Annie Sprinkle

Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist^[1] and advocate for sex work and healthcare.^[2] Sprinkle works as a sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic actress, sex film producer and sex positive feminist, and she identifies as ecosexual.^[3] Her education includes a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts (1986) and, in 1996, she became the first porn star to get a doctorate degree (PhD), which she received in Human Sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, an unaccredited, for-profit, degree-granting institution and resource center, in San Francisco (1996).^[4][5] Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornographic content teaching individuals about pleasure and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981)^[6]. Through the production of content Sprinkle has contributed to feminist pornography and the larger social movement of feminism; she is also known for contributing to the rise of the post-porn movement and lesbian pornography.^[7][8] Sprinkle is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and she married her long-time partner, Beth Stephens, in Canada on January 14, 2007.