The Beauty of Snakes

I want to point you towards this post on the brilliant Eros Blog. Over eighteens, take a look at the stunning erotic photos and thoughtful discussion.

Served, On Wheels

My short story, Served, On Wheels, which features sex on roller skates, will appear in Sex, Love and Valentines (Xcite) in early 2010.

Roll with me?

In Defense of Humble Head

"A puzzling misnomer to many, to blow in this context is probably a euphemism for ejaculate, a usage occasionally recorded in the 1950s. This may itself be influenced by the there she blows of whaling cliche. An alternative and equally plausible derivation of blow job is from the black jazz musicians' hip-talk expression blow, meaning 'play' (an instrument). This term probably caught on in Britain and Australia simply because there was no well-known alternative in existence."

From Tony Thorne's definition of Blow Job from The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (Pantheon), quoted from Antonya Nelson's "Blow Job" essay in, Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, edited by Ellen Sussman.

The sex-scene I wrote in a recent class was planned to be moving rather than hot. When I got the feedback from my fellow students, one woman had written, "You make head sound so romantic!" Naturally, I was flattered, but why are we so stunned when blow jobs are shown to be beautiful? Surely the very intimacy of mouth-to-sex is entirely befitting of romance. I mean, we can get down-and-dirty too, no doubt about it -- but the blow job gets a lot of flack and seems to often be viewed as some "halfway house." Plus is there an element of sexism involved, too? After all, I can't think of many cunnilingus jokes...but is that just because no one shares them with me? Snort.

I like it that the term "blow job" may have come from jazz musician talk. Why not think of oral sex as a kind of crescendo? And as for the "there she blows" of whaling speak, now, that's intriguing. (The first time I saw a whale "blow" like that, I thought, Hmm, that's ejaculation, honey. But this, of course, could just be my skewed mind...).

See, I'm speaking out in defense of the humble blow job. Surely it's one of the most erotic of acts to take your lover's sex in your mouth...well, hell, what have we become? This is kissing, isn't it? I'm all for kissing.

But what strikes me most about the above definition, which you have to admit is elegantly scribed, is the thought that before 'blow job' we didn't name the act. How could such a gift be so unspoken, so anonymous? Why do we denigrate sensation? Answer me that.