Happy Earth Day! Since today, April 22, is Earth Day, we wanted to give you a guide to what being an ecosexual is all about.
What is an ecosexual? In short, it’s someone who loves the earth or considers the earth their lover. According to the Ecosex Manifesto by Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, “We are aquaphiles, teraphiles, pyrophiles and aerophiles. We shamelessly hug trees, massage the earth with our feet, and talk erotically to plants. We are skinny dippers, sun worshipers, and stargazers. We caress rocks, are pleasured by waterfalls, and admire the Earth’s curves often. We make love with the Earth through our senses. We celebrate our E-spots. We are very dirty.” The manifesto ends with the ecosex pledge: “I promise to love, honor and cherish you Earth, until death brings us closer together forever.”
Stephens and Sprinkle told UK TV show This Morning in January 2022, “you can look at the sky and know you have a lover, you can walk in the grass and know you have a lover.”
According to a Sierra Club profile, “Sprinkle thinks that the sexiest thing about the Earth (aside from Stephens) is being spanked by ocean waves. For Stephens, the sexiest thing (aside from Sprinkle) is massaging the Earth with her feet—in other words, taking a hike.” Given that it’s Earth Day, you may want to consider what you find the sexiest thing about our planet. The good news: There’s no right answer! Maybe it’s walking outside naked and feeling the sun on your skin, or digging your feet into sand, or rolling around in mud, or smelling the natural musk of a flower.
Jennifer J. Reed, PhD, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociologist, told Health, “Ecosexuality is where ecology meets sexology. It is imagining ‘Earth as lover’ rather than ‘Earth as mother.’”
You can take that as literally as you’d like, or not at all. Writer Stefanie Iris Weiss told the Washington Post, “Ecosexuality is less of an orientation or a fetish or an identity than it is a worldview.” In other words, if you honor the earth and treat the earth the way you would a lover (no littering!), and you identify as someone who sees their love of the earth as having a sexual component, you could be an ecosexual.”
There are many different paths you can take as an ecosexual and various ways of manifesting this identity. The main thing that bonds people who identify as ecosexual is prioritizing the earth in both their approach to sensuality and their everyday lives. According to writer Tinamarie Bernard, “Mother Earth doesn’t need us to survive, but we need her first. Better make sure comes first. There’s no clearer path that I can see to illuminate that need than by pointing out where our neglect will hurt most – our sexual lives and procreative futures.”
You can learn more about ecosexuality in books like Assuming the Ecosexual Position: The Earth as Lover by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens and Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable by Stefanie Iris Weiss. There’s even an Ecosex, Sexecology and Sustainable Love Facebook group if you want to connect with likeminded people.
More sex terms to know: