From Issue 2.2 - October/November 1995
Carol Queen writes some of the best smut this side of the Mississippi. Don't you ever wonder how she got such a wonderfully dirty mind? Her newest offering, Exhibitionism for the Shy (Down There Press, 1995), is the theory behind the practice. In just a few easy lessons, you too can be a sexual show-off.
Jaded Bay Area sexperts may find the early chapters slow going; this is Sex-Positive Thinking 101, not Advanced Perversion. This is a basic guide for the bashful woman in Idaho whose husband gives her frothy negliges for Christmas, and for the retiring man whose lover whispers "talk to me" in the dark. Queen leads her readers out of their own private closets and into the world of hot and healthy erotic display. Give her a few chapters, and you'll find yourself wondering just how many extra pairs of fishnets you have on hand...just in case.
Queen, a doctoral candidate at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, illuminates the dark corners of the erotic imagination. With creative and playful suggestions and exercises, she coaxes the brazen hussy out of even the most shrinking violet. Queen treats exhibitionism -- defined here as "deliberately presenting yourself in an erotic way for your own enhanced sexual arousal," -- as a general cultural tsunami wave that the individual can ride. Even if you never leave the safety of your own bedroom, you can explore the range of your own turn-ons with porn, fantasy role-play and your favorite sex toys.
As always, Queen celebrates the role of the sex worker in sex education. She writes engagingly and realistically about those of us who make exhibitionism a way of life while paying the rent. The list of "Dirty Words and Phrases" alone is worth the price of the book, and could make your great aunt Mabel sound like a 900-line pro. Work it, girl!