I Am My Lover: Women Pleasure Themselves

Rating:
Summary: Just a question
Review: I haven't read or seen this book, only seen its title. I think it is an important book to make though and I congratulate Joani Blank and friends for putting it forth. My only impression of it from reading the reviews and from my own experience of other books of this pioneering style is that sometimes they can lack some of the 'emotion' aspect as someone else mentioned. It ends up appealing more to the mind/intellect or being merely visually glamorous, as opposed to being earthy and sensual, as one would expect from the title. This is a sweeping generalization, I know...Sorry. :\

My other comment is why are both the photographers men? Surely there are many talented women photographers who would've loved to work on this project. Through sheer identification, women photographers might have added some extra warmth and insight to to the images and the book, and also be the owners of 'the look' in terms of presenting women to themselves. PS - Excuse the rating! Had to fill it in.

Rating:
Summary: Erotic? Explicit? Beautiful? Joyous? Dreamy? Steamy? Yesss!
Review: Joani Blank is among the true mothers of the movement to establish a more open sexuality in America and in the this beautiful volume she carries the standard forward again. Six photographers present here their images of 12 women, each masturbating alone, sometimes using sex toys, sometimes outdoors. Short commentary from each woman is included: beautiful, blunt, poetic, always characterized by the ring of honesty.

Honesty is a word that comes to mind again and again as this writer re-visits "I Am My Lover". Honesty and openness, warmth, symapathy, acceptance and appreciation, all wrapped in sexual passion, love, and respect for the variety in human sexuality are in these fine photographs.

This may be the sexiest, most erotic book in my library.

Rating:
Summary: Authentic and beautiful
Review: Joani documents masturbation for what it is. It is a very natural and pleasurable act. Every one of these women has a unique experience to share with the reader. Each woman responds differently to different types of sexual stimuli--dildos, vibrators, etc. Yeap, their appearances vary from one to the next, but hey! women aren't Barbie dolls. I admire and congratulate them for being courageous and pioneering. Yes! Women have a right to share about their experiences just as men do on their own ways. Masturbation is normal. It's our birthright!

Rating:
Summary: The Mystery of Self Pleasure...Revealed.
Review: Masturbation. It seems odd sometimes; the way things we all do are those we seek to avoid discussing or even thinking about. Everywhere we look we see people lauded and storied for conquering "fear," challenging "the unknown." Jumping off of this, leaping into that -- The fashionable heroism of artificial risk. All the while, away from the bright lights, cameras and water cooler cheers, a different courage is found. I Am My Lover: Women Pleasure Themselves is the sweet and nourishing fruit of people brave enough to journey into the known, to conquer the fear of oneself and one's desire, with we the viewer in tow. Conceived and edited in 1998 by Joani Blank, founder of San Francisco's famed Good Vibrations shop, the anthology presents twelve women and six photographers acting in concert to explore and reveal the lyric beauty, sensual drama and emotional energy that all who indulge in self-pleasuring (i.e.: everyone) know well but rarely speak of. The women captured in the images ranging from 19 to 40 years old, are nothing like the models so often found in even the best erotic art. They could be from anywhere; 12 women from 12 separate worlds, united into a single nationality of expressive intimacy; each a goddess of beautiful imperfection.

The photographers, obviously inspired by their subjects' willingness to share who and what they are, create images that stand with their own best works. Almost all elect to work in the most mundane surroundings - living room sofas and bedrooms are the most frequent - which gives an even more heightened sense of our having "walked in" on each scene we witness. The images are done so elegantly, in black and white or duo tones that dismissing them as "porn," "trash," or "ugly" requires a leap of puritanical proportion. All the photographers bring their own styles to their subjects, but are never heavy-handed or unnecessarily "artsy" in their approach, most electing to use simple daylight or only the most basic artificial lighting. Each portfolio gives rise to wonderful, sweet secrets seen through the eyes of the artists and the bodies of their subjects: a hand grasps into the fabric of a pillow case during an intense moment; a nipple pinched and pulled until it seems ready to burst in a spray of milk and honey; a housecat wanders into the scene to rest at a woman's feet, as if to share in the pleasure of the moment; a belly dips in the light, revealing a faint trail of hairs leading to hungry, desire-slicked lips. With each moment, each detail, we see each woman more clearly, and perhaps our own selves and desires as well.

The artists seem to return the inspiration as each woman contributes their own written introduction to their portfolios. Some write poetry that ripples with the scent and textures of their sex while some offer gentle prose of the feelings that swell in them as they touch themselves. Many offer their own sexual history, clear-eyed and unapologetic, a testimonial to the freedom of body and mind they've come to own and cherish. The more that we're shown; the more we wish to see, share and feel ourselves. In its way, I Am My Lover: Women Pleasure Themselves is like the very act that it reveals to us - a simple but magnificent reward to body, soul and mind, a book we can always open again and again.

NOTE: One of the saddest things I've noticed about the other reviews here is the number of WOMEN who have derided this book, especially the one who claimed to have "laughed with her friends at it" before returning it. I showed my copy to an erotic model that I have worked with and she howled in disgust at the age of some of the women in this book, her position being that anyone "old" shouldn't be sexual in front of her (I won't go into the things she thinks are okay here). I wonder if I'll ever understand the way women police and censure each other.

Rating:
Summary: The Mystery of Self Pleasure...Revealed.
Review: Masturbation. It seems odd sometimes; the way things we all do are those we seek to avoid discussing or even thinking about. Everywhere we look we see people lauded and storied for conquering "fear," challenging "the unknown." Jumping off of this, leaping into that -- The fashionable heroism of artificial risk. All the while, away from the bright lights, cameras and water cooler cheers, a different courage is found. I Am My Lover: Women Pleasure Themselves is the sweet and nourishing fruit of people brave enough to journey into the known, to conquer the fear of oneself and one's desire, with we the viewer in tow. Conceived and edited in 1998 by Joani Blank, founder of San Francisco's famed Good Vibrations shop, the anthology presents twelve women and six photographers acting in concert to explore and reveal the lyric beauty, sensual drama and emotional energy that all who indulge in self-pleasuring (i.e.: everyone) know well but rarely speak of. The women captured in the images ranging from 19 to 40 years old, are nothing like the models so often found in even the best erotic art. They could be from anywhere; 12 women from 12 separate worlds, united into a single nationality of expressive intimacy; each a goddess of beautiful imperfection.

The photographers, obviously inspired by their subjects' willingness to share who and what they are, create images that stand with their own best works. Almost all elect to work in the most mundane surroundings - living room sofas and bedrooms are the most frequent - which gives an even more heightened sense of our having "walked in" on each scene we witness. The images are done so elegantly, in black and white or duo tones that dismissing them as "porn," "trash," or "ugly" requires a leap of puritanical proportion. All the photographers bring their own styles to their subjects, but are never heavy-handed or unnecessarily "artsy" in their approach, most electing to use simple daylight or only the most basic artificial lighting. Each portfolio gives rise to wonderful, sweet secrets seen through the eyes of the artists and the bodies of their subjects: a hand grasps into the fabric of a pillow case during an intense moment; a nipple pinched and pulled until it seems ready to burst in a spray of milk and honey; a housecat wanders into the scene to rest at a woman's feet, as if to share in the pleasure of the moment; a belly dips in the light, revealing a faint trail of hairs leading to hungry, desire-slicked lips. With each moment, each detail, we see each woman more clearly, and perhaps our own selves and desires as well.

The artists seem to return the inspiration as each woman contributes their own written introduction to their portfolios. Some write poetry that ripples with the scent and textures of their sex while some offer gentle prose of the feelings that swell in them as they touch themselves. Many offer their own sexual history, clear-eyed and unapologetic, a testimonial to the freedom of body and mind they've come to own and cherish. The more that we're shown; the more we wish to see, share and feel ourselves. In its way, I Am My Lover: Women Pleasure Themselves is like the very act that it reveals to us - a simple but magnificent reward to body, soul and mind, a book we can always open again and again.

NOTE: One of the saddest things I've noticed about the other reviews here is the number of WOMEN who have derided this book, especially the one who claimed to have "laughed with her friends at it" before returning it. I showed my copy to an erotic model that I have worked with and she howled in disgust at the age of some of the women in this book, her position being that anyone "old" shouldn't be sexual in front of her (I won't go into the things she thinks are okay here). I wonder if I'll ever understand the way women police and censure each other.

Rating:
Summary: Authentic and beautiful
Review: This book is NOT for you if you are going to be freaked out by explicit (beautiful, poetic, explicit) images, or by women of various ages and body types (as opposed to silicone-implanted Barbie dolls), or if you think that the tensions and grimaces (and radiant smiles) of orgasm are "un-lady-like".

It IS for you (whether you are female, male, straight, gay or bi) if you are interested in seeing real women gleefully demonstrating their favourite methods of masturbation in gorgeous black-and-white photographs by a selection of different photographers (some female, some male as well), accompanied by their own words and thoughts about solo sex.

"I Am My Lover" is joyous, liberatory, educational, and jaw-droppingly erotic. None of the photos are "staged" or designed to fit someone else's idea of what's sexy - the sexual energy is so real it seems to shine off the pages.

Rating:
Summary: This book unlocks the woman within.
Review: What moved me most about this fine title is the reletive homliness of the women pictured. After all, women need not be beautiful to enjoy themselves and their bodies. In fact, this book can provide for the overweight or "ugly-in-the-eye-of-men" women I know with the method, insight and inspiration to experience true sensual pleasure. It would make a fine gift for any wife, daughter or mother seeking to not only increase their own sexual fufillment, but also expand their knowledge of their own anatomy -- something suppressed by our phallus-dominated society. If only I had this book when I was an unsure, lonely teen, I would not have lost so many years before my own erotic awakening.I encourage this book to be shared between women and made available in school libraries and health offices.