Ecosexuality takes the phrase “getting back to nature” to its most extreme, as a concept that celebrates and encourages humans coming together with the elements in both sexual and non-sexual relationships.
With the future of our environment increasingly in peril, ecosexuals want us to examine the state of our relationship with the world a little closer.
The community is lead by a Melbourne-based group who recently helped launch an ecosex bathhouse - Pony Express - with a composting glory hole, eco-porn in HD and hourly bee swarms to carry you on a “honey tsunami”.
But search engine data shows people elsewhere are interested in finding out more, so here are seven things everyone needs to know about ecosexuality.
1. Ecosexuality involves having sex with the earth.
Ecosexuality is fundamentally about showing the Earth some love (whether physically or otherwise). According to the official ecosex manifesto, written by pioneers Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, it encompasses a lot of different elements.
It says: ”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’s curves. We make love with the Earth through our senses. We celebrate our E-spots. We are very dirty.”
2. The main premise is that you see nature as your lover and not as your mother.
In a climate where the world needs compassion more than ever, ecosexuals believe that treating the planet as our mother (someone who tolerates bad behaviour because of love) rather than as a lover is not the right approach.
Sprinkle told The Guardian: “You might give your mother a hard time and she’ll put up with it, but with a lover it’s a question of give and take and, ecosexuals believe, that’s just what the planet needs right now.”
3. Ecosexuality is a new approach to stopping climate change.
In seeing the Earth as a lover ecosexuals hope that they will be able to help in the fight against climate change, and protect the environment, because we’ll all be more invested in preserving it.
Speaking to Teen Vogue, Sprinkles said: “Ecosexuality is making the earth an urgent sexual matter. Instead of Mother Earth, where the earth comforts you, earth is your lover - on your level - putting the responsibility on you to uphold your side of the relationship, [it’s] revolutionary.”
4. Ecosexuality is an identity like any other.
Ecosexuality isn’t just a hobby, according to the manifesto, it is an identity equal to being gay or bisexual.
It says: “For some of us being ecosexual is our primary (sexual) identity, whereas for others it is not. Ecosexuals can be GBTQI, heterosexual, asexual, and/or other. We invite and encourage ecosexuals to come out. We are everywhere. We are polymorphouse and pollen-amourous.”
5. Ecosexuals can be in long-term relationships with the elements.
Ecosexuality isn’t just about having sex with the earth (although there is plenty of that too), ecosexuals can even get married to the sun, the moon, the earth or the stars. In fact, Sprinkle and Stephens themselves got married to the dirt in a ‘Marry The Soil’ ceremony in 2014.
6. There is growing interest in the concept of ecosexuality.
Although you might not have heard of it, ecosexuality first came into the mainstream back in 2016 when Sprinkles and Stephens published their manifesto. And looking at Google trend data it shows no sign of slowing down as it spiked at the end of last year and continues to grow through 2017.
7. Ecosexuals wear condoms on their fingers for flower sex.
According to Australian news, when the bathhouse was launched in Melbourne, there were going to be tiny condoms that fit your fingers, and surgical masks with grass sprouting from the mouth (as seen above).
This is because contraception is too an important part of ecosexuality and “people have to slip a condom over their finger before they stroke the flowers” in order to stop interfering with pollination.