Plug it In: The Many Joys of Sex Toys Takes It to the Next Level  

With the proliferation of women-friendly/women-owned sex shops and the vast shopping opportunities of the Internet, the days of trying to buy a vibrator at a XXX porn shop out by the airport are long gone. But even with the uber-friendly staff and folk music playing in the background, sex shops can be intimidating. Like shopping for a new computer, the endless models, upgrades and attachments can make your head spin. And, let's face it, sometimes it's just too difficult to ask a complete stranger about the intricacies of anal bead insertion.

Anne Semans' The Many Joys of Sex Toys not only saves us the embarrassment of sex shop demonstrations, it reads like a pleasure recipe book--helping to plan out dozens of sexual activities. A long-time sex toy expert, Semans has worked at several women-run sex toy businesses, including San Francisco's famous Good Vibrations. The co-author of several other manuals, Sexy Mamas: Keeping Your Sex Life Alive While Raising Kids and The Woman's Guide to Sex on the Web to name a few, Semans knows how to talk about sex.

She attributes her quest for sexual knowledge to her Catholic upbringing, specifically an eighth grade moment when a nun instructed the religion class to think of hamburgers every time their thoughts turned impure. Semans extensive knowledge of these appliances helps deconstruct the mystique around sexual technology. The book strives to educate the reader about everything from the intimidating Hitachi Magic Wand with g-spot attachment to the simple Fukuoku finger vibrator. Semans' simple language and easy-going style will soothe even the most terrified technophobes.

The author's main goal is to remove the stigma of sex toys as the companions of lonely women and introducing them into couple's love play. "Sex toys create new possibilities," Semans writes in her introduction, "for better orgasms, for new positions, for finding erogenous zones, and for improved communication."

The bulk of the book is made up of twenty-five sexual activities that can be livened up with sex toys. These range from simply introducing a finger vibrator into a hand job to employing a strap-on, remote controlled, no-hands vibrator while getting it on doggie-style. Semans takes care to walk through the sex play from first arousal, then gives pointers about introducing the toy and even provides variations for individual adaptation. The activities are aimed at heterosexual couples, but she insists that those of any orientation can adapt her methods.

Interspersed among the activities and illustrations by artist Phoebe Gloeckner (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), are ten erotic stories that bring to life the ways in which sex toys can spice up everything from Thanksgiving dinner to a bus ride downtown. These stories--complete with the 'thundering orgasms' that typically mar the believability of this genre--actually work really well in this guide, helping to demonstrate exactly what Semans is suggesting.

While sex manuals often state the obvious--or in the case of Tantric manuals, the seemingly impossible--Semans' guide offers a number of innovative methods that might invigorate even the most adventurous of couples. Definitely a sex book for the twenty-first century, The Many Joys of Sex Toys manages to make battery-powered technology a natural part of a healthy sex life. Next time you find yourself red-faced, confused, and distracted in a sex shop, pick up Semans' book and you'll be good to go.

*Neelanjana Banerjee is a writer and poet, currently working on her master's degree in creative writing at San Francisco State University.