Video interview with LAID author Shannon T. Boodram

I love the book LAID, and I especially love Shannon’s ill video skills (so jealous!). LAID is a collection of stories from people ages 18-25 across North America, who were asked to share a sexual experience they thought their peers could learn from. Awesome.

A big thanks to Shannon, not only for putting together such a provocative book, but also for doing this interview video-styles – which I think is a really fun way for Feministing readers to find out more about certain authors.

Transcript after the jump.

Why would Feministing readers just love LAID?

I think that feministing.com
readers will love Laid because feminists love sex. I also think this
book recaptures a lot of what’s been lost due to pop culture icons like
Paris Hilton and even going back to the 90’s where Madonna introduced
the boy toy era. LAID recaptures the essence of sex for self in that
your sexuality is something to celebrate ourselves and while it’s great
to have sex for love, it’s more important to do it because you love
yourself.

The focus of LAID
is on young people talking about their sexual experiences why did you
want the voices of younger folks specifically?

This book is
written be people 18-25 and I wanted to focus on the younger generation
because I believe that we are the ones who require a new form of sexual
education because of the changing times. And what has changed the
times? The Internet, so I wanted the people who grew up in the Internet
generation to be the ones to teach teens on what it’s like to be sexual
in these times. I wanted people to be at least 18 so they could have a
comprehensive look at their experience and I wanted them to be no older
than 25 so that the youth still felt they could relate to them.

What’s an “easy-access culture”?

An
easy access culture is what’s allowing you the view/ read this
interview while I am in my living room in Toronto. The Internet is the
mother of the easy access culture in that it allows us to get whatever
we want at a moment’s notice. On the flip side easy access also means
that we are viewing many things at a younger age including pornographic
content and many other lies/ misconceptions about being sexual. So
being apart of an easy-access culture also means that you have to have
a censorship built into you way younger since you are being thrown crap
at you whether you ask for it or not, so you need to be able to

decipher what’s real from what’s b.s. at a younger age.

In
the book’s introduction, you write that hooking up is “settling.” That
it’s the “microwavable burrito of sex.” It think it certainly CAN be
– but don’t some people enjoy casual sex or hook ups?

I’ve
gotten a lot of flack from this but I stand by my word. Some people
like microwave burritos! The point is sex takes a lot of work to make
it a wonderful experience but some people are able to direct people and
work it so they CAN have a great experience with just about anyone.
That is the minority I believe. Most of the time it’s in our best
interest to cook the right meal and not settle for the burrito so we
can have that truly fulfilling experience. Although I understand
sometimes we don’t have the time and the microwave burrito could be the
best option.

You
were recently quoted in the Toronto Star talking about your book and
the new media craze du jour – sexting. So tell us – why all the hoopla
around sexting? Real problem or moral panic myth?

Sexting. A
lot of people hate the word because it’s this big media buzzword but I
think there is some truth to it but I think that the media is missing
the true enemy here. It’s not that kids are going around flashing each
other, it’s that there is so much on line porn available to youth that
they are confusing what’s real vs. what’s adult entertainment and they
are trying to mesh porno behaviour in with their real lives. I know
girls who have said a guy won’t touch them if they haven’t shaved their
pubic hair off or that many guys believe that manhood is giving a girl
a “money shot” to the face. In Details magazine it says 90% of boys
will watch on line porn by age 16. So I think this is what’s causing
the problem with sexting, a lot of people are trying to emulate that
porn lifestyle.

I appreciated how many different voices are in the anthology – were there any themes that were common to all of the stories?

It
was very important for me to have people from different backgrounds,
sexual orientations, cities, share because I wanted for the readers to
have at least one story they could see themselves in. The common theme
throughout the book is the pursuit of a positive sex life. I think
everyone is just trying to figure out a formula to create a sex life
that they’re proud of – whether they’re sexually active or not.

If you could give young people just one piece of advice about sex – what would it be?

I
think it would be do it for you. I use the term a lot, get yours
because if you’re going to be sexually active I think the last thing
you want is to have regrets OR for there to be a consequence and the
first thing you think is “I didn’t event want to do that in the first
place.” You want to be able to stand proud and be proud of the sexual
choices that you are making. The goal should be to create a sex life
that makes us happy and healthy and also does not impose on anyone
else’s happiness or health.

Thanks very much
to the Feministing.com team for this interview, everyone is very lucky
to have a great site like this on the net. You can checkout more on
LAID at LaidTheBook.com or find me at ThoseGirlsAreWild.com, finally
you can e-mail me at sb@shannonteresa.com.

Video interview with LAID author Shannon T. Boodram

Jessica

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