Why Are People Into That?!

"Why Are People Into That?: A Cultural Investigation of Kink" THE BOOK IS OUT TODAY June 4th, 2024. Happy birthday baby!

The episode you’re listening to now was recorded in July of 2021 at Junior High gallery in Los Angeles. It was one of the first in-person events I did after getting vaccinated. I’ve been sitting on this footage and other footage from the other live shows I’ve done over the past few years because I was honestly...

Welcome back to the first new feed drop in three years. I appreciate that you’re still subscribed, and I hope this was a nice treat in your podcast updates today. People tell me all the time they still listen to back episodes. I’m so grateful for that, and for all the listener support over the years. The major reason I haven’t been actively doing the show is that I got a major book deal to write Why Are People Into That A...

Yin Q, writer of the piece "We All Deserve To Heal" from We Too, discusses Spike Lee, Body of Workers, Kink Out Spaces at MOMA PS1, disassociation, complicity, power play, control, and forgiveness. // Yin Q is a mother, kink educator, writer, and activist based in New York City. Their media work includes Mercy Mistress, a web pilot, and Fly in Power, a short documentary. They founded a production team called Kink Out and organize w...

“They have no stakes. We have all of the stakes.”

In the latest episode of my special series on WE TOO: Essays on Sex Work and Survival, I interviewed Selena the Stripper, who wrote the book's introduction.

Discussed: FKA Twigs' pole dance appropriation; who gets to use the word Heaux: sugar dating; the status value of a Birkin bag; Strippers United //

Selena The Stripper is a sex worker, writer, podcaster, and community organizer. Af...

For the first episode of a special series celebrating the release of We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival, I chatted with the book's editor Natalie West. (I associate edited and contributed to the anthology!) //

"You have to be ok with ambiguity to grapple with what the book presents and what sex work is."//

Natalie reflects on her choice to market herself as the Lesbian Dominatrix of Los Angeles. Then we get into the long history...

“No amount of assimilation or pride has shaken this sense of myself as an inverted dark predatory lesbian.” //

Certified lesbian vampire Annie Rose Malamet joins me to explain the appeal of darkness, finesse, predation, the night, immortal codependency, two little wounds in the neck, ejaculating blood, obsession, morbidity, the shadow self, and performance; with nods to Octavia Butler, Anne Rice, Countess Elizabeth Báthory, Phantom ...

"How can brands do more for social justice movements? Give people pleasure! Give people a reason to have a wet a$s p#ssy! Uplifting difficult conversations about Black Lives Matter: that’s what makes p#ssy wet! Loving relationships and care starts with pleasure and understanding your needs. And guess what? Social and political justice are needs like orgasms are needs.” — SX Noir /

Who better than thot leader SX Noir to weave togethe...

“Kink is an arena where I find tidiness.” //

In Part 2 of my talk with Juno Mac, co-author of Revolting Prostitutes, we discuss: great books about sex work, rational thoughts in an irrational world, whether there's such a thing as the sex worker gaze, what the Hustlers of prostitution will look like, why it’s imperative that sex work activism centers mutual aid and the experience of migrants, and how Juno is trying not to be the mov...

“Is it ok for 'Juno Mac' to be an anxious hooker and an advocate for sex worker rights? Am I allowed to be a messy, complicated person?” //

The co-author of the indispensable book Revolting Prostitutes join me over the phone from her quarantine in England to discuss: the unfair pressure of compartmentalizing our own sex lives and whoreientations, why doing sex work digitally feels like Buffy losing her super-strength and not being a...

“The push and pull between clarity and imagination is something I think about a lot in visual storytelling.” //

I called up SfSx series artist Jen Hickman to celebrate the release of our SfSx: Volume 1: Protection trade paperback on July 22nd!

Jen and I discuss our collaborative process, and Jen gives some insight into how they think about formatting sequential art, color as music, and an art school game that’s like exquisite corpse ...

“The funny thing about Crash Pad is: you know that I know that you know that I know that there’s cameras in there." //

In Part 2 of my interview with Shine, we focus in on Why Are People Into Voyeurism. //

Shine tells a legendary tale of how seeing herself in the mirrors at the Lusty Lady inspired Crash Pad Series. We discuss how the voyeurism themes of CPS means she’s both removed her queer woman of color gaze and inserted that gaze...

On May 11th, I recorded an episode remotely with Shine, about 15 years of Crash Pad Series, and a second part about voyeurism. On June 24th, I called her back to get her perspective on the Movement for Black Lives. This is part one, including our talks about BLM and CPS. Voyeurism coming soon. //

“If you tell professionals what to do they won’t riff. If you tell amateurs what to do they ignore you. What I found was that the more I t...

What is the Whorearchy? How can understanding it help us to combat whorephobia? This portmanteau meaning Whore-Hierarchy is a term originating from and used within the sex worker rights movement describing social stratification within the industry. In honor of International Whores Day on June 2nd, here's my lecture from a 10.26.17 Stigma Unbound event at Catland Books in Brooklyn. Check out patreon.com/TinaHorn for a video and...

“There’s a part of me that’s going to enact a sadism on you from the inside.” //

It’s YAPIT: COVID-19 Lightning Round Edition, recorded live on Instagram May 2nd 2020. //

In which I really try my best to game-ify YAPIT even though I don’t have a game brain and cannot follow my own rules. //

We cover: masks, medical fetishism, nano-objects, virtual reality, bug-chasing, spit, and breath play. //

Death ethics, Zoom fart trolls, Tho...

"That’s the sex appeal of fascism: the desire to be violated. To be cut through like butter and spread... Fascism is sexy because it’s dangerous, confident, and... leather! It’s scary and comforting at the same time, because you don’t have to make any decisions. We’re afraid of it because our power is taken away, and we want it because we want our power to be taken away." //

CW: two Jewish anti-fascist leftist queers in Brooklyn ta...

“What does our desire endorse?” //

Content Warning: This episode features two Jewish leftist queers in Brooklyn talking about the history, aesthetics, and complicated erotic allegories of fascism. Some graphic references to torture from fictional films including Salò and The Night Porter. //

In the first YAPIT recorded during the COVID-19 quarantine, JB Brager joins me remotely from their home to discuss the spectacle of fascism. Di...

“I really like people to cry at my titty show!” //

In part 2, Fancy and I get to the bottom of that age old debate: is burlesque stripping? Fancy recounts the plastic bag routine that won her Miss Coney Island 2016, as well as some of her favorite acts by Tiger Bay, Julie Atlas Muz & Mat Fraser, and Darlinda Just Darlinda (including an apocalyptic one that’s almost too prescient...) //

Fancy Feast is a burlesque performer...

“I don’t experience my naked body as inherently erotic. It’s my body, and I like it. It has so much more to do for me with the glamour and the transgression. That’s the part where I’m comfortable and excited. Burlesque was the first time I ever saw an exalted fat body.” 

Fancy Feast joins me for a talk about the art of burlesque. But first we discuss her Jewish Currents piece about identity fetishism and what kind of Jewish-the...