More Ass to Love

The Ultimate Guide to
Anal Sex for Women,
Second Edition,
by Tristan Taormino (Cleis Press), 2006.

Revised versions of anything tend to make this reviewer skeptical. A second edition manual on how to pleasure the ass? A hip new version of Grayês Anatomy? This yearês student-friendly explanation of "riting rules"? (As an English instructor, I get as many free copies of such things from publishers as spammy ads in my inbox.)

Rest assured, however, that the current version of Tristan Taorminoês groundbreaking book on all things anal (first published in 1998) really is bigger, more packed with information, clear answers to courageous questions, new diagrams and surprisingly lyrical quoted passages from erotic stories about asses and all the things that can fit painlessly into them. I actually held my first and second editions of this book together and saw that the revised version is one-and-a-half times as thick as the first. It also has a sexier cover.

In the 1959 dope-inspired autobiographical novel, Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, there is a surrealistic scene in which a manês anus complains bitterly that it is ignored and despised, and that it just wants to be loved as much as other body parts. As hallucinatory as this looks, the talking anus has a point. It has traditionally been regarded as the garbage chute of the human body, and its sensitivity has been seen as inherently humiliating as well as grimly funny. Traditional fantasy scenarios of ass-fucking (the intrusive strip-search by police or border guards, the medical exam or prison gang-rape) tend to involve the abuse of power or authority.

Tristan Taormino has been challenging these notions for several years. (Not that she is opposed to anal sex in the context of BDSM.) It is hard to imagine how anyone could love or understand the ass better than she does. Questions I never thought of are answered in this book, along with a thorough product assessment of lubes (absolutely essential when exploring a delicate orifice which does not self-lubricate), enema devices and anal sex toys. There is so much to know that it is easy to imagine an aspiring participant having to pass a preliminary exam first, as well as a few other things.

If memory serves me, the talking ass was left out of the movie version of Naked Lunch. Tristan Taormino has gone further. She produced and starred in an instructional video to go with the first edition of her book on anal sex, and has since gone on to make a more ambitious film, Tristan Taorminoês House of Ass, produced by Adam and Eve Pictures. According to the blurb:

"Village Voice sex columnist Tristan Taormino invited a group of porn stars to join her for a weekend of fun and sex in a secluded house in the mountains. . . Each cast member knew in advance who they would do one scene with. In addition, each person was encouraged to have sex with anyone else in the cast as their mood and libido dictated." The award-winning stars, Joanna Angel, Mr. Marcus, Keeani Lei, Scott Nails, Justine Joli, Sarah Blake, two one-name actors, Talon and Saana, and Tristan herself perform in a variety of anal scenes.

The official launch party for this film took place in New York on February 26, 2006. Photos and more information appear on Tristan Taorminoês website, www.puckerup.com. (And now the implied reference to kissing in "pucker up" seems more ambiguous than it did in times past).

In the new, improved book, the author acknowledges the few logical reasons (as distinct from irrational beliefs) why some people are afraid of anal sex. She refers to her experience as a sex educator who has taught workshops and classes on various sexual techniques. She explains that a woman student once asked her: "After the initial penetration of a guyês cock in your ass, when should it start to feel good?"

Apparently Tristan answered: "Honey, it should be feeling good all along, and if itês not, then somethingês wrong." She goes on to explain the advice she gave to the woman and her male partner: "go slow, do plenty of warm-up, and, if it hurts at all, stop without any