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Karley Sciortino

DOB: 16th October 1985, Highland New York U.S.A Age: 32 Occupation: writer, blogger, journalist, host Language: English Genre: sexuality, sexual education, feminism, cultural studies, youth cultures TV Shows: Slutever, VICE Books: ‘Slutever’: Dispatches from a Sexually Autonomous Woman in a Post Shame World

Description Karley Sciortino is a New York based advice columnist, writer, and author known under the moniker ‘Slutever’ . Sciortino writes on the taboo subject of sex and sexuality, defying the current landscape of sex bloggers and columnists by offering a sex positive feminist perspective , and one that acknowledges the voices of sex workers. Karley published her first book 'Slutever: Dispatches from a Sexually Autonomous Woman in a Post-Shame World’ in February 2018. Her book is known as a ‘slut bible’ and ‘feminist manifesto’ . Karley’s book ‘Slutever’ includes the accounts of her personal experiences on navigating her sexuality, ultimately sharing her perspectives and experiences as a woman and sex columnist. Her book also touches on topics concerning sex, love, casual hook-ups, open relationships, bisexuality, BDSM, breakups, sex work, sex parties, and the power of sexual agency . Sciortino is a prominent figure in youth culture through working alongside VICE. ‘Before becoming the title of her first book, ‘Slutever’ is also a series on VICE taking the form of web videos, being her most notable project through pushing her work into the popular culture sphere. Karley’s videos published by VICE cover a range of topics within sexuality, broadcasting forms of cross-cultural norms and taboos within sex cultures .

Career Karley’s writing career first started gaining traction after establishing her blog ‘Slutever’ (formerly slutever.org, nowadays slutever.com) founded in 2007 emerging from when she was a squatter in London . On Slutever.com Karley voiced her liberal opinions and shared open personal experiences relating to the topic of sexuality . On her blog she shares details about her relationships, her personal navigation of sexuality and her experience as a squatter in and around London while dabbling in sex work and being a dominatrix . Her Slutever blog was noticed by VICE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_Media), leading her towards a future of paid writing contributions . VICE commissioned Karley to create contributions in the form of web series and videos in 2010, kickstarting Karley’s career as a freelance writer and figure in popular culture and youth culture. On VICE Karley’s videos relate to entertainment and popular culture as she examines cross cultural sex communities and forms of expression surrounding the topic of sexuality. For instance, some titles of her videos include; ‘Japans female-focused porn industry’, ‘the Mormon war on porn’, ‘single Japanese women are buying the boyfriend experience’, ‘the mobile love industry’ etc. Alongside her contributions to VICE, Karley landed a regular column on VOGUE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_(magazine) ; a project called ‘Breathless’ in which she gained after submitting one off pieces to VOGUE. Her ‘Breathless’ column on VOGUE is a column where Karley writes on sex and relationships in a more conservative tone having less personal detail. Karley has also featured on writing sites such as ‘Dazed’ and ‘Purple’, submitting one off pieces as a guest-writer . Her pieces for these platforms exist alongside her personal blog ‘Slutever’ which remains active despite her other works .

In February of 2018 Karley published her first Book ‘Slutever: Dispatches from a Sexually Autonomous Woman in a Post-Shame World’, compiling her personal experiences and views around sex and sexuality within one body of work, and drawing off many blogposts which were featured on her original ‘Slutever’ blog. 

As mentioned in her book, it is significant to note that Karley receives hate mail and trolling . Karley is often persecuted for her openness about sexual promiscuity. She receives threats online about her work due to her agency as a woman writing about sexuality and her online presence as a sex guru. Karley is an important figure in the contemporary writer landscape as she defies gender and cultural norms by talking on taboo topics so openly and unapologetically .

Personal Life Karley was raised in a small town in upstate New York where both her parents were born and raised, comprised of mostly second and third generation Italian Catholics . Karley grew up in a devout Catholic, middle-class family having Italian-American heritage . Karley’s mother works part time as a receptionist at a dentist’s office and spends her free time volunteering as a religious educator while her father works an office job and is apart of ‘Knights of Columbus’, an all-male church organisation . Karley is one of two children, also having a brother . Karley went to high school in New York where she was noted as a good student; was an editor of the senior year book and captain of varsity soccer and basketball and had a lead role in the school play . Karley’s father wished for her to go to West Point, a Military Academy after high school however she refused . Soon after completing high school Karley moved to London to start a communications degree majoring in theatre, however dropped out after one semester . After this, Karley’s living arrangement was squatting (rent free) in Southeast London where she shared a hostel with between ten and fifteen people . During Karley’s adolescent years as a squatter there was a strong prevalence of drugs and partying throughout this scene; as mentioned in her blog and book . Around this time while Karley was squatting is when she became involved with sex work . Karley’s introduction to sex work came through befriending a dominatrix where she started off as an assistant, before acquiring skills to have her own freelance job within the sex worker community thus granting her economic freedom intrinsic to enabling her to pursue writing . Karley started her ‘Slutever’ blog when she was 21 years old in 2007 and often wrote about her squatting tales alongside various topics surrounding sexuality. This led to writing contributions for VICE and perpetuated her writing career. Karley mentions that upon starting her blog, Slutever never meant to be focused around the topic of sexuality, however was intended to be a space for her unfiltered experiences and thoughts ; "When I moved to New York in 2010, I was poor and unemployed, and I started assisting a dominatrix, then I started writing about that." she explained. "That’s when the blog became really sex-specific. I became really interested in things beyond just my own slutty experiences. I was more interested in psychology behind BDSM, fetish, and the lives of people who come in and out of this dominatrix’s dungeon." Karley had a distant relationship with her family, particularly her Mother when she moved to London. Early on Karley’s mother expressed her disapproval of Karley’s blogposts and openness about her daughter’s promiscuity . Now, Karley proclaims to have a close relationship with her parents despite their different beliefs and values .

‘Slutever’ The Book

‘Slutever: Dispatches from a Sexually Autonomous Woman In a Post Shame World’, is Karley Sciortino’s first book published in February 2018. The book is a compilation of Sciortino’s personal experiences and previously addressed topics from being a sex columnist. Her book is an important contribution to the genre of sexuality, not only making her a popular culture figure but also now a notable Author. Controversiality prevails within Karley’s book as she addresses unspoken issues such as rape fantasies , presenting a unique view on fetish culture and BDSM. Her book tackles deviant sexuality, sex culture in which is non-normative and non-dominant, giving her book a controversial flair. Interestingly, her book was published within the midst of the #metoo movement , a movement highlighting the normativity of sexual assault and abuse amongst women. This aligning with the authors ethos; Karley’s mission of changing sex culture through eradicating the heteronormative and male orientated predicament .

Activism: sexual revolutionary and feminist? Karley is the first in her field to introduce topical sex issues and the complexities of sexual avenues in such a humorous and investigative way that captures youth audiences, having a profound presence on popular culture and youth entertainment platform VICE . In an interview with ‘Observer’, Karley reveals that the intention behind reclaiming the word slut is to imply that the same social levelling should be applied to women when they choose to be promiscuous, pointing out the unfair pedagogy existing within social norms in which dismisses men’s sexual experiences while stigmatising women’s . Karley’s feminism is clearly established as fighting for the same sexual accessibility that men receive; she believes that women should be able to access sexual services as men do, without the social ridicule . Karley’s feminism differs from mainstream feminism as it is commonly believed that women that sexualize themselves are dishonest to the definition of feminist, while Karley’s feminism is more intersectional as she seeks to reclaim the term slut . Karley professes in her book that the term liberates her and she seeks to defy the sexual double standard and taboo nature of a woman who wishes to be openly sexual . In her book, Karley draws on sex worker and activist Tilly Lawless for an intersectional feminist approach; explaining the social hierarchy that exists within sex work and acknowledging it . With her explanation of this ‘whore-achy’ as explained by activist Tilly Lawless, Karley attempts to diminish the preconceived perceptions on the sex worker industry and address the taboo commonly held that every sex worker is in the industry out of desperation . Karley illuminates how the sex work industry is also not to be glamourized and acknowledges the elite and privileged sex workers being sugar babies . Karley proclaims that this is not a reality for all sex workers and acknowledges the vast chain associated with class and socio-economic status upheld by sex work culture, being a profound insight Karley publishes.

Bibliography Allen, Erika. 2018. "Karley Sciortino: In Her Own Voice". Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/fashion/karley-sciortino-of-blog-Slutever-in-her-own-voice.html. Employees Of The Month". 2015. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/dpx75m/employees-758-v18n4.

Hoby, Hermione. 2018. "Karley Sciortino: The Sex Blogger And Slutever Presenter Redefining Sexuality". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/29/karley-sciortino-the-sex-blogger-and-slutever-presenter-redefining-sexuality.

“Karley Sciortino". 2018. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/contributor/karley-sciortino. "Karley Sciortino, Writer". 2018. Into The Gloss. https://intothegloss.com/2015/09/karley-sciortino/. Lynch, Maura, and Jinnie Lee. 2018. "10 Unconventional New Books About Love For Valentine's Day". W Magazine. https://www.wmagazine.com/story/10-new-books-to-read-valentines-day.

Sciortino, Karley. 2018. Slutever: Dispatches From A Sexually Autonomous Woman In A Post-Shame World. Grand Central Publishing.

Viswanath, Jake. 2018. "Karley Sciortino Is The Sex-Positive Activist On A Mission | V Magazine". Vmagazine.Com. https://vmagazine.com/article/karley-sciortino-sex-positive-activist-mission/. Votaw, Ann. 2018. "The Woman On A Mission To Make The World Sluttier". Observer. https://observer.com/2018/02/vicelands-karley-sciortino-talks-sex-work-in-debut-book-slutever/.

Williams, Fiona. 2018. "Karley Sciortino On Her Mission To Reclaim The Word 'Slut'". SBS Guide. https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2018/06/19/karley-sciortino-her-mission-reclaim-word-slut.