Naked Reader Book Club Discussion: Take Me There -Trans and Genderqueer Erotica, Edited by Tristan Taormino (January 24, 8-10 PM EST)

You have an excuse, I'm the oldest of 3. I just didn't start liking babies until my niece was born and let's be honest, little misses sets the bar high for babydom.

I am a pansexual female, although I have HUGE penis envy! I don't want to be seen by others as male, I just want to stroke a strap on once in a while and pretend I'm jacking off my own cock. Is that so bad? :/

Love this, can we quote you on it?


"I found more love and feeling in this book than any of the Twilight books combined."

I agree, it was a very interesting read!

Yay! Oooh. This is making coming out of lurkie lurk mode worth it! Thanks!!

I couldn't agree more. The older I get, the less relevant I feel who I'm sleeping with is to my preferred gender identity. Which is a long way of saying I mostly sleep with the opposite sex, but NEVER identify as heterosexual. For me it's definitely a political assignation.

Hi everyone! I'm one of the contributors to Take Me There (feeling humble that my story was chosen as the excerpt and overjoyed that so many folks enjoyed it!) and I'll be checking in on the convo here -- excited to hear more in depth discussion about the book and y'all's impressions/what struck you.

Blue Koi, I wanted to address your question -- though I definitely can't speak for Tristan and I didn't ask her, I doubt she had to cast a very wide net. I never saw a public call for submission on this anthology and so I'm guessing that she just put a call out to writers she knows who either were already writing trans/genderqueer erotica (such as myself) or others who were wanting to do so (such as some of the big name writers who don't usually write erotica).

Tristan has been a huge part of trans and genderqueer communities for many years and so she knows so many talented folks willing and wanting to write to this subject matter. (I can't tell you how incredibly honored I felt to be selected to appear in a book with so many well-respected and widely published/adored authors.)

Very nice trick! I'll keep that in mind next time I'm confronted with a spawn...i mean baby, lol

This is actually my first meeting and I didn't purchase the book. I have emailed Liz to get a copy. I did read the excerpt that was in a link in a previous post. I felt so close to the genderqueer character. It was almost like it was me.

We are getting an audio production of the book made and the poor narrator had a really hard time with pronunciation and all this. It was wild but will be done and properly so!

Nothing wrong with that. I'd love to be able to flip a switch and have a pussy at times, but it ain't gonna happen. At least strapping on a cock is a pretty simple option; strapping a Fleshlight between my legs would be awkward at best.

Yes! 5 gold doubloons a print and all the erotica I can stand!

ahh clever!

Welcome!!!

Welcome! Thank you so much for joining us. Your story was wonderful! I loved it!

The Live Sex show at the Masterbatathon? That was GREAT, I fell in lust with Jiz Lee cause of that!

welcome!

Hey, I'm in the same boat! I spend some time reading the discussions on the books all the time and finally realized I could join when I saw it mentioned in one of the discussions. It must have had the wrong E-mail listed because I never got a reply so I came across another E-mail for joining the book club and had no reply. Just now when I went to E-mail Liz for a copy, I saw in my email that I had not ever sent a message to her E-mail address before. Make sense? That's when I came to the conclusion that it was the wrong E-mail address I had been using! LOL. Anyways, I guess you would E-mail Liz. She posted her E-mail address above. Liz@edenfantasys.com. I could be wrong, but I'm sure someone will step in and let you know for sure.

Of course, which is why she was just the person for the job. I didn't see any calls for submissions either.

Right, then it would be "their clit." Even though it's not grammatically correct in English... you know how in Spanish, there are feminine nouns and masculine nouns? In German there are feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral nouns. And they have a "he/his" equivalent, a "she/hers" equivalent, and a "they/theirs" equivalent... they/their is (iirc, I haven't studied German in 10 years) the same thing they use for groups of people, the same way English does. "They walked to me. They took off their shirt, revealing (something nice). "

So it falls into place not so bad at all, provided you're okay with bending rules to fit languages that might be German, or might be your ten-years-distorted-me mory-of-German.

I don't think so. Though I haven't read the book. But most people who purposely buy erotica are looking for something to rev their engines. Something new and out of the ordinary humdrum sex life. What better than a little BDSM?

ooo. Now you make me want a copy. I love kink in books. I wasn't sure what all was in here since I haven't read. Still sounds interesting to get the perspective.

I don't think it would be offensive to most people. I think many of us are in the closet kinky. We'd like it if we had someone we trusted to try it with us.

Uh oh, I blew it. I'll have to tell Giselle, not Anna. But here's what Anna wrote about her perspective as a femme in "Femme Fatigue."


Anna Watson—Femme Fatigue

"I think a lot about femme invisibility and how femmes are portrayed in fiction and in smut in particular. Because our society is still so sexist, I notice that butches and trans men often get much of the attention when it comes to talking about gender queer and gender fuck and just plain queer fucking. When Tristan put out a call for a trans and genderqueer erotica anthology, I wrote asking her if she considers femmes to be a part of genderqueer, and she wrote back that she does and bring it on. I can’t remember if that’s when the title “Femme Fatigue” popped into my head or if I thought of it later, but the title came first for this one. Then the femme herself came to me and started telling me her story and I just wrote it all down.

I think a femme is gender queer in the most stealth fashion possible, because, most of the time, someone looking at a femme can’t tell that she’s queer and can’t possibly be aware of her subversive nature. You are a girl but you don’t do what girls are supposed to do. You are absolutely fucking with your gender – to paraphrase from Tristan’s intro, sex complicates gender and gender complicates sex. In my story, I write about how sometimes a girl can get tired of being the wind beneath the wings and needs to have the focus be on her, her complicated sexuality, her precious body. That the femme in “Femme Fatigue” ends up in bed with a “regular lesbian”, fucks her, eats pussy (neither of which is possible with her trans husband), ends up being another kind of genderfuck as well as some seriously transformative, transgressive sex, even though it looks like just 2 lesbians having a one-night stand."

Oh my gosh I loved that one! she even did a pretty good job making Twain's voice believable. And I just love stories set in the Civil War no matter what.

Yes,that was spectacular!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

That's not bad at all. Gender is fluid in all cases. YOU decide what parts of gender you want to express. It's for your benefit. Not anyone else's.

I love being recognized as male. I used to work at Dairy Queen (I was of course presenting as a female but I do have short hair. So I guess as a butch lesbian). My best friend was the manager. One time this customer got angry and said "Why don't you have that lil blonde boy go make me a hamburger??" My best friend and manager totally defended me. I honestly laughed when I heard what happened. I didn't mind it at all.