PassionAndSoul

Academic Offerings

Though the following courses have been specifically designed for academic and university settings, many of Lee Harrington’s other courses can be modified for academic purposes.  In addition, Lee is open to design new curriculum to fit your needs- whether for a one time guest lecture, or for a reoccurring relationship with your program.

Beyond Bowed Heads: Rituals for Dominance and submission

Participatory Lecture
Rituals are a key part of any Dominant/submissive relationship, whether they are acknowledged or not. From casual kisses as the door to formal slave poses, ritual objects such as collars to slave contracts, the BDSM world is rife with concepts of ritual- but what is a ritual? What are the levels of ritualistic interaction we have between one another? Let’s look at rituals for day to day life in alternative sexual practices (including how to get out of work or parent space), sacred time, intense connection, erotic play, solidifying relationships, changes within our relationships, and the taboo subject of the devastating loss of a relationship or its natural end. From terminology to developing codes of ethical interaction, this class covers a bevy of styles and types of interpersonal reactions.

Creature on a Quest

Storytelling Performance
“For I stand before you, a creature on a quest… for within each question there it stands, this word, quest.” Thus begins Lee Harrington’s one man show, which begins as an academic lecturer, travels backwards and forwards through men’s leather culture, sex work, happy heterosexual marriage as a woman, to being a genderqueer teen and gender unsuspecting child, and ends with audiences pondering the nature of gender, happiness, and relationships. Quest with Lee as he opens up his soul, his heart, his body, and his tales, walking at your side into the center of love. This show contains non-explicit nudity and adult themes and is rated R.

Cutting and Kink: Transformations of Self-Mutilation into Erotic Play & Body Modification

Participatory Lecture
Individuals self-injure and cut for many reasons: abuse, depression, attention seeking, pain management, rage, anxiety, and more. For kink sexuality, BDSM and body modification community explorers, there are possible alternative outlets for these needs, or physically and energetically safer ways to engage in these behaviors. For these individuals, the same scars born of shame and disgust become marks of honor and survival, or take on other different meanings. In this class we will be presenting findings from interviews conducted within the BDSM and body modification communities among those who have previously been or continue to be cutters (or others using cutting or skin-breaking self-injury behavior as a tool not related to erotic or artistic partnered activities). We will examine those who have transformed their need for self-mutilation into other forms of expression, or have maintained both sets of behaviors, looking at whether healthy cutting can ever take place in individual’s lives.

Kink 101: An Introduction to Creative Sexual Exploration and Play

Participatory Lecture
Bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism. These words elicit for many people a sense of titillation, or of dread. In this humorous and accessible approach to learning about alternative and sometimes edgy sexual practices, we will be looking at what draws people to this wide array of kinky sex interests, as well as other similar topics such as fetishism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, varies relationship structures, swinging and more. After looking at what kinky sex is and why people get into it, we will have an opportunity to look at the laws around these activities, the variety of types of things people enjoy in spicy bedroom (and out of the bedroom) games, the tools used, and how these things can be and are safe to explore. Bring your sense of humor, your curiosity, and your questions to this opportunity to learn about the wide variety of sexual expression found in BDSM and Kinky Sex.

Effective Speaking and Presentation Skills

Participatory Lecture
Have you always wanted to speak in front of a crowd but are too jittery? Perhaps you are an experienced speaker or educator who wants their lectures and presentations to stand out and be remembered? Come learn how to effectively use your voice and body language to communicate your message in a wide variety of teaching and speaking environments. From claiming of space to audience empathy, use of vocal range to hiding your nervousness, we will plunge in together and come out more certain of our ability to deliver our message.

Femme FTM: Drag Queens, GirlyBoys, Men in Skirts, and Feminine Transmen

Participatory Lecture
If other men can be femme, why can’t transmen? There is a prevailing myth in the world of psychology and gender that transitioning individuals need to adhere 100% to their “new gender”, but if transmen have spent their lives having issues being squished into one gender mold, why should they be forced into a new one? In this class, we will discuss a wide variety of places that femininity can be experienced by men (and have been experienced for thousands of years), from athletes that enjoy knitting to super fabulous drag queens who are no less men at the end of the night. Part funny stories, part historical exploration, part discussion of the nature of gender, this class casts insight into the gender experiences of everyone in our society.

Finding Your Unique Voice as an Educator

Participatory Lecture
What sort of presenting really calls to you, and why? Do you want to lead group discussions, lecture in front of an auditorium, provide one-on-one mentorship, or give skill demonstrations? What sorts of topics are you called to present on? Physical skills, emotional experiences, the psychology of what it is that we do, history and academics, or perhaps something totally different? Many of us start out presenting because we are well known for something we do and others want to learn, or because no one else would step up on a topic- but what do *you* want to teach on? Let’s look at what styles and content truly call to you, and also examine options for both you might not of thought of that may be your calling waiting for you.

Fleshing it Out: Sacred and Profane Body Modifications

Participatory Lecture
The world over, body modification is used as a way to express identity, whether that is self identity, cultural (or sub-cultural) affiliation or milestones, political views, spiritual connections, or other roads of identity. Are you aware of the modifications you have already made to live the life you currently have, such as having a specific hair style to blend in with your peer circle, or living at a specific weight? What does having a tattoo mean nowadays? What did it used to mean? How does the act of jewelry wearing change (such as a wedding band) when we must consciously put it on each day? We will look at the wide variety of body modifications available today (from henna/mehndi to hook hangs, stage makeup to genital reconstruction surgery, temporary piercing to flesh removal), and discuss the energy inherit in each type of modification, an overview of their history, and social implications today.

Foot Fetishism, Worship and Torture

Participatory Lecture
The foot has been known throughout history to be an item of desire- whether fetishized in the form of high heels or foot binding, submissive individuals begging to give their mistress a pedicure, or an erotic masseuse reaching the genitals by way of the feet. But feet are not just for receptive partners to enjoy. Bastinado (foot beating) was a common practice in dungeons of old, and the gay leather icon of the strong Daddy adoring the boy who is licking his boot is still strong. Why do feet tantalize so many individuals? Form worship to abuse, delight to suffering, we will look at heels, arches, toes (clad in hosiery, socks or bare), the gentle curve of the ankle… and see where this fetish is rooted as well as the variety of journeys modern sexual adventurers take using this classical desire.

From TNG to KOBRAS: Examining Age-Based Groups within the Kink Communities

Participatory Lecture
Age-based peership within alternative sexual practices is not new, but its evolution in the past decade has led to a wide variety of groups now active, from TNG (The Next Generation) to Ohio SMART’s KOBRAS group (Kinky Old Bastards/Broads/Bitches Really Are Sexy) and beyond. This trend is about far more than age. We will look into the history of age-based kink organizations in North America, their original intents, and where they are now. How have these groups evolved, and are they serving or can they serve the needs of the communities they say they are there for? Do these groups have a future, and what does that future hold for both these groups and for the kink communities at large?

From Tits to Tats: Traversing Sex Politics in the First Person

Lecture/Storytelling Class
Never your average boy next door, Lee Harrington was born Bridgett Louise Ashlee Jauregui Harrington- a clever girl who won awards for academic work and eventually ended up working simultaneously as an adult film actor and a database administrator for a Christian faith organization. In this first person tale of coming to grips with gender as a cosmopolitan human, Lee will share his tale of moving through being a girl, being a boy, being forced by the therapeutic institution back into being a girl, going into sex work to try to learn to love his body, a happy marriage as a two-spirited human, hardcore porn, spiritual adventures, near death experiences, and eventually to an identity as a femme man in America. Join Lee as he journeys, backwards, forwards, and eventually works towards the hard questions- what is gender, what is identity, and how do we look at ourselves in the mirror.

How Much an Hour: My Journey through Sex Work in America and Beyond

Lecture/Storytelling Class – alt title: “Sex, Cash and Candy: A Journey Through Sex Work in America and Beyond”
Learn first hand what the wide variety of sex work in America looks like straight from the man (and woman) living it. Lee’s tale takes you from the life of a fetish model and adult film actress, to that of a male pornographer and conceptual erotic artist. You will journey from being an escort, to hiring them. Explore the adventure of being a high priced Dominatrix, then learn to find erotic employment as a transgendered male while navigating the life of a full time sexuality educator. Having had his first exposure to street sex work at the age of 14, to lecturing internationally on erotic authenticity, he has been part of or held hands with most sides of the sex industry- and through his eyes, so can you.

Sacred Kink: The Eightfold Paths of BDSM and Beyond

Participatory Lecture
The world of BDSM and Fetishism tap into a rich and varied history of human magical, emotional, spiritual and energetic experience- and the parallels are available for those who will dive in and look! Exploring the Eightfold Paths to altered states of consciousness (not to be confused with the Eightfold Path in Buddhism) we will examine how the Path of Ritual is engaged for earning of leathers, Path of Rhythm is accessed for cathartic flogging, Path of Flesh for sensual bondage scenes and so much more. Pouring through thousands of years of sacred practices from monasticism to O-Kee-Pa (Sun Dance), ecstatic dance to channeling, join us as we see how these tools have been happily “perverted” by modern erotic adventurers. In doing so we will become aware of these diverse journeys, and in turn find ways to incorporate new ways to deepen your own energetic connections in the future.

Turning the Page: Initiations and Transformations

Participatory Lecture
From coming of age ceremonies to rituals to mark the end of a given period in our life, American culture is grossly lacking in key rituals of initiation and transformation that classical cultures possessed. This lack of initiation has directly effected how individuals in a wide variety of subcultures in America have come to view their own transformations as individuals of erotic identity. Let’s take a look at what transformative experiences have shaped our evolution as sexual human beings, the varieties of initiations that culture at large uses (as acknowledgement of status, to ordeals, to imbuement of gnosis), and how the self-initiation, self-dedication, and acts of community of peer acknowledgement from others in our own paths towards passionate selfhood have effected us in our own journey towards our own unique identity.

What Labels Give Us, What Labels Take Away: The Power of Gender and Sexual Identity Labels

Participatory Lecture
Before many of us were born, we were given gender labels that set our life course in motion. In this discussion and personally explorative class, we will dive into looking at a variety of questions: What labels have you been gifted, inherited, chosen, been forced into, or run away from? How does your internal identity for yourself affect your outside identity and your interpretation of gender and sexual roles you play or fill? What power do your labels grant you for flirting, community exposure, personal interactions, group dynamics, and more? What do you loose by stating a specific label or expressing it physically at first meeting another individual? How are these labels all formed, and why don’t we just scrap them all? Labels can get us hot, labels can turn us off, labels drive us mad, and labels give us hope for claiming our own sense of self. Let’s challenge ourselves, look deep inside, then examine how it all affects the current communities we each play a part in.