Sex & Gender at SXSW 2010

This is going to be the first year in four years I have to miss the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas. For the uninitiated SXSW is really three festivals back to back (interactive, film, and music), it’s the most fun I've had with my laptop (in public) and consistently an eye opening and creativity boosting experience. I highly recommend it if you’ve got the time, energy, and money.

They recently launched their “panel picker” where you can peruse the proposals and vote for what you’d like to see in the final program. Even if you don’t think you can make it to the festival, checking out the panels and panelists is a great way to find people doing work you’re interested in (and an easy way to connect to them by voting and leaving comments). There’s lots of great stuff, but here are the sex and gender related panels that I’m voting for and saddest about having to miss.

Melissa Gira Grant is organizing a panel called Professionally Naked: What Women Gain From Exposing Ourselves Online with Audacia Ray, Sarah Dopp, and Meaghan O’Connell. I’ve heard both Melissa and Audacia speak before (several times) and they’re not to be missed; funny, smart, and genuinely interested in having conversations with others (as opposed to just hearing themselves speak). Do everyone at SXSW a favor and vote for this one, and if you’re going to be there, don’t miss it (even if it doesn’t seem relevant to you I promise you’ll get something from it).

There are a few panels that propose dealing with issues of identity, marginalization, and power in various forms, this one organized by Liz Burr called Online Gatekeeping: Who Died and Made You King? looks particularly good to me.

There’s a proposal for a panel on “digital dating abuse” proposed by the ad agency that created thatsnotcool.com. The project was a good one but not without it’s problems. This is a great conversation to have, and if they have panelists who can talk critically about the project it’s one I’d love to here.

It seems like every year there’s promise of Heather Corinna at SXSW. This year’s promise is for a panel called Sex Education in a Web 3.0 World. If they were smart they’d give her the whole hour to herself!

I’m usually wary of panels proposed by folks inside the adult industry, but that’s just because I’ve had to sit through so many masturbatory panels that I wish were literal instead of figurative. But the panel An Avatar’s Eye View of Sex in Games proposed by Kathee Brewer from YNOT is another I’m sorry to miss.

Check out the 2010 SXSW Interactive Panel Picker