![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Earth-sex-Elizabeth-Stephens-UCSC.jpg\")
<\/a>Elizabeth Stephens, art professor, \u2018eco-sex\u2019 expert and chairwoman of the art department at the University of California at Santa Cruz (Photo: UCSC)<\/p><\/div>\n
(Warning:<\/strong>\u00a0This story contains descriptions of the emerging \u201ceco-sex\u201d movement that may offend some readers.)<\/em><\/p>\n OK, class, it\u2019s time to get down and dirty\u00a0\u2013\u00a0really dirty<\/em>.<\/p>\n Your next assignment is to have sex with the Earth.<\/p>\n Yes, that\u2019s right.<\/p>\n You can sensually roll in the mud, make passionate love to a hulking tree or even\u00a0pursue a long-term romantic relationship with the ocean.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all part of an eco-sex trend\u00a0exploding on Google searches in the last year, thanks in part to art professor Elizabeth Stephens, who\u00a0teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The movement involves a combination of\u00a0art, sex and environmentalism.<\/p>\n Stephens, who is also\u00a0chairwoman of the art department at the California state-funded university<\/a>, has been filmed in documentaries, or, eco-sex flicks, doing \u201cthe nasty\u201d with nature.<\/p>\n And, somehow, doing the deed with Earth is supposed to save the environment from human destruction.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Stephens, art professor, \u2018eco-sex\u2019 expert and chairwoman of the art department at the University of California at Santa Cruz and her \u2018wife,\u2019 Annie Sprinkle getting \u2018dirty\u2019 and licking a tree (Photo: Screenshot)<\/p><\/div>\n This \u201ctree-hugging\u201d professor isn\u2019t merely\u00a0hugging trees.\u00a0In the 2013 film \u201cGoodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story,\u201d she and her female partner massage river rocks, lick trees, frolic naked in a stream and slather mud on one another. Stephens is now working on \u201cWater Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure.\u201d According to\u00a0The College Fix<\/a>, \u201cWater Makes Us Wet\u201d is set to debut in Germany this week.<\/p>\n The following is a trailer for Stephens\u2019 \u201cGoodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story.\u201d\u00a0(Warning:<\/strong>\u00a0This film has been edited but contains \u201ceco-sexual\u201d content that may offend some readers)<\/em>:<\/p>\n In June this year, UC Santa Cruz announced that Stephens and performance artist Annie Sprinkle offered an \u201cEcosex walking tour.\u201d<\/p>\n University of California at Santa Cruz announces \u2018Ecosex Walking Tour\u2019 that took place June 14-17, 2017 (Photo: UC Santa Cruz)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cCome experience 25 ways to make love to the Earth, raise awareness of environmental issues, learn ecosexercises, find E-spots, and climax with the planetary clitoris,\u201d the\u00a0UC Santa Cruz announcement stated<\/a>. \u201cYou might discover that you are ecosexual too!\u201d<\/p>\n And that wasn\u2019t the only taxpayer-funded hank-panky happening at UC Santa Cruz under Stephens\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n Stephens helped host an \u201cEcosex Symposium\u201d at the university on May 18 and 19\u00a0with workshops on \u201cDecolonizing Settler Sexuality\u201d and \u201cAcademic Freedom In An Ecosexphobic World.\u201d\u00a0The symposium announcement stated<\/a>: \u201cJoin us for a multi-disciplinary gathering to explore our relationships with the environment and social justice, engage in human\/non-human collaboration, critique ideologies and debate new sexualities. What happens when we posit the Earth as our lover? Let\u2019s examine where our \u2018bodies\u2019 end and \u2018nature\u2019 begins.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephens, who is author of \u201cThe Explorer\u2019s Guide to Planet Orgasm: For Every Body,\u201d has \u201cexplored themes of feminism, environmentalism, and queerness for twenty-five years,\u201d according to her\u00a0Amazon biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Stephens, art professor, \u2018eco-sex\u2019 expert and chairwoman of the art department at the University of California at Santa Cruz and her \u2018wife,\u2019 Annie Sprinkle (Photo: UCSC)<\/p><\/div>\n The College Fix also noted that the eco-sex trend was featured in the June issue of Teen Vogue magazine. In a story titled, \u201cEcosexuals Are Queering Environmentalism,\u201d the issue described a sexual act called \u201cGrassilingus.\u201d The explanation involved a \u00a0\u201cgender-fluid\u201d musician licking grass.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s masturbating with water pressure, using eco-friendly lubricant, or literally having sex with a tree \u2014 a person of any sexual proclivity who finds eroticism in nature, or believes that making environmentalism sexy will slow the planet\u2019s destruction, can be ecosexual,\u201d\u00a0Teen Vogue explained<\/a>. \u201cThe term ecosex is like the word \u2018queer\u2019; its meaning varies\u00a0\u2013 a movement, an identity, a sexual practice, an environmental activist strategy\u00a0\u2013 depending on who you ask.\u201d<\/p>\n Teen Vogue also took the opportunity to get in a dig on President Trump: \u201cThe ecosex sphere may still be evolving, but one thing is clear, with the Trump administration\u2019s threat on environmental protections, women\u2019s bodily autonomy, and queer and trans rights, it\u2019s necessary to find new ways to get people motivated to come together to protect the planet and sexual freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n In November,\u00a0Breitbart News<\/a>\u00a0reported that at least 100,000 people around the world are claiming\u00a0to be \u201cecosexual.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephens and Sprinkle have also officiated at least\u00a019 \u201cweddings to various nature entities\u201d in nine countries in years<\/a>. The ceremonies included marriages to earth, the moon and various other aspects of the environment.<\/p>\n According to the couple\u2019s manifesto, which was published by\u00a0Breitbart<\/a>, the couple declares:<\/p>\n \u201cWe make love with the Earth. We are aquaphiles, teraphiles, pyrophiles and aerophiles. We shamelessly hug trees, massage the earth with our feet and talk erotically to plants. We are skinny dippers, sun worshippers, and stargazers. We caress rocks, are pleasured by waterfalls, and admire the Earth\u2019s curves often. We make love with the Earth through our senses. We celebrate our E-spots. We are very dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>