How To Lose Your Virginity, AGAIN!

If you missed "How To Lose Your Virginity" at the DOC NYC film festival last November, you now have another chance to catch Therese Shechter's eye-opening documentary. New York Women in Film and Television is screening it tonight (Tuesday, February 25th) at Anthology Film Archives, in New York, 32 Second Avenue.

Therese at the Kinsey Institute

Unblogged in 2013

Original National Geographic Illustrations

While I’m full-throttle into the New Year, I can’t quite leave 2013 completely behind knowing that I’ve been holding out on you. Maybe it's because I only completed 44 posts in 2013, that I have a substantial backlog of unposted material.

So to clean house a bit, I've rounded up some of the visual miscillany that never made it onto All My Eyes during the last year. This is the first of at least two, perhaps even three posts.

Superachiever Josh Gosfield balancing an earlier Sweeney-Gosfield collaboration.

At the end of January, I attended a book signing at the Steven Kasher Gallery for Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield’s The Art of Doing. The bonus surprise of the evening was the exhibit of vintage illustrations and photographs from the archives of National Geographic gracing the gallery walls (online exhibit)

Let’s just say that for the shoe-obsessed, Shoe Obsession, at the FIT Museum did not disappoint. (Flickr set)

I had no idea when I visited the Mission San Miguel Arcángel, that I would find exquisite fresco painting in the church, dating back to 1821. This is the only surviving original church interior of California’s 21 missions. (Smithsonian Magazine article about the mission, with pictures.)

There was lots of hype about James Turrell at the Guggenheim. Yes, the color shifts were tranformative, but the mosh-pit crowds precluded my hoped-for transcendent experience. 

I was sick and tired of making mistakes by accident, so in May, I finally decided to learn how to make them on purpose at Laurie Rosenwald's super-fun workshop, How to Make Mistakes on Purpose. And now you can too. There's a workshop coming up in NYC, January 16th.

Can you think of a better way to start the year than with some intentionally perpetrated screw-ups?

Andy Williams had an amazing collection of Navajo blankets that was auctioned at Sotheby’s. Who knew? (link)

Nothing like a June evening at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate, to put things into perspective. 

Disney+Animal House+pornography. Paul McCarthy, in his restricted WS at the Armory ("This exhibition contains mature content. Entrance is restricted to visitors over 17 years of age.") was definitely onto something.

Not a conceptual-art piece (unfortunately). “The Little Shooter” onesie was for sale at the general store in Blue Hill, Maine.

Woody and Soon yi on a Sunday afternoon on the Upper West Side. 

Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800, at the Met was fascinating, but overwhelming. A small, simple map accompanying each piece, would have been tremendously helpful to visitors. Closes January 5th.

This preview of works by Les Lalanne to be auctioned, was indoors at Sotheby’s. The "aerial view" carpet, below, hanging at the Salon Art & Design Fair, is a Lalanne piece as well.

Wall constructions by American artist, Charles Biederman (1906-2004), were also at the Salon Art & Design Fair.

A sample of some of the profound wall verbiage featured at the  Christopher Wool show at the Guggenheim. Show ends January 22nd.

Late-November leaf-peeping in my own backyard.

Documentary filmmaker Therese Schecter’s new film, “How to Lose Your Virginity,” made its U.S. premiere on the big screen at DOC NYC. The film’s tag line, “If sex sells, why is virginity so valuable?” truly only begins to hint at the contradictions, and underlying issues of power, money, and personal freedom inherent in the subject.

See how young women today are navigating this treacherous terrain in the upcoming NYC screening, February 25th, at Anthology Film Archives.

Our very own Banksy on West 79th Street! (Interactive map at nymag.com)

How To Lose Your Virginity

Disney starlets flaunt purity rings while writhing on stripper poles, brothels hold million-dollar virginity auctions, and artificial hymens can be had for $30 on Chinese websites.

What’s behind this strange moment in our culture—what’s the deal with virginity?

How To Lose Your Virginity, a new documentary by Therese Schecter, digs beneath the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t double-speak of a society that cynically encourages both virginity and promiscuity. With the same intelligence, diligence and wit she employed in the award-winning I Was a Teenage Feminist, the filmmaker allows the desperately-needed conversation about real-world sexuality to finally take place.

And, how do you lose your virginity? Well, for one thing, you don’t do it alone. The same goes for financing a film. As Schecter so aptly puts it, “We’re on our way to third base—help us go all the way!”

So how about putting out for Therese. Take the “Virginity” pledge, and visit the film’s Kickstarter page to watch a trailer of the film and contribute to the cause.

Also, visit the film’s blog, The American Virgin, for all manner of fascinating, enraging, and comical stuff about virginity and our attitudes towards female sexuality.


Some visuals from The American Virgin blog:

Unfunny T-shirt from Urban Outfiters.

Fashion tips from the Abstinence Clearinghouse

"Virgin with Butterflies" is one of a series of
re-issues of old Harlequin titles.