Product Description

Everyone wants a more interesting and fulfilling erotic life. With that in mind, this book was written to give guidance to one popular style of erotic play which the author calls "leathersex"-sexuality that may include S/M, bondage, dominance, submission, fantasy, role playing, sensual physical stimulation, and fetish, to name just a few. If you are simply curious about leathersex, or if you already enjoy its pleasures but want to learn more, this book is for you!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #511938 in Books
• Published on: 1994
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 217 pages

Review
Bean is a deeply established teacher in the leather canon, and this is definitely the best of bedside Bean! -- Jack Fritscher, PhD, author of Some Dance to Remember: A Novel of San Francisco 1970-1982, and Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera.

Joseph Bean's work has been absolutely fundamental in our understanding of sexual diversity. -- Mark Thompson, editor of Leatherfolk

Leathersex has a wealth of practical information to guide the novice as well as the experienced player to deeper understanding. -- Justin Tanis, author of Transgendered Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith and newsletter editor of the Leather Archives & Museum

From the Author
Allow me to tell you something about myself which may help you to decide whether this book can have any value for you: I have recently undertaken the mastery of a new slave. The months or years ahead are to be devoted to his training. This means I will guide him into behaviors and states where his service to me provides me with a comfortable, convenient, erotically challenging and completely satisfying life. He will do anything I ask. He will take care of my home and my body. He will be beaten and tortured. He will provide me with sex, and see that is emotionally safe and physically easy for me to do whatever I choose, even if that means flogging others or having sex with them. We share the burden of the life we are embarking upon, even if the scales seem very much tipped in my favor.

From the Inside Flap
When I took my first tentative steps into the leather world over 15 years ago, the only things guiding me were lies and myths. Deviant sex is bad. Its practitioners are sick, or worse-evil. Even to admit to masochistic feeling is a sign of unpardonable weakness. It was hard to imagine more fearsome boogiemen at the gates of exploration than these.

Yet somehow I managed to get past the totems of taboo and indulge long pent-up desire. Getting there is half the fun, the saying goes, but how much the better for me and others if I had been able to count on the type of reliable insight offered in the following pages by Joseph W. Bean.

One of the things I know now i didn't know then, is that entering the realm of leathersex is really about coming into one of the most vibrant communities of men and women around. It took years before I could trust the integrity of my instincts or be honest about the need locked in my fantasies. Those twin demons of guilt and shame had conspired well to keep me from knowing others who had explored radical sexuality and had lessons to teach.

Customer Reviews

an excellent enyclopedia for leathermen of all levels
Joseph Bean does an outstanding job of explaining, demystifying and clarifying many aspects of BDSM. It is from a gay male perspective and would probably not be of tremendous interest to hets or lesbians, but gay & bi/pansexual bio- & transmen should thoroughly enjoy Bean's work, no matter what their level of involvement in BDSM. He covers a wide variety of topics ranging from leather to bondage, BDSM relationships to finding partners, play parties to tools, etc. Plus Bean focuses on the importanct of the safe, sane & consensual principles. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Words for thought in the novice or experienced mind.
It can be difficult to balance between talking down to those who will feel they have a lot of experience in BDSM and tallking over those who are just learning about BDSM. This book does a good job of looking at a wide range of activities and interests, some of them for the first time, so that newbies can feel grounded while advanced kinky folk can mull over the concepts. Even though the book grew out of Bean's own journey toward becoming a master, I think the book can speak to anyone regardless of vanilla sexual orientation. However the book often reads more like it is geared toward the bottom or submissive partner in a relationship.

This should be part of your Core Library holdings in BDSM
This is a "foundation book." A "must read." Joseph, one of the select few who have shaped the Leather culture in this country, wrote this timeless book in part so that those not (yet) involved in the Leather culture could develop a better understanding of what it is and how it works. But it is also intended for those of us who have some years of experience, here. For this book batches and sorts in ways that help us better to uderstand others with slightly different kinks. His chapter organizations are inspired and his writing style is easy to follow. As I've said: a "must read."