The Erotic Awards

The Erotic Awards honour the Stars in the Erotic Universe. Grayson Perry described us in The Times as “the good people in a gloriously mucky business”.

Whilst other awards concentrate on the commercial sex industry, we select artists and pioneers with unique talents, people who are ground-breakers, pioneers and innovators.

We include the famous, the struggling and the previously unknown. Many of our finalists have been ostracised simply because they work in the world of sex.

The Erotic Awards host fundraising events: our semi-finals, Cunning Stunts, an exhibition, the Night of the Senses and Wet Dreams, raising funds for Outsiders, a charity that helps disabled people to find partners. The Erotic Awards aims to include disabled judges, nominees, performers and presenters. All events are held in disability friendly wheelchair accessible venues.

The Erotic Awards began in 1994 by a group of volunteers who wished to create pride rather than shame in things sexual. We continue to be a voluntary body, part of the Outsiders Support Network. Some of our volunteers become Erotic Awards Judges, some work in our production teams, and others are the performers themselves, finalists who put on acts for our semi-finals and finals cabaret shows.

We have about 15 categories, which evolve every year, as things become more or less acceptable and more or less mainstream. For example, at the beginning we had a category, “Swinger of the Year” won by Ray & Pat who were the first British swingers to appear on television to describe their lifestyle.

We are fortunate enough to have designer John Keiller as our webmaster, and he works from his railway cottage in Cromarty, and we thoroughly recommend him: john.keiller@gmail.com.

Last year, for the first time, we included categories for Academics and Politicians, which was very exciting. These finalists told us they were grateful for the recognition, as working to promote sexual freedom, even today and in high circles, is isolating and requires strength of character and the courage to face up to the bigots.

This year, we have brought in a new production team to raise the quality of our events, both in terms of audience enjoyment, and entertainment value. Talent scouts are out in search of top erotic performers, and famous people are being approached to strip for charity.

The Erotic Awards are grateful for the media sponsorship of Forum, the International Journal of Human Relations.

The Erotic Awards welcome donations, more sponsorship and publicity.

Grand Jury of Conspicuous Sensuality

Dr Tuppy Owens (Director)   Pioneer and Founder of Outsiders
Tulloch Kempe (Chair)   Charity Director
Mouse   Performance Artist and Columnist
Ashley   Photographer
Lily Hill   Actress
Joy of London   Striptease Artist
Sarah Berry  Editor  
Gerald Laing   Pop Artist
Chloe Feinberg Film Maker
Ian Irvine Curator
John Keiller   Designer, Writer and Web-master

Programme

Nominations come from the public via this website and the judges select three finalists in each category.

Our luxurious semi-finals fundraising night, Cunning Stunts was held in London on February 3rd 2010. We had a new venue which we knew would be perfect for a glamorous 30's Berlin theme, and a new caterer that provided a sensational supper, all in the price.

Each year, we have an exhibition featuring not only the art and photography, but all our finalists and their work. Grayson Perry again,

“What I found was a curiously heartwarming display of what is hot and socially innovative .... a good humoured respect for certain quarters of a world much misunderstood.”

The 2010 Erotic Awards Exhibition will held in London at a venue tthat will be announced nearer to the event.

Our 2010 Exhibition will be transported to Cable, a smart new club in London Bridge for a Press Night on 28th April, the night before the Finals.

The Erotic Awards Finals will take place in the early evening of the Night of the Senses on Friday 30th April 2010. See www.nightofthesenses.com This is the first night of the early May bank holiday, and the start of the London Sex Weekend.

In a private Soirée, the 2010 winners are announced before being presented on stage in front of the judges and ball guests. Winners receive a certificate and the much-admired Golden Flying Penis trophy, (hand-carved for us in Bali). After this comes the striptease, performance and fashion shows on stage and these winners are then presented with their trophies.

A place for a permanent collection of our finalists' work is being sought.

Finalists and Winners

The three finalists in each category are selected to represent a good balance, including lesbian, gay, transgendered and intersex, people from all parts of the country and abroad, ethnic minorities and disabled people.

Finalists are encouraged to network at exhibition openings and through this website. creating cross pollination of talent in the different areas the categories represent. Finalists are assured that this is more of a celebration than a competition, and becoming a winner is just the iceing on the cake.

Finalists and winners have included the now famous, such as Derek Jarman, American sex guru Annie Sprinkle, Immodesty Blaize, Mat Fraser, Lily Dumont, the American film Shortbus, the Australian website abbywinters.com, artist Tomi Ungerer, Jemimia Stehli whose work is shown in the Lisson Gallery, Michael Forbes whose work is shown in the Opera Gallery, American writer Susie Bright and campaigner Peter Tatchell, as well as those who quietly excel, such as sex worker Kim, skinmarvin.com, Spanish photographers J.A.M. Montoya and Mariano Vargas, and imnotsorry.net where women talk frankly about their abortions. In 2008, they included councellor Dr Belinda Brooks Gordon, Baroness Sue Miller and Lord Richard Faulkner.

Outsiders

Outsiders was founded in 1979, a club for disabled people to live life to the full, and find sexual partners. Outsiders offers members support in asserting their right to a private life, and seeking love in a society where status stems from good looks and money. Outsiders also runs the Sex and Disability Helpline, the V-Group, for disabled women with sexual problems, a LGBT network, SHADA, the Sex and Disability Alliance. In November 2009 SHADA ran a conference together with the Royal Society of Medicine: Disability: Sex, Relationships and Pleasure which was a resounding success and received two pages in The Times. The websites are www.outsiders.org.uk and www.shada.org.uk

Without the funding from the Erotic Awards, this work would not be possible.