Cosmopolitan recently uncovered an intriguing Craigslist ad about a young man in London who is looking for someone to film him having sex with nature. Wait what?! Laura Beck writes in her Cosmo post, "Ecosexual actually means communing sexually with nature – as in, rubbing your genitals all over ancient oak trees and getting your rocks off literally using rocks." I wondered, is that really true? And if this movement exists, people in San Francisco must already be all over it, right?
Ecosexuality does exist, and yes, it does already have a following in San Francisco. In fact, SF sexpert Annie Sprinkle, who even the prudest person with an HBO account knows thanks to Real Sex, is one of the city's proponents for the movement. In 2011, the SF Chronicle ran an article about Sprinkle and her wife, naming them the leaders of the movement. They helped create the EcoSex Symposium, which has had two programs so far.
So what exactly is an ecosexual? According to the EcoSex Symposium's working manifesto, ecosexuals are:
1) Nature lovers; environmentalists who celebrate, promote, and "collaborate" with the earth.
2) Nature lovers. The thing about getting your rocks off literally using rocks is true. Along with getting pleasured by waterfalls, hugging trees, talking erotically to plants. You know, stuff like that.
3) A growing community of people, from all walks of life, from artists to gardeners to activists to therapists to lawyers.
4) Not necessarily a sexual identity. Ecosexuals can be heterosexual, asexual, GLBTQI, or other. My favorite line from this part of the manifesto is that ecosexuals claim to be "Polyamorous and 'pollen-amorous.'" Touché.
Some of this might sound a little weird, but if you've skinnydipped, or maybe if you've gotten a little raunchy with vegetables (no judgment), you might be ecosexualist yourself. Or, if like Sprinkle, you're more inclusive with who exactly qualifies as an ecosexualist, you might agree that "We're all part of nature... all sex is ecosex."
Image via Craigslist