Review of Sexational Secrets

Home Page A New Look at Sex About this Site Educational Books Carol Leigh Transcript Guide to Safer Sex (Concise) Betty Dodson Transcript Educational Videos An Erotica Guide Giving and Receiving Erotic Massage Flirting Tips Information Hotlines Laura Antoniou Transcript Male Multiple Orgasms Sex-Positive Philanthropy Jack Morin Transcript The G-Spot Finding Your Local Sex-Positive Culture Web-Based Matchmaking Services Portland Sexuality Resources The 1998 SSSS/AASECT Conference Guide to Safer Sex (Lengthy) San Francisco Sexuality Resources Seattle Sexuality Resources A Guide to Sex Toys Anna Marti Interview NightOwl Interview Sex-Positive Student Organizations The Swing Community: A Profile Erotic Talk Vancouver Sexuality Resources Vena Blanchard Interview An Intro to Political Activism The Sexuality.org West Coast Awards The Sex Education Web Circle (INDEX) Transgenderism Archive (INDEX) Tantra Archive (INDEX) General Sexuality Archive (INDEX) Polyamory Archive (INDEX) GLB Archive (INDEX) Fetishes Archive (INDEX) Body Modification Archive (INDEX) BDSM Archive (INDEX) Activism Archive (INDEX) Contributed Documents (INDEX) Banners (INDEX) Vamp (INDEX) Syrinx (INDEX) David Steinberg (INDEX) Jack Morin (INDEX) Contributing Authors (INDEX) William Henkin (INDEX) Eric Francis (INDEX) Meghan Scott (INDEX) Norman Breslow (INDEX) Non-famous Lauren (INDEX) The Sexuality Advisor (INDEX) Kathryn Grosz (INDEX) Jane and Dick (INDEX) Jamie Jay Gatto (INDEX) Cuir Underground (INDEX) Brandy Williams (INDEX) SHS Mailing List Reviews (INDEX) SHS History (1995-1998) (INDEX)

A New Look at Sex Safer Sex

Books or Events Sex Toys or Erotica

Educational Videos Matchmaking

By continuing to browse this web site you are certifying your agreement to its terms of use; please read them if you have not done so already.

---

REVIEW OF SEXATIONAL SECRETS

FROM THE SHS MAILING LIST

Sexational Secrets
by Susan Crain Bakos
St. Martin's Press, 1996.
ISBN 0-312-14413-X

I spent a few moments yesterday browsing the "Sex and Relationships" isle of our University bookstore. On a lark, I picked up what appeared to be a silly book called Sexational Secrets, hoping for a good chuckle.

I opened the book up to a random page and found myself looking at a summary of the Body Electric for Men training, complete with a guide to many of their various genital massage strokes. "What the $%^#%#%#?!?!?!", I exclaimed. As I flipped through more pages of this book, I found chapters on most of the major (and expensive) sex workshops taught throughout the world, complete with first-hand descriptions and working summaries of the material they present. These summaries appeared to hit all the major points of the workshops, and would take most people to a place of being able to use many of the key techniques from them. Very interesting...

There were a number of reasons why I was startled. To begin with, this book was usually right on when it came to summarizing the content of these courses and giving instructions as to how to partially duplicate the training on your own. I was also impressed because this book hit most of the major bases of human sexual pleasuring: massage, intercourse, oral sex, "energy sex", etc. And finally, I was impressed because this book was written by SUSAN BAKOS of all people. For those who don't recall, this is the same woman who wrote that ignorant, judgemental, and breathless tabloid trash novel entitled Kink.

In Kink, Susan appears not to have made any serious effort to understand the community she was "documenting", and ends the book speculating that hopefully interest in BDSM won't spread much further (after, of course, titillating the readers with lurid descriptions of it...).

In Sexational Secrets, however, she actively describes her participation in a lot of the workshops, programs, etc. that she discusses. This lends far more credibility to her writing.

When workshops aren't available on a particular topic, she interviews people whom she assumes to be experts on that topic and gets detailed descriptions of what they do. She also summarizes various books, such as The Multi-Orgasmic Man by Chia Mantak.

Here's a summary of the topics covered in this book. I'm putting * marks by topics that have clear (but brief), step-by-step instructional summaries.

• The Erotic Mind by Jack Morin (Attraction+Obstacles=Excitement)
• Ultimate Pleasures by Marc and Judith Meshorer (visualization)*
• Annie Sprinkle's Fire Breath Course (energy orgasms)*
• Graham Masterson's "E" Technique*
• Doing Phone Sex (advice from professional)*
• Forming an Erotic Reading Circle*
• Rahula Surkang's "Erotic Sounds of Sex" workshop
• Erotic Dancing (advice from professional)*
• Teasing/pleasure point advice from "Ragpanu"*
• Betty Dodson's Bodysex Workshop*
• Masturbation advice (female, male, mutual)*
• Body Electric for Men workshop*
• Kissing*
• Shinzen's teachings on erotic massage*
• Genital and Anal Massage (men and women)*
• Kegel ("PC") exercises, and related exercises (men and women)*
• Cunnilingus*
• Fellatio (advice from various upper-class escorts)*
• G-Spot*
• Sexual Positions (including C.A.T., "D.O.G.", and other difficult and controversial stuff)*
• Intercourse (advice from Mantak and other Taoists and sexologists)*
• Jwala's energy orgasm workshops*
• Various ejaculation-delaying techniques (big draw, alternation, scrotal tugging, etc.)*
• Female ejaculation*
• Multiple Orgasms (male and female, advice from Ogden, Mantak, etc.)*
• Stan Dale's HAI Worskshops*
• "Whole Body" Orgasms (Margo Anand workshops)*
• Various extended orgasm techniques*
• Karezza (Tantric style)*
• Kabbazah (Tantric style)*
• Meugi's Kundalini Yoga courses*
• Strange de Jim's massage courses (in Amsterdam)*
• Using vibrators (men and women)*

There's a LOT of good material in here, and many sexual bases are covered.

I have four major beefs with this book, however:

1. The book doesn't exactly go out of its way to interview Queer people. For example, on the subject of cunnilingus the book interviews two different people: both of them male gigolos. I found it shocking that the author didn't interview any women on this topic.
2. Susan doesn't go out of her way to cover same-sex workshops in general. It's hard to imagine not including a section on the Body Electric for Women workshop, especially when these workshops are more accessible than Betty Dodson's (i.e. they're offered in more locations).
3. No safer sex workshops are summarized. This was disappointing: it wouldn't have taken that many pages, and would have provided an opportunity to summarize advice on making safer sex feel better.
4. BDSM isn't covered at all. Considering HOW MANY workshops are offered all over the nation in BDSM, this is an odd omission. However, given the author's biases as revealed in Kink I'm not surprised.

Despite these reservations, I still found this book to be of value. It goes for breadth over depth, of course, but straight couples and queer couples who can set the author's heterocentrism aside might find some interesting ideas for further exploration.