Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica [Paperback]

Tristan Taormino (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2011

In mainstream media, the erotic identities, sex lives, and fantasies of transgender and genderqueer people are often oversimplified, sensationalized, or invisible. Take Me There is an erotica collection unlike any other that celebrates the pleasure, heat, and diversity of transgender and genderqueer sexualities. The power of seeing and being seen is a central theme in the anthology; it’s not simply about passing or not passing (an idea often explored with transgender characters), but about being acknowledged and desired in a sexual context.

The book takes you from San Francisco to Israel, from heartache to lust, from stranger sex to a 10 year anniversary, from ballet shoes to butt plug bondage tables, from fumbling teenagers to leatherclad bears, from MTF and FTM—and in between and beyond.

Featuring renowned authors Kate Bornstein (Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation), Patrick Califia (Speaking Sex to Power), S. Bear Bergman (Butch is a Noun), Ivan Coyote (Missed Her), Julia Serrano (Whipping Girl), Laura Antoniou (The Marketplace), Helen Boyd (My Husband Betty), Rachel Kramer Bussel (Gotta Have It), Toni Amato (Pinned Down by Pronouns), Alicia E. Goranson (Supervillianz), filmmaker Tobi Hill-Meyer, musician Rahne Alexander, songwriter Shawna Virago, bloggers Andrea Zanin and Sinclair Sexsmith, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Take Me There is an erotica novel with the collected works of many authors about Transgender and Genderqueer stories. For those that don’t already know what a Genderqueer person is, like myself prior to reading this book or researching it because I have an ex who is one, it’s a person who could identify with being both male and female. Thankfully, because of this ex, I was able to keep an open mind to pick up this book and learn more about those that identify with more than one gender. I honestly cannot say that I regret picking this book up. The thoughts and feelings of all the characters left me speechless. I highly recommend that somebody Questioning their sexuality pick this up if they think that they may be mutli-gendered or believe they are in the wrong body. This book truly opened my eyes and reminded me that all of us are beautiful, and we all want to be understood and accepted for who we truly are. I applaud all the authors that submitted a story for this final edit."
—Night Owl Review

"How'd you like to enjoy some mind-expanding substance along with a helping of hot sex? Editor Tristan Taormino's Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica offers a dizzying collection of short stories that will challenge readers with its rich banquet of pronoun salad. A tongue-twisting, limb-tangling, compendium of gender exploration that will broaden your ideas of gender and sexuality. This anthology, like everybody's sexuality, is truly one of a kind."
—Passport Magazine

"A Nice Offering in a long-ignored genre, this collection of erotic stories is by, for and about transfolk, genderqueers, gender outlaws and gender variant folks. Stories takes readers from heartache to lust, from strange sex to a 10-year anniversary, from MTF and FTM and more."
—AVN

"I want to tell you about all the stories, but let me instead tell you to buy this book. I loved the variety and kink within it’s pages. I highly recommend this! If you have ever wondered what happens when there are not boundaries to sex and gender, this book tells some stories that may satisfy your curiosity."
—Kissin Blue Karen

"Yes, yes—oh god YES! Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica finally satisfies a longtime craving of the genderfucked and genderfucking to accurately articulate the complexities of queer desire into raunchy written words. Edited by Tristan Taormino and flaunting big bylines like Kate Bornstein, Patrick Califia, and S. Bear Bergman, this queerotic collection refreshingly reflects that queer sex isn't just about gender-variant pronouns or redefined dirty bits, but about what you do with them. Having read the many diversely deviant entries in Take Me There, we'd advise reading this one with one hand."
—BITCH Magazine

"Reading Take Me There was a pleasure and reviewing it is a privilege.... Sometimes gender and sex were revealed very bluntly, in plain language and other times writers came to it from unexpected angles. I appreciated the creativity and variation on the theme... In a way, reading this book and getting to know these artfully created characters, showed me, even more than I felt it before, that I have a tribe."
—Butchtastic


"Tristan Taormino found my 'V’ spot and werqued it." —Justin Vivian Bond

"Take Me There is a smokin' hot sampling of sassy smart smut that took me where I'd never been before in print--this is the most gender-diverse erotica collection I've ever seen anywhere."
—Susan Stryker, Ph.D. Director, Institute for LGBT Studies, University of Arizona

"Finally, a book that has something for everyone whose gender and sexual fantasies don't fit into the usual boxes. I loved it. WOOF!!"
—Buck Angel® Pioneering Filmmaker, Educator, and Advocate

"As someone who is androgynous-identified, it feels positively monumental to hold in my hands an erotica anthology where trans* desire is not the token, but the topic! In making our desires visible -- within our own communities and beyond -- our gender expressions, our fantasies, our very lives are made real. Take Me There brings us HERE."
—Jiz Lee, GenderQueer Porn Star


"There are multiple theories of desire out there; many histories of sexuality; lots of studies of sexual practices, but, until now, there were few accounts, fictional or otherwise of the multiple ways that queer people eroticize gender variant bodies. This collection is hot and steamy, boiling with new lust, bubbling with new languages of desire, new ways of naming the body, different modes of telling each other “I want you.” Ask what you need from this book, it will take you there. I promise."
– Jack Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity


"Finally, a satisfying resource that more of us can offer, with a sly smile, when they ask us what exactly we *do* with one another."
—Scott Turner Schofield, author of Two Truths and a Lie

"Thought-provoking, unpredictable and idiosyncratic, like all good sex (and writing) should be." — HX Magazine

"Powerful, memorable, potent." — Curve Magazine

"These women are looking for the edge, and they find it." — Gay & Lesbian Review

From the Back Cover

"There was something about the way she touched me that made it clear she was touching the body I felt I had rather than the one I actually had. Oh, my god, her hands felt so good." —from "The Perfect Gentleman" by Andrea Zanin

In mainstream media, the erotic identities, sex lives and fantasies of transgender and genderqueer people are often oversimplified, sensationalized or invisible. Take Me There is an erotic collection unlike any other, celebrating the pleasure, heat and diversity of transgender and genderqueer sexualities. These stories will take you from San Francisco to Israel, from heartache to lust, from ballet shoes to a bondage table, from M to F and F to M—and in between and beyond. Featuring renowned authors Kate Bornstein, Patrick Califia, S. Bear Bergman, Ivan Coyote, Julia Serano, Laura Antoniou, Helen Boyd, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Sinclair Sexsmith and more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cleis Press; 1 edition (October 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157344720X
• ISBN-13: 978-1573447201
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, sex educator, speaker, filmmaker, and radio host. She is the author of seven books, including The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, The Secrets of Great G-Spot Orgasms and Female Ejaculation, The Big Book of Sex Toys, and True List: Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion. She is the editor of more than 25 anthologies including The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge and Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica, winner of a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. She was creator and series editor of the Best Lesbian Erotica anthology series. Her books have sold over 500,000 copies and been translated into many languages. She's written for a multitude of publications from Yale Journal of Law and Feminism to Penthouse, and served as editor of the magazine On Our Backs. She was a syndicated columnist for The Village Voice for nine and a half years and writes an advice column for Taboo Magazine.

She is the producer and host of Sex Out Loud, a weekly radio show on the VoiceAmerica Network. As the head of Smart Ass Productions, she has directed and produced twenty-four sex education and erotic films; she is currently an exclusive director for Vivid Entertainment. Her films have won more than a dozen awards. Tristan and her work have been featured in over 400 publications including O: The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Details, New York Magazine, Men's Health, and Playboy. She has appeared on HBO's Real Sex, The Howard Stern Show, Melissa Harris-Perry, Loveline, MTV, CNN, NBC, MTV, Oxygen, Fox News, The Discovery Channel, and on over a hundred radio shows; she was the resident sex expert and a recurring guest on two seasons of Ricki Lake.

Tristan's work, writing and films are routinely used in college courses to explore the complex issues of relationship and sexual diversity, politics and media. As a speaker, she is widely regarded as an expert on a diverse range of topics from sexual empowerment and LGBTQ sexuality to non-monogamy and feminist pornography. She lectures at top colleges and universities including Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Smith, Johns Hopkins, and UCLA, where she speaks on gay and lesbian issues, sexuality and gender, and feminism. She teaches sex and relationship workshops around the world.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing. Beautifully breathtaking. Compellingly creative. Deliciously diverse. October 18, 2011

By Sally

Format:Paperback

On a list of my top 10 reads for the year, Tristan is looking down upon her peers from a very high perch indeed!

As she states in her introduction, this is a collection of "erotica by, for and about transfolk, FTMs, MTFs, genderqueers, gender outlaws, as well as two-spirit, intersex, and gender-variant people." Almost immediately, you notice these are stories where gender (in all its forms) is almost taken for granted, without the `surprise confession' or `shocking reveal' common to mainstream erotica/porn, and without the arbitrary focus on simply passing or being acknowledged. This is a collection where trans lovers can feel intimately and comfortably at home amidst stories of being treasured, loved, desired, and adored.

Considering the wide variety of authors, genders, and subjects explored, I'm pleased to say there's not a single story here that didn't, on some level, resonate with me. Indeed, they are all wonderful, but there were certainly some stand-outs that I must call attention to: "The Therapist and the Whore" by Giselle Renarde, "Shoes Are Meant to Get You Somewhere" by Dean Scarborough, "Taking the Toll" by Kiki DeLovely, "Dixie Belle" by Kate Bornstein, "The Visible Woman" by Rachel K. Zall, "Canadian Slim" by Shawna Virago, "Self-Reflection" by Tobi Hill-Meyer, and "Face Pack" by Penelope Mansfield.

Not only are the stories contained here erotic, imaginative, and exciting, but they are also beautifully written. As Tristan asks in her introduction, "our language is severely limited when it comes to describing the bodies of transpeople," and there is a significant challenge in writing stories that are both erotic and respectful. Fortunately, the authors here have the words to do so, and the talent to use those words well.

Take Me There indeed! I just hope, somewhere down the line, Tristan chooses to take us there again.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars As always, Miss Tristan delivers the heat! October 14, 2011

By TheMimiSays

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Yet another great collection from Tristan Taormino. She is skilled at seeking out and putting together a series of stories that have their own point of view, there own sexy take on things, but that all work together to build up to a, well, climactic reading experience.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot!!!! October 24, 2011

By AaronR

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is HOT!!! I loved reading a book of erotica about people with bodies like mine. I am a bisexual trans man. I loved Pat Califia's story about a bear & a trans man coming together and other stories, too. As a trans man, I have my own language to describe my body & I loved reading what other people call their bodies. Many of the stories are very well written & cover a broad spectrum of the trans & genderqueer people.