And now the rest of the intro. The last in my quiver of weapons for steering us back on-tioic, although we really never left it.
Many of the people who populate these pages consciously invent, reimagine and play with gender during sex. The names they give themselves or call each other—cocksucker faggot, bad boy, bitch, Daddy, good little girl, filthy slut, gangsuck cumshot facial whore—can taunt or tease, but they always signify the presence of gender among sweaty bodies, lube bottles, latex gloves and leather harnesses. Gender is always there, usually front and center. Some of the pieces illuminate how gender can complicate sex, as when Rahne Alexander’s narrator struggles with anxiety about revealing herself to a new lover in “Now, Voyager.” Gender can also simplify sex—like it does in Gina de Vries’s role-play fantasy “Cocksure,” where a virgin teenage boy is seduced by his friend’s older sister. He straddles a sense of sureness and shyness, and ultimately his gender frames his desire: “He’s breathing that heavy way he does, the way he gets sub-verbal and breathy when he really goes under; becomes nothing but his hard cock and hungry mouth, big eyes and smooth hands.”
On the other hand, there are some compelling examples of how sex complicates gender. In “Canadian Slim,” Shawna Virago’s trans narrator is discouraged by sexual partners who treat her like a fetish object: “I was both a source of desire and shame, and it didn’t feel good.” But sex can simplify gender, too, reduce it to its base of want and need. In Zev Al-Walid’s “From Fucktoy to Footstool,” a transboy gets to fuck his Daddy for the first time. Put in very compromising bondage and a hood, his body is whittled down to one single hand.
Bondage isn’t simply rope and knots: passion and pleasure reside at the intersection of gender and power. Nearly half of the stories in this anthology feature some kind of BDSM. Two trans guys embrace their masculinity through masochism and submission in contributions from Arden Hill and Rachel Kramer Bussel. At the other end of the kinky spectrum, Skian McGuire’s sadistic narrator spins a dark, unrelenting and revealing tale that takes us on a wild ride as he conjures up “The Boy the Beast Wants.” Laura Antoniou wrote an original story for this book that stars Chris Parker, one of the main characters in her S/M erotic novel series The Marketplace. Whether you’re a fan of the series or not, you’ll enjoy tagging along as Parker under- goes a series of visits to a tattoo artist to mark and transform his body, while his longtime lover Rachel experiences a different kind of pain, potentially both physically and emotionally scarring.
Where are the stories about the erotic identities, sex lives, and fantasies of transgender and genderqueer people? Well, twenty- nine of them are here. This collection will take you from San Francisco to Israel, from heartache to lust, from stranger sex to a ten-year anniversary, from a pair of ballet shoes to a butt plug bondage table, from fumbling teenagers to leatherclad bears, from M to F and F to M—and in between and beyond. These stories celebrate the pleasure, heat and diversity of transgender and genderqueer sexualities. The thread that runs through each of the stories is a glimpse at where our sexual imagination can take us.
I chose the title Take Me There for several reasons. Bodies can be tricky territory: minefields or playgrounds or both, and the power of giving and taking is a gift. I want to acknowledge that moment of surrendering a part of your body, a piece of your sexuality that may feel scary, but through the fear owning it, asking for it, even commanding it, as in, “Take me there.” Throughout the book, people harness their desire and imagina- tion to go places that transcend bodies and language. They craft new worlds, rituals, and experiences beyond borders. I love all the fantasies these authors have designed, and I want to visit more of their worlds, as many as our sexual minds can create. My bags are already packed. So take me there.
Tristan Taormino New York
