Despite Ron Jeremy’s absence — porn’s most shot actor with an impressive 2,000 films under his belt was scheduled for another day — Vancouver’s Taboo: Naughty but Nice Sex Show offered plenty more jaw-dropping reasons to pay it a visit.
From Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, the Vancouver Convention Center was filled with vendors selling sex toys of every colour, shape, size, texture, and flavour. Sexologists were giving talks on everything from foreskin to nipple-play, and there was even a curtained-off area called The Dungeon where no cameras were allowed (let your imagination run wild).
“The magic moment is when your tongue flicks the F-spot!” An unconventional welcome, booming over a loud-speaker, met guests as they first arrived. One of the most popular talks was by sexologist Dr. Jess, though the event featured plenty of other seminars lined up one after the other. Perhaps the most informative aspect of the evening though came from conversation with crowded vendors.
Making their way through booths and nearly-naked men, guests arrived at what was almost out of place: a museum-like set-up, looking like something from a Jane Austen novel with high-end, fashionable corsets.
“Melanie Talkington has the largest collection of antique corsets in the world. When Taboo found out about her [show at the Louvre in Paris] they asked us to come,” explains Stephanie, an exhibitor for Lace Embrace Atelier. Dressed in attire designed by Melanie Talkington herself, Stephanie says that they opted for a more “museum-esque” set-up to show that there is still an element of class and high-end fashion to the corset.
Selling corsets and lingerie modelled after antiques, Stephanie says that their custom-made attire not only attracts people with fetishes from all over the spectrum, but is appealing outside the bedroom as well.
“There’s steampunk, there’s historical — people who like to dress up as historical figures […] and then there’s modern women who come to us for medical corsets, as well as for weddings and proms. Some are even champion weight lifters that need custom corsets,” she says.
Fanned out on a seductively comfortable looking bed at Posh Passion Parties’ booth was the steamy adult trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey. Posh Passion Parties does in-home educating and demonstrations on how to spice things up in the bedroom.
Tastefully put by the company’s director Coralie Lynch, “We basically tell you everything your mom didn’t tell you about sex. So moms teach us how to get pregnant, and we teach you how to have orgasms.” The long line to sign up indicated people were eager to learn.
Lynch says books like Fifty Shades have “made things more mainstream. It’s made more women, who would have never had a party like this before, more [open] to the idea.”
As people open up about what happens under their sheets, organizations like Metro Vancouver Kink are poised to inform people how to do it properly. Kink’s director at large says that their monthly “play parties” allow people to explore sexual activities like bondage and role-playing. These parties offer a way for people to build connections in the kink community and to know that they shouldn’t be ashamed of what they are personally fond of.
Passion was evident in every vendor’s voice as they explained their contributions to the Taboo exhibition. But no one was more heated than — brace yourself — The Peak’s very first humour editor. Now founder of the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project, Glen Callender contributed for 10 years to the very paper you’re reading. Callender has since taken his ambition down yonder.
“CAN-FAP promotes foreskin education, appreciation and stimulation, and advocates for the human right for all children, male, female and intersex, to grow up with intact genitals, so they can have the decision for themselves if some part of their genitals is [to be] cut off,” said Callender.
His reason for starting such a movement? “Well, I have a really, really great foreskin. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s a fantastic foreskin.”
At the age of eight, Callender discovered the process of circumcision and found it deeply disturbing. He didn’t want other little boys to be “strapped down and have a wonderful body part cut off” so starting his own movement seemed logical.
If there’s one thing to take from Vancouver’s Taboo: Naughty but Nice Sex Show it’s that no aspect of sexuality should make you feel ashamed. And remember: play safe!
