Front Cover for Modern Dungeon Quarterly Number 1

Edited by Perverted Imp
Published in 2012 by Perverted Imp Productions

Featuring a title that sounds like it began as a joke dreamed up late at night by friends chatting, the first issue of Modern Dungeon Quarterly is available as both a printed and electronic magazine.  Because I received the electronic copy immediately when I ordered the print copy, I began reading the e-book version instead of the hard copy.

The content in the first issue of Modern Dungeon Quarterly was all written by the editor, Perverted Imp.  This is not surprising as the first issue of most zines is typically the creation of one person.

This issue contains brief articles on dungeon safety, soundproofing, lighting, slippery floors, and floggers as well as the featured dungeon of the issue. To Modern Dungeon Quarterly’s credit, the writing in this issue is clear and easy to follow.  Unfortunately, none of the articles are particularly informative for anyone who has spent any time working on a home or public play space dungeon.

The print version of this issue presents well.  The paper is of good quality and the various photographs are much brighter and more detailed than the electronic version appeared.  Be aware that if you order the print version it is shipped in a clear plastic bag with the cover and magazine title visible – something to consider if you live in a small town and don’t want the mailman to know that you are kinky.

Even though the first issue of this zine is so-so, I hope that Perverted Imp continues to write and publish this zine.  If future issues expand on the themes explored in this issue this zine could become essential reading.  The covered topics would be very interesting and informative if covered in greater breadth and depth.

Copies of both the print and online version of Modern Dungeon Quarterly are available from their website at http://moderndungeonquarterly.com/.

Front Cover for Ageplay: From Diapers to Diplomas

By Paul Rulof
Published in 2011 by Nazca Plains Corporation

When Paul Rulof first contacted me to read and review his book Ageplay: From Diapers to Diplomas I had one reservation which was informed by the numerous bad experiences I have had reading BDSM technique books which are ruined by the inclusion of numerous fictional fantasy sequences that obfuscate more than they inform.  Given that ageplay is an activity that exists almost exclusively in the realm of fantasy, a book on the topic seemed highly likely to overindulge in such fiction and completely overwhelm any factual information it might contain.  Reading Ageplay, I discovered that this fear was wholly ungrounded.  More on that later.

Ageplay begins with a brief introduction to what ageplay is.  The first chapter also discusses three spectrums that describe different aspects of ageplay.  The first spectrum is intensity – does someone play on the weekends or do they define their entire life around their adopted role.  The second spectrum is “Symbolic vs. Literary” discusses how people assuming age roles see themselves. Are they merely adopting the role to compare to their adult selves or do they believe that their little role is central to their adult identity.  The final spectrum “Sexual vs. Nonsexual” is straightforward – does the ageplay involve sex or not.

The book progresses to discuss the demographics of ageplay which led to my one editing complaint about the book – FetLife, the kinky social networking site, is repeatedly misspelled as “Fetlife.”  While this may be nitpicky, it is the sort of error that bothers me as a reader.  While acknowledging the limitations of using FetLife to gather useful statistics on the numbers of ageplayers, Rulof makes a reasonable case that there are large number of folks interested in the ageplay.  Next Rulof discusses the reasons that people engage in ageplay before discussing the negative feelings many have about ageplayers.

Over the course of the book Rulof systematically covers multiple aspects of ageplay including roles, relationships, and activities.  He offers practical advice on how to find an ageplay partner and on how ageplay can be introduced into existing relationships. I especially enjoyed the chapter about coming out.  Rulof presents many people’s perspectives about coming out to one’s friends and family and skillfully discusses the pros and cons of coming out while advocating that each person make the decision that is right for them.

One of the best things about Ageplay is that Rulof gives equal time to covering both bigs and littles.  For those unfamiliar with the terms “bigs” and “littles,” they are ageplay terms that are comparable to the BDSM terms “tops” and “bottoms” respectively. Many books devoted to BDSM related topics are often weighted towards either tops or bottoms. The equal time in Ageplay is refreshing.

My favorite thing about Ageplay relates to the concern I mentioned before: Rulof successfully managed to write a book about a roleplay topic without falling into BDSM cliché of splicing fantasy in the middle of fact-based discussion. While Rulof does discuss the fantasy aspects of ageplay, he does so by discussing how they directly relate to the topic being discussed.  Rulof even includes an appendix which briefly lists ageplay scene ideas.

Overall Ageplay is an excellent book for anyone interested in ageplay. It is a comprehensive introduction for those beginning their exploration of this style of play and provides extensive information that also be interesting to long time ageplayers.  Highly recommended.

At any rate you can read the article here: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120203-40531.html.

You can read the article here:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/01/when_bestiality_gets_blamed_on_the_animals.html

The second news article concerns North Carolina man arrested for a crime against nature.  For some reason, when I hear of a crime against nature, I envision things like the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  However, this crime against nature merely involved relations with the landlord’s dog.  While arrests for dog fucking happen with a somewhat surprising regularity, this particular case seemed noteworthy because the veterinarian did what I can only imagine was the canine equivalent of a rape kit on the victim and the collected DNA evidence was matched to the suspect.

You can read the whole article here:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/01/09/20120109north-carolina-sex-with-dog-bestiality.html

You can read the article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45206258/ns/health-mens_health/

Front cover for The Sacred Art of Fisting

By Larry R. Shockey
Published in 2009 by Handballheaven.com

In the preface of The Sacred Art of Fisting, Shockey discloses that he ruptured his colon in a fisting scene.  That incident, and his desire to help others avoid the same fate, inspired Shockey to write a class handout that turned into this booklet.

Coming in at 24 pages including the covers, Shockey’s book concisely covers everything needed for a fisting scene with an emphasis on safety from the anatomy of the colon, supplies you’ll need for fisting play, safer fisting sex, cleaning out the colon, aftercare, and cleaning up the scene.  My favorite part is Shockey’s warning to put down plastic over the playspace after playing to avoid slips and falls from wayward lubricants on the floor. While this book is devoted to the subject of anal fisting, most of the material in it applies to vaginal fisting as well.

Shockey also spends several paragraphs discussing HIV, Hepatitis A, B, and C, MRSA, and syphilis and how to avoid spreading them during fisting play.  MRSA is an under-discussed pathogen in the context of STDs, and Shockey deserves kudos for including it here.

The Sacred Art of Fisting is a well-written reference that covers it subject in enough depth to inform, but not so much as to bore the reader with minutae or asides.  If you find a copy of the printed book, it is well worth picking up.  If you cannot find a copy of the printed booklet, it is available as a PDF at http://www.hellholesf.com/SAOF_Final_web.pdf.

Front cover for Transpired

Self-Published in 2011

In the introduction to Transpired, the creators, Hales and Zig, claim that they created the zine with the goal of removing Gender Identity Disorder and transvestic fetishism from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Physically, this zine takes an extremely low-tech approach. The layout relies heavily on handwritten and cut-and-paste pages. Unfortunately, the execution of the layout made the pages look jumbled and hard to read. While editors with a mission are often able to make their writing seem passionate, the passion of this zine’s creators turned into histrionics. The articles are long on righteous indignation and short on logic or meaningful persuasion.

The content combined with the jarring layout made Transpired a mess.  While reading a bad zine is a disappointment to me personally, I think its biggest failing is that anyone reading Transpired who was already convinced that Gender Identity Disorder and transvestic fetishism are mental illnesses would hold the zine as further evidence to support that opinion.

Front cover for Peek-A-View Volume 1

Published in 2007 by Metro Books

I imagined that these books would be relatively simple because both books consist wholly of reproductions of pinups from the 1930s through the 1960s.  However, each time I sat to try to write it, I was left with the nagging feeling that something was missing from my review.  Eventually I realized that the thing missing from my review was the same thing that was missing in the books: context.

While the pinup reproductions are printed fairly well, there is no accompanying text to the books.  While the subtitle says that the books contain pinups from the 1930s through the 1960s, there is virtually no other information available about the images inside.  While I do know some of the history of pinup art, many people do not.  As I looked at the book with the lack of information in mind, I was left with several questions.  Among them: What is the significance of pinup art?  Where did pinup art appear? Who made pinup art? Why? In the book, why were these images in particular chosen? Are they supposed to represent the best pinups in the editor’s opinion?  Perhaps they are representative samples from the major artists of the pinup era?  Perhaps they represent the works of one or two major collections?  Are these works all from American artists? The list goes on and on.

Front cover for Peek-A-View Volume 2

Sadly, it would not have taken the compiler(s) much time or space to answer these questions, and answering them would have done much to not only give the images and subject matter a place in time and culture, it would have made both the book and its images more significant.

While the books are not printed on the highest quality of paper or with the greatest printing techniques, they are adequate reproductions of pinup art.  Also, the images in these books are only printed on one side of the page, so if you would like to cut them out to use as pinups or frame them as art, you can easily do so without having to agonize over which side of the page to use, assuming you find the book cheaply enough. However, if you want something more than art reproductions, this book is very disappointing.

Front cover for SirMa’am A Southern Queer Zine Teaser Release

Published in 2011 by Sir\Ma’am

This teaser release is really short, so there isn’t much to review, but it does contain lots of art and short interviews focused on the transgendered community.  While the art didn’t blow me away, it is nice.

The thing that caught my eye was the snippet from an interview with Ali Andwele.  Asked about the Austin queer community’s acceptance of gender variance, Ali claims, “I don’t think they respect transgender and genderqueer people enough to know what pronouns to use and what nouns and verbs to use when it comes to talking about us.”

This seems an unfortunate position for Ali to take because it makes assumes that the ignorance is the result of a lack of respect rather than a lack of knowledge or experience. How much better would the world be if Ali, and others, looked at pronoun misusages as opportunities to educate instead of snubs? It takes little imagination to see that Ali’s attitude adds to the divisiveness between people. After all, if the first time someone has an encounter with a transgendered person and a potentially innocent language error is met with hostility or derision, it is reasonably to imagine that the next time they encounter a transgendered person they will be hesitant to initiate a conversation.

While I can appreciate that it would be burdensome to feel as though one had to explain their gender at length over and over again, how hard is it to correct someone’s mistake by simply saying, “It’s she, not he”?   Also, while I would be the first to concede that my knowledge of transgendered people is limited, I cannot help but imagine they face much larger obstacles than being innocently referred to by the wrong pronoun. Working on addressing these larger issues seems far more likely to improve the lives of transgendered people, both individually and collectively, than assuming disrespect from incorrect pronoun usage.

At any rate, this is a teaser release of this zine, and it definitely piqued my interest enough to want to track down copies of future issues.  If you are interested in learning more about Sir\Ma’am,visit http://www.sirmaam.com/, where you can download pages of this teaser.