KamaSutronics

The publishing industry has fallen behind.

There are amazing things taking place, almost daily — breakthroughs in sexual technology, deepening understandings of female sexual response, and it hardly ever gets reflected in print.  What does wind up in print is usually lurid representations of the bizarre, with commentary that says, essentially, “look what those crraaaaazy pervos are doing now!”

Timothy Archibald’s Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews takes an interesting approach.  It represents a nuanced, sometimes haunting, American landscape.

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A sex toy zine

It came in the mail today, and kept on coming.  I opened the large envelope, and was greeted with a spread of catalogs, followed by a sheaf of postcards, and the booklet I ordered.  There was a sticker, too.  There was even a brown paper bag that had been stapled shut; the word YOU was printed on the outside.  I opened it carefully.  Inside was a personal letter, written by someone I don’t know, intended for someone I don’t know.

I had become an accidental voyeur, a spy on the private lives of strangers.

All this fun had erupted because I’d spent two dollars on a pamphlet devoted to making your own sex toys.

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Despite the massive advances in women’s equality, young women’s sexuality is stuck ina a surprising paradox.  Young women are sold provocative clothes but aren’t taught where to find their own clitoris.  Many girls give their boyfriends oral sex, but are too uncomfortable with their own bodies to allow the guys to return the favor.  It’s still a radical act to say that women need and deserve access to information about their own sexual pleasure–not just about the risks and negative consequences of sex.

from I <3 Female Orgasm, by Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller.

It’s interesting to read what’s been written about sex toys.  Even the savviest of sex educators don’t approach the radical — they talk more about the risks and negative consequences of sex toys than they discuss sexual pleasure.  Today’s sex educators are quick to warn us of the dangers of phthalates, but they don’t explore simple issues, such as, what is pleasure?  What are some principles that can help women experience pleasure and/or orgasms?  What is the importance of repetition, and what is the importance of variety?  What is “teasing,” and how can a sex toy tease you?

“It’s still a radical act to say that women need and deserve access to information about their own sexual pleasure–not just about the risks and negative consequences of sex.”

A new edition of The Joy of Sex has been published, decades later, causing  Katherine Forsythe of the National Sexuality Resource Center to reminisce about the publication of the original.

You had to be there to understand what this book really meant. It gave us permission to begin the sexual liberation we enjoy today (and continue to liberate) to be the men and women we were meant to be.

I remember when The Joy of Sex came out. I kept it in my bedroom, and read it with my new husband, and sometimes without him. It was “far out”. It was titillating. It was rebellious. It was freeing.

The new edition isn’t going to spearhead a revolution; it’s “one more manual,” according to Forsythe, “on how to perform and impress.”