Purveyor of Pleasure

Pleasure is my business, my life, my joy, my purpose.

Visible: A Femmethology – Virtual Tour Day

Cross-posted on The Femme’s Guide here.

Femme–an identity that has caused controversy, celebration and ridicule–is now the topic of a two-volume set from Homofactus Press and editor Jennifer Clare Burke titled Visible: A Femmethology. Femmethology calls the LGBTQI community on its own prejudice and celebrates the diversity of individual femmes. Award-winning authors, spoken-word artists, and totally new voices come together to challenge conventional ideas of how disability, class, nationality, race, aesthetics, sexual orientation, gender identity and body type intersect with each contributor’s concrete notion of femmedom. – from femmethology.com

This month of April marks something I’ve been waiting for quite some time: the Femmethology virtual blog tour! Today is lucky enough to be my day, and so I’m sharing some of my feelings and insights related to the Femmethology. Visit Daphne Gottlieb tomorrow for her day, and all the sites at the bottom of the post on their days.

First, a little about the Femmethology:
Visible: A Femmethology

Femmethology is essential—a roadmap of Femme Nation, an index, an anthropology, a manifesto, and a googleology. – Dorothy Allison

Visible: a Femmethology is a two-volume anthology of essays revolving around femme identity.

I’ve been discovering and embracing my multigendered identity lately, but in that multigendered identity there is a solidly femme identity as well, which these books helped me remember.

Not that I had forgotten my femme identity, I just had been focusing more consciously on my fagette identity than my femme because it was new and in a way easier to focus on because it’s more visible (though only slightly). The identities in no way are opposites, they are complimentary, but they are also different. Reading through the Femmethology in a way re-connected me with my femme identity.

The biggest benefit of the Femmethology, in my opinion, is that it helps remind us that we are not alone as femmes. While some of us have many femme friends and a wonderful support system the rest of us do not and we have to navigate the world without much reassurance and reminders that there are so many of us out there feeling the same things. This is one of the reasons I started The Femme’s Guide in the first place, to emphasize that there are many of us out there, and while we’re all different we are also all the same.

I was moved many times throughout the two volumes. There were authors I knew well or moderately well, from various avenues such as Sinclair Sexsmith, Sassafras Lowrey, and Tara Hardy. There were many other authors that I didn’t know anything about, but I was able to get to know something about them through their stories.

Many stories touched me to the core, rocked me, and left me dazed and contemplating my own stories and my own identities.

I feel that Visible: A Femmethology is not just a book or anthology meant to be read, though it certainly is that as well, it’s also a look into each of these femme’s lives and voices, an adventure into different types of femme-ininity and different experiences that all somehow are similar because of this identity we all embrace and inhabit. It shows the vastness of femme while also showing what unites us.

It screamed “you are not alone” to me right when I needed it.

From the Introduction to the anthology: “Femme means I won’t compromise on complexity. … Above all, my femme is not your femme, which is the good news. … Femme means my sexuality, my partner choices, my definitions and my gender presentation might not match your labels.”

You can order Volume 1 and Volume 2 through the fabulous Homofactus Press.

You can also hear Sinclair Sexsmith reading his Love Letter to Femmes!

Check out the blogs below on the associated dates to learn more about the Femmethology volumes:
4/1. Sugarbutch Chronicles
4/2. Ellie Lumpesse
4/3. Queer-o-mat
4/4. CyDy Blog
4/6. Catalina Loves
4/7. cross-post: The Femme’s Guide and Femme Fagette
4/8. Daphne Gottlieb
4/9. Bilerico Project
4/10. Screaming Lemur: Femme-inism and Other Things
4/13. The Femme Hinterland
4/14. Bochinche Bilingüe: Borderlands Writing and The Vagina Adventures
4/15. Dorothy Surrenders
4/16. Miss Avarice Speaks Her Mind
4/17. The Femme Show
4/19. Sexuality Happens
4/20. Queer Fat Femme
4/21. Sublimefemme Unbound
4/22. Tina-cious.com and Jess I Am (butch-femme couple day!)
4/23. FemmeIsMyGender
4/24. The Lesbian Lifestyle
4/25. Femme Fluff
4/26. Weldable Cookies
4/27. The Verbosery
4/28. A Consuming Desire and Creative Xicana
4/29. Queercents
4/30. en|Gender

Terms Don't Dictate a Relationship

I’ve been trying more vigorously to finish Opening Up by Tristan Taormino which, if you don’t know, is all about non-monogamy. I started it months ago but have yet to finish it because I keep picking up other books in the meantime (mostly ones I have to review).

In Opening Up defining a relationship is emphasized, but not in order to box in or pin down a relationship (because the ability to revise or change the relationship at any time is also emphasized) but in order to make sure that everyone within the relationship is in agreement and happy with where it is and how it’s progressing and feeling and working.

Basically, communication is key, and though that’s true in every relationship it can be exponentially trickier in non-monogamous relationships to make sure that everyone is happy with everything that’s going on.

Part of successful communication can be coming to agreement on terms and labels used for certain interactions and activities. I like labels as long as they are recognized as flexible and subject to change. While terms don’t dictate a relationship one can use terms to define a relationship as close to accurately as possible.

Sometimes defining a relationship is a useful tool to use to check in with everyone in that relationship and make sure everyone is on the same wavelength. I’m over-explaining a bit, I realize, but I have a point to make, promise.

The reason I bring this up is because this morning I changed my FetLife profile information from reading “Polyamorous with Onyx93” and “It’s Complicated with MarlaSinger” in the “relationship status” portion and “Switches with Onyx93” and nothing defined with MarlaSinger in the “D/s relationship status” portion to what is below.

fetlifestatus

Little changes on social networking sites like this aren’t really a big deal in some ways, but they definitely do mark a change in the way I’ve been thinking about our relationship that I’m able to actually put that we’re in a relationship quite solidly. I do feel like we’re more solidly in relationship territory rather than the “getting to know you” or “friends who are interested in each other” territory which is where we’ve been for a while, even without the presence of gettin’ down and dirty.

I’m not really sure what the distinction between “In a Relationship and Polyamorous with Onyx93” and “In an Open Relationship with MarlaSinger” really is but I think it has something to do with the stages each of those relationships are in.

Onyx and I are very much set in our relationship, though that’s not to say we’re stagnant or unsatisfying. We’ve been together for about four years and have been living together for over two and a half of that. While we still have our bumps and explorations for the most part we’re really very solid in where our relationship is, which is also why we’re able to start branching out into other relationships. I am in a relationship with him and we are also polyamorous, that’s just how I see it.

Maybe part of the difference too is because Marla and I are long-distance and still exploring the beginning stages of our relationship. To me, indicating that we are in an open relationship also indicates less permanence in our relationship as opposed to being polyamorous in a relationship. That’s not to say our relationship isn’t permanent but it’s not as set as my relationship with Onyx because we are still discovering nuances and facets of each other that are new and unexpected and discovering the ways in which we fit together.

These are just the distinctions my brain is making between the two terms, of course, and I wouldn’t force these definitions on anyone else, they’re just what work for me.

We are still slowly progressing in our own long-distance way, which is really enjoyable and wonderful but also frustrating because, well, it’s long distance.

We’re constantly getting more sexual with each other, getting to that next step, moving beyond the “abstractly sexual” talk of toys and such to much more personal talk of desires and where we think we fit together. It’s fantastic, and I find myself fantasizing about being with her (my latest Microfantasy Monday post was in many ways inspired by her) but I’m also getting anxious for the next sexual step.

Neither of us seem terribly desirous of engaging in sexual activities online or on the phone, preferring to wait until we meet to explore the physical sexuality with each other, but the desire and the drive to do so is slowly becoming more and more apparent. This is definitely a good thing, but also a frustrating thing.

I’m confident that it will unfold in a way that works, though, and really have hardly any doubts or worries about the relationship and how it is progressing. It almost seems too easy sometimes, too perfect for my overlyanalytical brain to handle, but it felt like this with Onyx as well and look how that turned out…

Also, Marla wrote a delightful, adorable, and fantastic post on her blog that you should read in the same style as my five things that make me constantly and undeniably happy.

Microfantasy Monday – Cards

The idea behind Microfantasy Mondays comes from Ang of Sweltering Celt.

This week’s theme: cards.

We were still sitting across from each other when the last of the other players left the room. I watched as she slid one hand through her hair, bit down ever so gently on her lower lip, and shifted in her seat. One leg was crossed over the other before she leaned forward ever so slightly, the front of her dress gaping and giving me a healthy dose of cleavage as she stared at the five cards in her hand.

I moved to rest my right hand on the rim of my fedora, tracing it with my finger as I watched her, enjoying our costumes and our current privacy. We had decided that if we were going to sponsor a game night we should make it fun, encouraging everyone to dress up was her idea, but the three-piece suit and fedora had been mine knowing seeing me in it would make her weak in the knees.

Suddenly standing I moved to her in two fast strides and pulled her to her feet faster than she knew what was happening. I had waited until after our guests started arriving to let her see me in my outfit, and she had been casting smoldering glances in my direction all night. I requested she femme up tonight, wearing a dress I picked out for her, matching heels, thigh highs, and pearls. No panties.

I pressed my body against hers, turning her so her back was against the table, sweeping aside the cards and poker chips on it as I pressed her down onto her back, moving over her and slipping my thigh between her legs. I kissed her with all the passion and intensity the last few hours had built in me. Literally knocking her off her feet and onto the table.

My right hand moved under the hem of her dress and slowly slid it’s way up her thigh while the other moved to caress and pinch one of her nipples. Finally finding her between her legs I quickly pushed two fingers into her wet heat, pumping them in and out as I moved my mouth from hers for a moment to say “You’ve been wanting this all night, haven’t you?”

Pleasurists #23

aliciante
Aliciante » Blog Archive » Coisas Simples via bendmeover

Pleasurists is a round-up of the adult product and sex toy reviews that came out in the last seven days from bloggers all around the sex blogosphere. Did you miss Pleasurists #22? Read it all here. Do you have a review for Pleasurists #24? Submit it here before Sunday April 12th at 11:59pm PST. Please re-post this list on your own blog if listed.

Want to win some free swag? All you’ve got to do is enter.

Madame Editrix
Scarlet Lotus St.Syr

On to the reviews…

Editor’s Pick

  • Bebe by Beautiful Dreamer
  • Love Being Woman, once again, seems very friendly. Warm & welcoming. One of the things they set out to do was a create a vibrator designed by women that was beautiful AND functional. And they’d had enough with the tacky images and bad packaging. As someone who dissects every package with a little too much critique, I have to say I definitely appreciate their attention to detail.

    Editor’s Note: I try to pick posts which are not only well-written but also which are somehow unique or unusual and make me desire to own the toy being reviewed. This one definitely fits both of those criteria. Interesting information, gorgeous toy that I’d never seen before, and overall a wonderful review!

Five Things

…that make me constantly and undeniably happy.

In no particular order.

  1. Two hour phone calls about nothing and everything that feel like they only spanned fifteen minutes.
  2. Exchanging “I love you” in a mumbled half-asleep state while snuggled perfectly.
  3. Silences when we have nothing to say, but aren’t awkward or uncomfortable, just there enjoying the others’ company.
  4. Meeting for lunch mostly just to see each other in the middle of the day.
  5. Sharing love with two amazing people, without restrictions or boundaries, but often with a good dose of overanalyzation. ;)

Reviews: I love LELO and Massages!

My reviewing structure, as outlined in this post is that I post full reviews on my review site Wanton Lotus (RSS) and teaser reviews once a week here. I posting reviews on Wanton Lotus Tues-Weds-Thurs or some combination thereof depending on the amount of reviews I have each week. Fridays are supposed to be my promotion day on here, so here is the round-up of my reviews for the week!

liv

Liv Pleasure Object Profile

Name: Liv

Materials: Medical-grade Silicone (dark blue/pink) and ABS plastic (white).

Manufacturer: LELO (Luxury Erotic Lifestyle Objects)

Length: 4″ (insertable) 7″ (total including handle)
Thickness: 3/4″ (diameter)

What I love: Sleek and elegant look, curved for delicious g-spot stimulation, easy to use, comes with satin carrying bag and black storage box. Rechargeable, so no messing with batteries. Quality like no other.
What I don’t love: Controls are too easy to hit and accidentally change the vibration setting while in the moment.

Rating: 5/5

Watch the entirety of my Liv video review here!


elise

Elise Pleasure Object Profile

Name: Elise

Materials: Medical-grade Silicone and ABS plastic.

Manufacturer: LELO.

Length: 8 1/4″ (total) – 5 1/4″ (insertable)
Thickness: 1 1/4″ (diameter) – 4 1/2″ (around)

What I love: Two separate vibration centers, one at the tip and one at the base! Rechargeable, so no messing with batteries. Thick black satin carrying bag and black storage box. All-black vibrator (I’m a sucker for black toys). Curved for the g-spot, great for clitoral vibration as well but inserting Elise is what she is made for. Super quiet.
What I don’t love: What’s not to love?

Rating: 5/5

Watch the entirety my video review of the Elise here!


bo

Bo Cock Ring Profile

Name: Bo

Materials: Body-safe ABS (top vibrating part) and TPE (bottom stretchy ring)

Manufacturer: LELO.

Rating: 5/5

Onyx’s Experience

Being the partner of a sex blogger and sex toy reviewer has many benefits. One of the primary ones is that I get to play with a lot of really fun and exciting toys without even having to be the one writing the reviews. Granted while some of the toys she receives are primarily for her pleasure, almost all of them are great for partner play and I probably get at least as much pleasure from playing with them as she does.

Watch the video review and read both Onyx and my experience and impressions of the Bo here!


Intimate Organics Sensual Massage Oil Snippit

Who doesn’t love massages? Giving or receiving can be equally enjoyable, and massage oil just makes the whole process easier and, well, smoother.

This Cocoa Bean & Goji Berry Aromatherapy Massage Oil is made by Intimate Organics, the same makers of the Hydra Lubricant I reviewed last week. Like their lubricant, their massage oil is also paraben free, DEA free, pure vegan, and organic!

I wasn’t sure how much I would like the scent of it. Cocoa Bean & Goji Berry, while sounding odd and intriguing, also sounded possibly also unpleasant. Unfortunately too many times when lotions or other body products go for a chocolatey smell it comes out horrible…

Read the rest of the Massage Oil review here!

Vaginal Revolution!

This is from the seriously fantastic Wendy Blackheart who always seems to have wonderful ideas that I wish I had first (not that I need another project at the moment, but that’s beside the point). She’s starting a fantastic website which I’m planning on contributing to, and I’m re-posting this in hopes that you might want to contribute to it as well!

From her post:

Hello my wonderful friends!

Ok. I’m starting a new project, and I need your help. You being, uh, everyone I’ve sent an email to in the past year who might be interested in this project. If this isn’t welcome, I am sorry.

I’m creating a site called Vaginal Revolution, the location of which will soon be revealed. (Its not quite operational yet. There isn’t anything there) See, I just caught part of a documentary on the BBC about women having vaginal plastic surgery, particularly to reduce the size of their labia. It seems to grow out of a discomfort with what they think of as abnormal anatomy – because they don’t know what vaginas can look like.

Now, I’m not against body modification – I think the changes people willingly and with knowledge make to their bodies are wonderful, and this includes women who decide to modify their genitals in whatever way they choose. What makes me sad, however, is when people decide to modify something as fundamentally beautiful as their vulva because they think its ugly, because they have no one else to talk to.

While I know I’m not the first do try, I want to do my part to demystify our cunts – to share them with the world. We, as sex bloggers, activists and pervs are familiar with a wide variety of beautiful cunts and pussies, and with talking about them, but we’re a small percent of the women in this country who do. So, lets see what we can do to change that!

Back when I was a youngin’, I remember discovering Betty Dodson’s work and website, which I thank for helping me feel good about my genitals – her site had a genital gallery where people sent in photos of their bits to share with the world. I’m sure its still there, and it’s the inspiration for Vaginal Revolution as well – I figure there can’t be too much cunt positivity out in the world!

Basically, I want photos of your vulva. You don’t need to attach your names to them, though I encourage it. I’ll be putting a photo of mine up as well. (I plan to be my flagship cunt. Gotta start somewhere!) But any sort of photo you feel like sharing, please, please do. And while this isn’t geared towards being a wank off site, photos including toys are welcome. Hell, toys, flowers, jewelry, tattoos, piercings, tiny action figures…what ever you want to do! I’d love if you sent a blurb as well – tell me a story, tell me something fun, say whatever you want to say about your genitals, and I’ll put it up there.

Lets celebrate ourselves, our bits, and maybe we can make a little difference.

Please send all photos, comments, all that good stuff to VaginalRevolution@gmail.com. I’d like to keep my regular email from overflowing with vag and make sure I don’t miss anything! :)

Along with a photo, please include: The name, if any you would like to go by, a link to your site, if you have one and want to share, and any stories, anecdotes, comments, etc, that you’d like to share.

If you’re not into showing off your bits on the internet, (and even if you are) please please reblog my request for photos! Send it far and wide!

Toy Intimidation and How Couples Toys Changed Our Sex

I’ve been reviewing sex toys for a fair amount of time now. Most of the toys I get aren’t as couples-centric as they sometimes need to be, and some of the ones that require a partner aren’t always used as much as others.

Since we moved out of our D/s dynamic and into whatever it is we do now (still figuring that out on some levels) Onyx has had more and more of a difficult time expressing his needs and wants. Being out of work and unable to find a job didn’t help, neither did my poor behavior as his “submissive.” That, along with the birth control mess-ups I talked about yesterday really impacted our sex life since we moved especially.

I took a little break from reviewing when I moved, mostly for sanity’s sake, but I returned to it with fervor once I got back in the swing of things. We’ve never really talked about sex toys, which is remarkable considering the amount of toys I’ve gotten over the last many months, and the other week we had a discussion about how they have affected our sex life.

In some ways, they’re enhanced it, but in others they’ve taken away. It always takes me longer to come from Onyx’s fingers than it does from a vibrator or my own fingers (though the vibrator usually wins) and we tend to have sex rather late at night when we’re both already tired so there’s limited time. Because we end up wanting it over with somewhat quickly I often finish myself off, usually with his fingers inside me because that’s what I love.

He had been feeling distant from my getting off, like he wasn’t necessary to the process, so he unconsciously started lessening his initiation of getting me off. Because he was getting me off less I was giving him head less, and so we were both denying the other something because of a sense of rejection. We both have big issues with rejection, so this isn’t something new but something we do work on and have been forever.

Part of this also had to do with the amount of toys I have been getting. It’s difficult for most people to view toys as a supplement to sex or a sex enhancer rather than a replacement for, and Onyx was having issues with this as is completely understandable. Problem is we weren’t talking about any of this.

Communication is key, and I know that, I preach that whenever possible, but it’s also extremely difficult which I also get. Neither of us is prone to communication, rather we tend to retreat into ourselves to try to fix problems and often don’t even realize when problems are happening due to our abundance of self-delusion when it comes to issues. It often takes us a few days to even figure out what’s wrong and then a few more days to start talking about it.

Our conversation started with me complaining that he never gets me off any more (though that’s changed since the conversation). We ended up talking about sex toys and the issues mentioned above, and came to the solution that I would show him how to use the toys on me better instead of me doing it. This may seem like a no-brainer, and he had used toys on me before, especially dildos but only sometimes vibrators.

This conversation happened only a few days after we had gotten the Liberator Ramp (click to read my review) and LELO Bo (click to read my review), two toys that are very couples-centric rather than solo-centric. They were part of the catalyst for the conversation, I believe, as I noticed his enjoyment of those two products and wished that he would enjoy other products as much.

This is not to say I don’t use other products on him like lube, dildos, harnesses and such, or we don’t use products together like crops and other BDSM toys, but it’s not the same. He’s never as excited about even the BDSM-centric toys I get in the mail, but he was pretty excited about the Ramp and Bo.

Point is, we talked. We communicated, after a long time of not doing so. Every time we talk about these things it brings us that much closer together, and I like that. Every time we have issues we always talk about them eventually and I think we’re talking about them more and more often rather then bottling them up and stuffing them back inside or ignoring them all together. This is very good.

Our sex since our talk has been better, as well. I feel more connected with him, more intimate, more engaged, all of which is wonderful. I’m sure we’ll continue to change and grow and become more open with each other, but we both have to undo decades of defense system self-training, and Onyx has ten years on me so he’s often a harder nut to crack and all that.

When Is Birth Control Exciting?

I’m a little too excited about birth control at the moment.

Let me explain.

I’ve been using the Nuva Ring for almost two years now. I’ve tried various methods of birth control over the years since I first got on it including the depo shot which made me even crazier than I already was (depression, mood swings, etc.), a couple different pills, the patch just for a month until I realized I didn’t like it and was worried because I was too fat for it (if you’re over a certain weight the likelihood of getting pregnant on the patch increases), and finally the nuva ring.

I rather love the nuva ring. It’s easy an extremely easy to use and extremely effective type of birth control. Onyx and I are fluid-bonded, so we don’t use condoms or other barriers when we fuck. We went through the let’s get tested and make sure we don’t have to use condoms thing at the very beginning of our relationship and neither of us has had sex outside of the relationship since we got together. Especially since we don’t use condoms birth control is extremely important to both of us. We don’t want no babies.

Right after we moved here I had a lapse in my ring usage. I hadn’t gotten a new ring, I hadn’t gone to get a new prescription here, and we didn’t have the money for me to go get one anyway. This was no good. We had a lull in our sex life while waiting for me to get up on it again. We used condoms during that time the few times we couldn’t stand it and decided to have penetrative sex and we did oral, mutual masturbation, and various other non-penis-in-vagina-or-anus sex (since anal sex can get you pregnant I didn’t want to risk that).

Once we had money again I got back on the ring, we waited the week requisite post-insertion, and started going at it like bunnies yet again sans-protection. Last week came the time I had to remove my ring and today I needed to insert a new one.

Problem is, we’re out of money again and the clinic I went to last time charges quite a bit for a new nuva ring, three times what I was paying in Salt Lake City! I decided that I would go to the Planned Parenthood here instead, which I should have really just done in the first place, and try to get my information from SLC transferred to the PP here hoping that it would be cheaper.

As it turns out, and why I’m telling you all of this, I’m eligible for free contraception with Planned Parenthood! I should have remembered I’m back in a place that values reproductive health rather than avoiding the subject all together, but it’s difficult after living for two plus years in a place so backwards as Utah.

I went in on Tuesday, had a consultation today for contraceptives, specifically the nuva ring and also IUCs (IntraUterine Contraceptives–also known as IntraUterine Devices). I’ve been thinking about getting an IUC for quite some time, and have researched them and talked with another clinician about it not too long ago, but at the time it was way too expensive. I actually got kudos for having done my homework on IUCs from one of the women I talked to today, which made me happy.

Luckily, the free contraception extends to IUCs as well! I actually made an appointment for tomorrow to get Mirena implanted! Mirena is one of the two types of IUCs which has progesterone in her, but no more than the nuva ring, and lasts for five years. I’m thrilled at the idea of not having to think about birth control for five years!

Of course, with any new partners I will still insist on condoms and barriers to prevent against STIs, but since I don’t plan on having children in the next five years (if ever) Mirena seems like the perfect option!

I’m really probably more excited than I should be at the concept of getting this Mirena put in. But the idea of not really having to worry about the possibility of getting pregnant is just absolutely wonderful to me. While the ring isn’t really that difficult to remember to put in or take out on time for the most part having it go from a once-a-month issue to a once-every-five-years issue is pretty awesome.

Mirena also has the possibility of not just regulating my periods like most birth control methods but also of stopping them all together. So, no worrying about pregnancy for five years and (possibly) no periods? Maybe you see why I’m rather excited about this.

So, tomorrow I should be able to get it inserted. It’s a simple (but somewhat painful) procedure of slipping the device through the cervix into the uterus. It shouldn’t take too long, or so I’m told. The only downside is that I’m not supposed to have vaginal sex for a week or so after getting it inserted, though there’s other things we can do to pass the time.

I’ll definitely give some post-insertion information and experiences in the next week or so as well.

Pleasurists #22

fishnets
Found via Art or Porn.

Pleasurists is a round-up of the adult product and sex toy reviews that came out in the last seven days from bloggers all around the sex blogosphere. Did you miss Pleasurists #21? Read it all here. Do you have a review for Pleasurists #23? Submit it here before Sunday April 5th at 11:59pm PST. Please re-post this list on your own blog if listed.

Want to win some free swag? All you’ve got to do is enter.

Madame Editrix
Scarlet Lotus St.Syr

On to the reviews…

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