Maggie Berman - Sex Tips for Straight Women From a Gay Man

You probably heard about sex long before your folks ever got around to explaining the facts of life. If you were a boy, you quickly learned that you possessed some anatomical equipment that could make you feel pretty good in addition to its use for making babies. As a girl, the pleasures of your anatomy were probably a little less obvious. But whether you shared a room with your brother or went to nudist colonies on family vacations, you knew that what boys had was really different and, somehow, sublimely intriguing. Lest you think that this is a lead-in to a classic Freudian scenario, we want to set the record straight. In the eloquent words of one wise father whose young daughter burst into the bathroom while he was showering and said, “Daddy, I want one of those ”: “Emily, if you have one of those, ” he said, pointing back, “you can always get one of these. ”

So with the myth of penis envy dispelled, the problem, if you were a girl, was that you learned how all those parts functioned from your parents or from the oh-so-carefully-worded books they gave you, or maybe from watching sequences on Wild Kingdom. Still, the mating hippopotami on television conveyed little information beyond the mechanics of the “doggie style” position. The female hippopotamus appeared, shall we say, as though she couldn’t care less. And why not? She seemed to be functioning as a willing, passive receptacle without a care in the world, much less wondering if he was thinking, “Gee, this is really one hot hippo mama.”

Without disparaging the joys of the animal kingdom, we human beings are blessed with the additional consciousness of the physiological and emotional pleasures associated with sex. Moreover, we are taught from an early age to excel at whatever we do. But again, girls are faced with a classic dilemma. Sure, they can “use what they’ve got to get what they want,” but without full-time possession of all the tools, girls face an obvious disadvantage in having to hone their skills on temporary loan equipment. And remember, practice makes perfect.

So where does a woman go to learn more about sex? When you are younger, the only really down-and-dirty talks you could have about sex were with your girlfriends, and best girlfriends at that! Remember those pajama parties where everyone made a fist and practiced kissing their hands? How about putting on lipstick and kissing the mirror to determine what was just the right amount your lips should be parted for a kiss? How about a kiss kiss? And what about the once-dreaded but later sought-after French kiss? Okay, you say, that’s kid stuff, what about when girls get older? We offer as Exhibit A any Thursday night in the cramped cubicle of a sorority house or women’s dorm. The conversation revolves around who did or didn’t “go all the way,” [1] The phrase going all the way was a polite way of describing sexual intercourse prior to the 1960s. Post-1960s vernacular would, undoubtedly, use the more descriptive but less metaphoric term to get laid or to hook up. what some jerky guy tried to do or maybe, just maybe, the virtues of vibrators for taking the edge off all that exam-cramming. These talks are a great way to compare notes but not one girlfriend could really tell you what was going on in the guy’s head, or any other part of his body, for that matter.

When you were a bit older, maybe you had a boyfriend or husband who would string together a couple of choice words like “Wow, that was great!” But such nondescript utterances offered few clues about what you actually did that was so great. Obviously, both men and women know that it is poor bedroom etiquette to point out the faults of one’s partner. So how does a woman know what was great? How does she know if be liked it because of what she specifically did or because he’s a satisfied and contented good sport? Ask any woman who has ever said to a guy, “Do you like it like this or do you like it like that?” and the answer most probably was. “I like whatever you do.” Men are gracious and, furthermore, they know well enough not to let the screen door hit them on the way out.

So women don’t have the equipment to practice what feels good on themselves. Even those fortunate enough to have had a boy toy, a lover, or a husband cannot really count on getting an honest report card or performance evaluation. Women know that they are usually not going to find out anything real from their partners if that partner happens to be a man. So what’s a woman to do? The only truly accurate way to learn the sexual tricks of the trade, or what makes a guy really moan, is to go straight to the source: a man. This man needs to be someone special, who not only knows his own preferences but who has had the opportunity to know the preferences of a number of other guys. Who better than an honest-to-goodness gay man? He knows things most straight guys don’t even know about themselves.

This handy little book is not written as a clinical manual, and it’s not primarily designed to help a woman snare a guy. It does offer inside tips that only an expert would know. And it certainly makes no guarantees that if you learn the tips you’ll be the most popular woman this side of Bangkok. Rather, Sex Tips is like a good coach for the sport or our choice. It gives women the inside track, direct from the source, on how to do what you already do, only better. And, along the way, it mentions some other things that make guys feel really great. Most important, it describes in detail how to do them. As with any exercise program, we recommend a thorough checkup with your physician before beginning. Do what’s right for you, what’s right for your partner, and feel free to pass on anything you choose.

If you’re a youthful novice or a thrice-married veteran, you probably want to be terrific at one of life’s most pleasurable activities. Whether it’s with your boyfriend, your husband or the pizza delivery boy, Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man can only make it better. And if you’re lucky enough to have it great already, think of all the fun you’ll have practicing.

The idea for this hook arose several years ago during a series of conversations between Danny and Maggie, who have been best friends for many years. Early on in our relationship we established a pattern of close talks over vodka gimlets at our favorite neighborhood bar. We talked about work, we talked about haircuts, we talked about clothes, but usually after the third gimlet, we talked about men—how to find them and how to keep them. If one of us went out on a date, we talked about the guy and what we did, but we never really talked about sex. “Did you get lucky?” was hardly a question we needed to ask, because if one of us did, we were probably on the telephone at three in the morning telling the other about it. We were like any other two best friends except Danny was a gay man and Maggie was a straight woman.

When Maggie began dating a man who bought, but was too chicken to wear, a bright yellow Versace jacket, and had silver service for twelve and several Bruce Weber photographs on his wall, we suspected he was gay. Only then did our cocktail conversations turn to sex. It wasn’t that this guy kept turning her over and poking her in the rear. It was something less definite. “What does he like?” Danny asked. “What did he do? What did you do?” Whatever it was, there was something missing, and Maggie couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She was feeling insecure because if this guy really was gay, then she felt she had no chance of making him happy in bed. Why? Because somehow Maggie knew that there must be something really special about gay sex because all these guys were doing it. It’s not that he wasn’t trying hard, it’s just that he wasn’t getting hard. It was like trying to stuff a marsh-mallow into a keyhole. She also knew that the idea of donning a pink bustier, edible undies and strawberry massage oil wouldn’t cut it. It wasn’t her style. “What can I do?” she finally asked in desperation.