Lena Chen (born August 13, 1987) is an American feminist artist, writer, and activist based in Berlin and Los Angeles. Born in San Francisco, California, Chen studied sociology and minored in Studies of Women, Gender, & Sexuality at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

. Her work addresses women's identity, trauma, and intimacy.

Work

Writing

In August 2006, she started penning the blog ''Sex and the Ivy''. Her first-person accounts of sexual experiences, depression, and undergraduate life at one of America's premier academic institutions spurred campus discussion, prompted media attention, and garnered a following. Quickly becoming a controversial figure, she was criticized by some as morally reprehensible and praised by others for encouraging frank sexual dialogue. Her writing has appeared in ''

The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and Progressivism in the United States, progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The America ...

'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', and ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

''. Following the publication of

revenge porn Revenge porn is the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent, with the punitive intention to create public humiliation or character assassination out of revenge against the victim. The material ma ...

by an ex-boyfriend in 2009, Chen and her partner were subject to online harassment. For the next five years, she continued blogging in spite of the attacks, until retiring in April 2013.

Art

In 2017, she revealed that she had been living in Berlin under an alternate identity ("Elle Peril") as part of a durational performance. In the aftermath of revenge porn, she posed nude for artists in order to reclaim agency over her body and presented documentation of her life as Elle Peril in a solo exhibition at S0MA Gallery. Her work has been shown at Human Resources Los Angeles. and

Transmediale Transmediale, stylised as transmediale, is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over three to five days at the end of January and the beginning of February. transmediale takes the form of a conference (sometime ...

. In 2021, Chen co-created a digital game about

sex work Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to volun ...

called ''OnlyBans'', a parody on the name of the digital platform

OnlyFans OnlyFans is an Internet content subscription service based in London, England. The service is widely known for being popular with sex workers who produce pornography, and also hosts other content creators including athletes, musicians, and com ...

Activism

In 2010, she co-organized the Feminist Coming Out Day campaign and the Rethinking Virginity conference.Lux Alptraum (May 4, 2010)
Rethinking Virginity—And Examining Our Assumptions About Sex
Jezebel.com.

Later life

By 2018 Chen had put her undergraduate notoriety behind her, and, according to the New York Times, was devoting her time to "curating art shows and events focused on helping other women heal from trauma."

References

External links

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Lena Chen on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Lena Harvard College alumni Writers from San Francisco American sex columnists American women columnists Living people American women bloggers American bloggers 1987 births American feminist artists American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women journalists of Asian descent 21st-century American women writers