Power, Culture + Institutional Accountability
Elisabeth Ovesen delivers lectures and keynote addresses on power, silence, and survival within male-dominated cultural industries, with particular focus on Hip Hop, female sexual autonomy, coercion, shame, abuse, and institutional complicity.
She is the author of Confessions of a Video Vixen, an early primary account of systemic exploitation within the entertainment industry, published before contemporary frameworks for consent and abuse entered mainstream discourse. Once dismissed as provocative, the work is now widely understood as evidentiary, documenting structures many institutions were not yet prepared to examine.
Ovesen brings a rare longitudinal perspective shaped by proximity to the industry before, during, and after public reckoning. Her lectures draw on lived experience, cultural analysis, and decades of inquiry into how power, shame, and silence operate and endure.
Her speaking engagements are not memoir readings. They are rigorous, institution-appropriate interventions designed for serious inquiry at the intersection of culture, gender, race, and power.
Selected Themes
Power and silence in hip hop and creative economies
Shame as a mechanism of control
The institutional cost of discrediting early truth-tellers
Long-term consequences of coercion on women’s lives and work
Accountability and ethical leadership after cultural reckoning
Format + Engagement
Available for keynotes, endowed lectures, moderated conversations, and closed-door sessions. Engagements are tailored to audience and institutional context.
Honoraria discussed by request.
California State University class lecture.
Each spring, Elisabeth visits California State University, Dominguez Hills, to teach Professor Thomas Lanefeld’s Biology class. With career paths in social services, students are taught topics such as healthy eating habits and being a change agent in the sector.
Endorsements and praise.
“[Elisabeth] challenges sexual hypocrisy and exposes the many ways society gives men a free pass for sexual exploration, while repudiating women for sexual agency.”
Dr. Walter Kimbrough, PhD. President, Dillard University
"[Elisabeth’s] life experiences and how she has dealt with them not only inspire the students but also motivate them to make a difference."
Dr. Thomas Landefeld, PhD. Professor of Biology and Pre-Health Advisor at California State University, Dominguez Hills
"With insight and courage, [Elisabeth] probes and defies the 'Culture of Shame' that surrounds women who dare to speak out against gendered violence, exploitation, and sexual abuse."
Dr. Karin Stanford, PhD. Associate Dean, College of Humanities at California State University, Northridge
“[Elisabeth is]…one of the most important figures in pop culture to discuss gender, sexuality, and race.”
Dr. Monica Miller, PhD: Professor of Religion, Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Lehigh University
“[Elisabeth is]...an erotic revolutionary who, almost single-handedly, reshapes black sexual politics by inspiring fruitful discussion about female sexuality and mistreatment, and deconstructing gender double standards.”
Dr. Shayne Lee, PhD: Professor of Sociology at University of Houston