Archive for category bodylove
Publicly Viewing Bodysex
Posted by Marisa Black in bodylove, Bodysex, feminism, masturbation on February 21, 2013
[cross-posted here]
The room was full last Friday for a public viewing of the Bodysex Workshop DVD in Portland, Oregon, where I make my home. I had hoped we’d have twenty-five people show up, and almost twice that number attended. Many friends were in the room, and seeing their curious, supportive faces in the audience calmed my loudly thumping heart. I’d hosted a private viewing in my home last year, but this was the first time I’d shown it publicly, my own body, face, cunt, and orgasm flickering on the screen behind me.
Emerging as My Primary Partner
Posted by Marisa Black in bodylove, Bodysex, identity, marriage, masturbation, polyamory, relating on December 17, 2012
[cross-posted here]
It started with a glance that stretched into a gaze. I was looking at her, really looking, after barely-looking for months. I took the moment, savored the time.
I saw the curve of her jaw, the way her lips rested together, the tension in her forehead that smoothed out as I continued to look. We were matched, eye to eye. I noticed the red rings, the puffy places under her bottom lashes. She’d been crying.
As the gaze lingered, under the spotlights of being seen, something shifted in her eyes. She was basking in being seen as much as I relished doing the seeing. It felt like forever since we’d done this. I had missed her, missed noticing her actively, instead of just passively hauling her around my life.
Eventually, I broke the spell when I stepped back from the mirror by the back door. I flipped off the light, picked up my towel, and went outside to the hot tub.
Bike Smut Making Its Way Across North America
Posted by Marisa Black in bodylove, feminism, media, sex on September 21, 2012
[cross-posted here]
You really don’t want to miss this. If it is remotely possible to get yourself to a showing of Bike Smut as it crosses North America, I urge you to make it happen. Minneapolis gets it Saturday 9/22. Milwaukee gets it Thursday 9/27. Then Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, and more. In fact, you might be able to get Bike Smut to come (or cum) to you. Write them at bikesmut@gmail.com. The tour is in process. See bikeporntour for the ever-updated information.
Portland, Seattle, Bend, Salt Lake, Boulder, Denver, Ft. Collins, Bozeman – we’ve already been gloriously Bike Smutted. And it was good. So very very good.
What is it? you’re probably wondering. Because they say is so damn well, I’m taking this right off their tour site:
This Summer I Discovered My Bikesexuality
Posted by Marisa Black in bodylove, feminism, sex on September 1, 2012
[cross-posted here]
This was my designated Summer To Get On A Bike. (Eventually I also came to think of it as Getting Off On A Bike.) Perhaps it was overdue, or perhaps it happened right on time. But early last spring I vowed that I would not go another summer without spending a significant portion of it on a bicycle.
During the first few weeks, I was sore and raw and I cringed at the prospect of mounting up. Getting my crotch accustomed to the pressure was a challenge. But in a surprisingly short period of time, long stints became much easier, even pleasurable, on my tender bits.
Part of that ease and pleasure was perseverance, as well as installing a cushy, wide saddle for my ample hips and ass. Then I got some padded shorts. I wasn’t about to let soreness between my legs dissuade me from my goal.
My First Bodysex Viewing Party
Posted by Marisa Black in body, bodylove, Bodysex, feminism, masturbation, sex on March 8, 2012
[cross-posted here]
With the lights dimmed, I sat at the back of the room. Flickering light and shadow were flung across the faces of eight women sitting on couches and chairs in an arc around the screen. It was my first time watching Bodysex with anyone other than my partner.
Plans are underway for a public showing, but I wanted to start with a private viewing in my home. I sent the invitation to 38 women, specifying that this first event would be female-only. Most of the people I invited were familiar with the project, but for those who weren’t, I included the following: “The film documents Betty Dodson’s sex-education workshops, which she ran for twenty-five years. Fair warning as you decide whether you wish to attend: the seven participants (including me) are nude, show their genitals, and learn various masturbation techniques.” I felt it was important to be candid about the content. The last thing I needed was someone showing up without a clear understanding of what they would see.
Sex is for Fat People Too
Posted by Marisa Black in body, bodylove, Bodysex, sex on March 6, 2012
[cross-posted here]
Yes, yes, I’ve heard it before. Sex is active, it’s physical. So if you’re in good shape, the sex will be better. There are a couple of things, though, that we should clear up. First of all, fitness and fatness are not mutually exclusive. Secondly, sex is not only for those whose “good shape” isn’t fat. Sex is for everybody. Every. Body.
Since I’m broaching this topic, perhaps I should get personal about my own flesh. Whether or not I personally qualify as a fat person is debatable. My body waxes and wanes. I’ve talked about that in Feeling (about) My Body, where you can see a picture of me in the buff. And I also talked about it on the Bodysex video, where you can not only see me in the buff but also watch me masturbate. Sometimes I’m biggish, sometimes I’m smallish. Some call me overweight. Plump. Full-figured. Chubby. Womanly. Butterball. Rubenesque. BBW. Others roll their eyes at such assessments and say I’m not “that” big. At this point in my life, I’m trying not to attach too much importance to the bigness or smallness of my body. It’s easier said than done, not attaching importance, but I’m still trying.
After coming home from the Bodysex filming, my body and I entered a waning phase (see wax and wane, above). When people see me and tell me that I “look great!” and ask if I’ve lost weight, I generally smile and shrug. “It comes and it goes,” I tell them vaguely. If I get too hung up on feeling “great!” that other people like my body, then my self-worth is externalized and it becomes too easy to feel shitty about myself if/when I enter a waxing phase, or encounter someone who judges my body as less-than-great.
With that caveat, that I may or may not qualify as a fat person, I want to open up the discussion about fat sex.
Surfing the Waves of Emotion and Physiology
Posted by Marisa Black in body, bodylove, menstruation, sex on February 5, 2012
[cross-posted here]
The pressure builds slowly, sometimes imperceptibly. I can almost forget about it. But at a certain point, the tautness can no longer be overlooked or dismissed. Lately I’ve conceived of this mounting pressure as a balloon filling, slowly at first, and gaining momentum as the weeks pass. By the end, before my balloon releases, the pressure demands notice, requires my attention.
One of my earliest posts here and on Dodson and Ross was an attempt to earnestly and poetically express my feelings about my menstrual period. As a new blogger, I remember being rattled by the comment thread at D&R that followed, and have generally avoided the topic since. Of course I don’t want to reduce women and the female experience to hormones and menstruation. But to deny its impact on my life, inner and outer, would be disingenuous, especially as it relates to my sex and sexuality.
Bodysex Workshop Video Available
Posted by Marisa Black in bodylove, Bodysex, masturbation on November 28, 2011
If you’ve been reading here, you are aware that I participated in the filming of Betty Dodson’s Bodysex Workshop.
The video is available online now, with DVDs being released within the month.
Plans for viewing parties in Portland are underway. If you don’t live in Portland, can’t wait for a party, or want to watch privately, clickety-click here.
I am proud to have participated and very pleased with the result. Seeing my beautiful comrades again on video brought back the rush of deep fondness I feel toward them and the crew.
Our hope is that others will feel compelled to host their own Bodysex groups. May the ripple of sexual consciousness spread!
Feeling (about) My Orgasm: Question Two for Bodysex
Posted by Marisa Black in body, bodylove, Bodysex, orgasm on November 22, 2011
[cross-posted here]
The second of the two questions in our Bodysex circle framed my answers to both. How do I feel about my orgasm? I hadn’t considered it before. At least not directly. Do I feel anything specifically about my orgasm? I asked myself. Or do I simply feel my orgasm?





