East and West
So this post over at Sexual Spiritualist got me thinking about the origins of my sexual issues, and how the scene helped save me from a life of complete and utter sexual neurosis (leaving me with only a slightly larger than reasonable share*, because I’ve noticed that still, here I am, a person with a pretty high sex drive who hardly ever actually has any sex.)
I don’t know when I became so afraid of interactive sexuality. I know it must have started young, because I remember blowing off one of my first dates in high school because I was so scared I thought I was going to throw up. I do know I was always highly arousable. I remember frantically masturbating to the romance novels I would borrow from camp counselors, or to the Clan of the Cave Bear, from approximately the age of around 11. Still younger, in third or fourth grade, I remember playing very sexual bondage games with two Filipino girls, and being turned on by playing doctor with my then best friend (although I didn’t understand what the sensations were at the time.)
So when did it change? It was before what I think was my first date, when after I got home he called a friend of mine to ask her out and called me a “frigid bitch,” because I was too nervous to kiss him at the door (This date, for the record, is why I hate the film Broadcast News.) Although that certainly didn’t help, I was clearly already nervous at the time. Maybe it was the stress of junior high school. Maybe it was early onset sex education. Who knows. What it meant was that I didn’t really date much until graduate school, because I was so damn nervous that I might a) have to have sex and b) be expected to know what the hell I was doing in a manner that wasn’t purely theoretical. I remained highly sexual, thinking about sex far more than I thought a girl should and masturbating on a daily basis, I just didn’t touch anyone else - or let them touch me. And then I discovered the scene…
The thing about public masochism that appealed to me was that it seemed so safe. So easy. People would touch me, as I longed for, fleetingly or with great intensity, but only in strictly circumscribed ways and if I said “stop” they would. The best part was that with BDSM I wasn’t expected to know anything. It was okay to be new at things and to be inexperienced. I wouldn’t have to worry about sex, or being laughed at. I wouldn’t have to be concerned about STDs or pregnancy or skill; I could just enjoy sharing time and space with someone. They’d touch me, they’d hurt me, and we’d both enjoy it, and I’d learn things and it would all be fine.
And I got good at it. I was a pretty good bottom, and I could bottom to novice tops and help them, and people actually wanted to play with me, and I developed enough self confidence that my boundaries slowly shifted further and further towards a comfort with sexuality. The scene also gave me the opportunity to learn that there are people to whom I could say things like “I’m nervous about my sexual skills, I really want you to instruct me in these things,” and for whom doing so would be a turn on. But here’s the thing…
I don’t know if I could have gotten there if I’d started off in an area where sex was on the table at scene events. I don’t know if I would have gone to public play spaces, and played with lots of people, and become comfortable with my body if going to those spaces would have meant that I had to actively think about dealing with sex. I don’t know if I would be who I am, sexually and kinkily, if I had “come out” on the west coast.
I know I would still be a masochist. I know I would still be a bottom. I know I would still be queer, but I don’t know how much of it I would be acting on. I know I would still have a vivid fantasy life, but I don’t know how much of it would ever have become reality. It’s possible that had I matured on the west coast, I’d have even fewer issues because I would have been forced to include sex as part of my kink from the beginning. On the other hand it’s also possible that I’d spend even more time alone in my room with my vibrator and my knives. Or that, at this point, I’d identify solely as a lesbian rather than as bisexual.
I don’t know. I know a lot of people who grew up in the West Coat scene, a lot of the people I love grew up out there, but I’m glad I started out where I did. I think that, as Adam says, they both have things to recommend them. But I’m glad I came of age where I did, as late as it might have been. And I’m very thankful for the Baltimore/Washington scene for being as welcoming as it was, and giving me not only some wonderful experiences, but some wonderful friends.
It’s hard to write this stuff, particularly as I get to know more and more of the people who are reading this blog (it was much easier when I was talking to an empty universe full of unknown readers). On the other hand, I think it’s useful. Both for me, as an exercise in vulnerability and thinking things out, and for other people for whom sexuality may not be that easy. Because I know that for a long time, I thought that I was alone in that, and a freak in a bad way, for having so many worries and issues about sex. These days, I know I’m not, and while I would like to be a little more open to the possibility of sexual experiences with a larger number of people, I’m also really happy about a number of things. I’ve never had really bad sex. I lost my virginity pretty late, but did so in two absolutely amazing experiences (both bisexual threesomes, the first of which included just about everything except intercourse, mostly things I had never done before). Most importantly, perhaps, I only have one sexual experience that I even have slight qualms over my choices in. So, while my issues have given me problems they’ve also given me gifts. I choose to remember that. And, maybe, in the new year, I’ll get to be both smarter and have sex more often… You never know
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*Which is why, in the rare case I find someone who I’m actually comfortable having sex with and enjoy having sex with, I kind of want to jump them all the damn time. I need to figure out how to acquire more people like this. Preferably ones who don’t come with Complications and who regularly want to jump me too


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