By Airial Clark
Have you ever used the phrase, ‘They wrote the book on it!’ to describe someone’s depth of knowledge, passion or commitment to a subject? Well, with Dossie Easton, it is in no way an understatement to say that when it comes to sexual relationships involving BDSM, kink, and polyamory,
she wrote the books.  |
| Copyright 2011 Shilo McCabe |
When I sat down in Dossie’s kitchen, I realized that I was looking into the eyes of a woman who has co-written the five books that whole communities of sexually alternative people live by. She and Janet Hardy have published texts that frankly and honestly guide people on how to explore their sexuality. Shilo and I are so grateful to have had the opportunity to photograph and speak with Dossie in her home.
This is the first of three posts covering our interview with Dossie that we will be bringing to you throughout the month of June.
If you are curious about sex and power, sex and love, sex with other people, sex and your own soul, read her books. The core of Dossie’s body of work is about consent. Which is why it is so radical. Do you want to fight the oppressive paradigm around sex, the soul and the body? Then learn how to ask for what you want, learn how to say no to what you don’t want, and learn how to respect the boundaries of your sexual and intimate partners. This is the how to knowledge that Dossie and Janet provide. For a list of their books, with a synopsis of each, click here to go to Dossie’s website.
http://www.dossieeaston.com/books.html These are five texts that everyone should read, and again, this is not an understatement.
Dossie Easton is the elder of our kinky, poly, BDSM tribes. She has a wisdom that can only come from years of experience, and lucky for us, she knows it. “There aren’t many of us left who were there at the start of these revolutions.” Her next project is an autobiographical portrait of the 1960’s. Dossie has two reasons for writing this book. “One as a memoir of my life,” she says, “but also a reminder from where we’ve come from. How different it was before the struggle. I’m starting at the beginnings of the sexual revolution, of feminism, of gay liberation.” In describing the past, Dossie will let us know how far we’ve come. She has seen that, “People forget how everything was illegal, and they would throw you in jail for it. The white out on information was incredible. There were no books.” In a time when sometimes we may feel like we are on information overload it is easy to take the works of Dossie and Janet for granted.
Here’s an assignment for you, dear traveler of the interwebs that brought you to our page: get your hands on one of Dossie’s books. Like a real actual physical copy, read it in a public place and see what happens. Then come back here for part 2 of the interview where Dossie dishes on the current BDSM scene.
