborating nearly 15 years ago, and sexology has been the platform for years of lectures and art performances. During the performances, the two occasionally host weddings, which they will be doing at UNLV.

This wedding will be to the Earth as a whole. So, unless your wedding dress is biodegradable, you can leave it at home.