Guide To Getting It On

Rating:
Submitted 2008-03-30
By Fired Up from USA

Yes, this is a book written by a straight vanilla man. I gifted both my sons with this book when they each started spending lotsa time behind closed doors in early puberty. The illustrations are sex-positive and graphic....my choice for running interference on all the smutty junk-food porn they'll inevitably bump up against during their sexual lives. This book rocks as a comprehensive guide for young men exploring their sexuality! When I gave it to my youngest at the tender age of 13, I suggested that when he hears something from peers he knows to be untrue (there's teeth down there!), that he can be a source of real information and education. I'm happy to report that two years later, he tells me he and his girlfriend have decided not to have sex for a long long time....he wants the first ("and every") time to be magical and for them both to be emotionally mature. I believe that the info in this book...especially about the differences between sex and intimacy have positively influenced to take such a mature attitude. This is not a book for those of us who've been around the block multiple times (tho I learned stuff!), but an excellent guide for a mostly straight male sexual newbie, and a wonderful stepping stone into the vast world of erotic pleasure...

Non-inclusive, disappointing
Rating:
Submitted 2008-02-19
By Anon from

I'd give this one zero stars if I could. Sure, it explicitly says that it focuses on heterosexual relationships, but... c'mon. This book relies on tired old stereotypes of sex and sexual acts. (For instance, cunnilingus is "icky" and this book seeks to reassure the reader that it is not "icky.") Plus, it assumes that a man has a penis, a woman has a vagina, a man is masculine, a woman is feminine, a man prefers to top and penetrate a woman, a woman prefers to be "filled up" and on the bottom, et cetera et cetera. So it excludes a lot of straight people as well because not everyone fits into this tired old stereotype. And if you're a straight woman, be warned that this book really caters to straight men. Plus, it focuses much more on men than on women. I mean, a whole chapter devoted to an anatomy of balls and another whole chapter devoted to the foreskin? Where's the chapter, for instance, that talks about the four hormones of the menstruation cycle? Avoid this book if you don't want to read sport metaphors (example: the cunnilingus section), if you are not in a heteronormative relationship, or if you don't want to read parental advice (because sex inevitably leads to having children, duh).

If you've never had sex maybe this is good
Rating:
Submitted 2008-01-01
By Anon from new york

...but overall this book is a letdown. Very predictable, not particularly enlightening. If you're looking for something to make your sex better, this isn't it

It was okay
Rating:
Submitted 2007-09-01
By HD from Ontario, Canada

It's pretty comprehensive and perfectly fine if you're a relatively vanilla straight monogamous couple, but I didn't appreciate the tone of voice it assumed from time to time. The author seems to, perhaps subconciously, give a negative attitude toward anything kink-related and anything that wasn't, well... relatively vanilla straight monogamous sex. Considering the great reviews I'd found for this book on various sex-ed websites, I'd expected more from it. When they introduced chapter 45 "Kinky Corner" with this: "Readers will hopefully appreciate that vanilla is The Guide's favorite flavor", I just about threw the book across the room. It was very funny and informative in a great many places. But if you want something that doesn't just skim the safe surface of sex, this one isn't for you.