Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century (50 page)

Shopping

Babeland (
www.babeland.com
)

Babeland is one of the best sex shops anywhere. With retail stores in New York and Seattle, their website is more than just a store. It features a huge reference and sex-help section.

Bliss for Women (
www.bliss4women.com
.au)

Maureen Matthews’s Bliss for Women is Australia’s premier sensuality boutique for women and their partners. Located in downtown Melbourne, Bliss’s online store ships Australia-wide.

Blowfish (
www.blowfish.com
)

Blowfish sells sex and sensuality products of every description, from the mild to the wild. Blowfish caters to all genders, persuasions, orientations, and varieties of relationships.

Come As You Are (
www.comeasyouare.com
)

Canada’s first cooperatively-run sex toy, book, and video store approaches sexuality with respect, openness, humor, communication, and responsibility. Come As You Are is service and community oriented, accessible, and disability positive.

Condomania (
www.condomania.com
)

America’s first condom store has grown into a sex shop with lots more than just condoms. However, condoms are still their first priority. Condomania is a good source for TheyFit condoms, the world’s first sized-to-fit condom line, with condoms available in fifty-five custom-fit sizes.

Good Vibrations (
www.goodvibes.com
)

Good Vibrations isn’t just a huge online and retail sex shop, but a legendary worker-owned, sex-positive cooperative enterprise, providing all manner and description of sex information, toys, videos, DVDs, books, and community events.

Grand Opening (
www.grandopening.com
)

Proprietrix Kim Airs runs this creative online sex-positive boutique.

Natural Contours (
www.natural-contours.com
)

Candida Royalle’s ergonomically designed three-speed vibrators are beautiful, quiet, and sexy.

Stormy Leather (
www.stormyleather.com
)

Stormy Leather is San Francisco’s leading manufacturer and retailer of leather lingerie, corsets, street wear, and adult toys. The retail store also hosts classes and art shows.

Versatile Fashions (
www.versatile-fashions.com
)

Mistress Antoinette’s fetish fashion creations include corsets, catsuits, and original designs for all genders, shapes, and sizes.

A Woman’s Touch (
www.a-womans-touch.com
)

This is the website for the sex-positive retail store in Madison, Wisconsin, which focuses on “celebrating romance and sensuality from a woman’s perspective.”

BODY ADORNMENTS

Body Circle Designs (
www.bodycircle.com
)

This site sells gorgeous body-piercing jewelry.

Flesh (
www.andromeda-nyc.com
)

You can find more lovely body jewelry at Flesh’s online store.

Tribalectic (
www.tribalectic.com
)

With over 70,000 items to choose from, Tribalectic’s claim that it’s “the largest catalog of body jewelry in the universe” certainly could be true.

TwirlyGirl (
www.twirlygirl.net
)

TwirlyGirl offers fun pasties for all occasions.

People You’ll Love to Know

The following visionaries have all brought new levels of consciousness, health, and pleasure to the world. Their sites are filled with passion and wisdom. Many have online shops as well.

Kate Bornstein (
www.katebornstein.com
)

Kate is a transgender pioneer, performance artist, lecturer, workshop facilitator, and the author of
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us; My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely;
and
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws
. She’s the sweetest gender radical I know.

Betty Dodson, PhD (
www.bettydodson.com
)

The “Mother of Masturbation,” Betty is an erotic artist, sex coach, and the author of
Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving
and
Orgasms for Two: The Joy of Partnersex
. She’s a legend.

Ducky Doolittle (
www.duckydoolittle.com
)

Ducky is a sex educator, writer, and comedian, who began her professional sex career behind the glass at a 42nd Street peepshow. She is funny, touching, and wise.

Louise L. Hay (
www.hayhouse.com
;
www.louisehay.com
)

The woman who taught the world to do affirmations also founded Hay House, the premiere publisher of new thought books, audio tapes, and CDs. Louise has single-handedly moved human consciousness forward several evolutionary steps.

Idexa (
www.blackandbluetattoo.com
)

Idexa performs transformational tattooing in San Francisco.

Jwala (
www.jwalaji.com
)

Jwala is my first and favorite Tantra teacher.

Joseph Kramer, PhD (
www.eroticmassage.com
)

The founder of the Body Electric School and the New School of Erotic Touch, Joseph is a visionary erotic bodyworker.

Kutira (
www.KahuaInstitute.com
)

Kutira is a Tantrika who swims with dolphins, runs workshops, and makes beautiful music in Maui with her partner, composer Raphael.

Linda Montano (
www.bobsart.org/montano/index.html
)

Linda is a legendary performance artist and one of my favorite teachers. Linda’s work investigates the relationship between art and life, with a focus on spiritual energy states. She creates intricate life-altering ceremonies, some of which last for seven or more years.

Fakir Musafar (
www.bodyplay.com
)

The father of the modern primitive movement, Fakir has explored spirituality in art, body modifications, S/M, primitive body decoration, and rituals for fifty years. He is one of the bravest people on the planet.

Dr. Christiane Northrup (
www.drnorthrup.com
)

Internationally known for her empowering approach to women’s health and wellness, Christine is the author of
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, The Wisdom of Menopause
, and
Mother-Daughter Wisdom
. She is wise, warm, and very sex-positive.

Dr. Carol Queen (
www.carolqueen.com
)

Carol is the funniest, smartest, and sexiest writer, speaker, sex educator, and activist I know. Author of
Exhibitionism for the Shy
and
The Leather Daddy and the Femme
, among many others, Carol is dedicated to making the world safe for sex.

Candida Royalle (
www.royalle.com
)

Candida is a producer/director of porn films from a women’s perspective, the author of
How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do
, and also the creator of the Natural Contours line of vibrators.

Pat Sinatra (
www.patstats.com
)

Pat is the high priestess of tattooing, located in Kingston, New York.

Annie Sprinkle, PhD (
www.anniesprinkle.org
)

Annie is the high priestess of sex-as-art and alternative porn. A former prostitute and porn star turned artist, author, performance artist, filmmaker, sexologist, workshop facilitator, and college lecturer, Annie is the ultimate sex-positivist.

Tristan Taormino (
www.puckerup.com
)

Tristan is one of the brightest and busiest women in sex. The author of
The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women
, she’s also written countless columns, articles, and other books. Tristan also lectures, teaches, directs porn videos, and produces sexy events.

Veronica Vera (
www.missvera.com
)

Author and founder of Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, Veronica is funny, wise, and ever so stylish.

norrie m
y welby (
www.cat.org.au/ultra/ultra.html
)

Australian “spansexual” activist, norrie works on behalf of transgender and sex workers’ health and rights.

Barbara Carrellas is an author, sex educator, and theater artist. Her pioneering Urban Tantra
^®
workshops were named best in New York City by
TimeOut/New York
magazine. She is also the cofounder of Erotic Awakening, a groundbreaking series of workshops that toured the United States and Australia. Barbara has been featured in several episodes of HBO’s
Real Sex
. She is also the author of
Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure
, numerous articles and essays, and an audio series,
The Pleasure Principle
. Barbara lives in New York City with her partner, trailblazing gender theory author Kate Bornstein.

To learn more about Urban Tantra, visit
www.urbantantra.org
.