A Sexologist in Maine

Sorry for the lag in posting. The past few weeks have included various shit shows, but not the sexy entertaining kind. Lots of anxiety and heartache regarding personal and professional commotions I won’t discuss here (hey even sexologists who wear their hearts on their sleeves need privacy from time to time too).

To top it off, I dropped my computer :(

So I decided I needed to take a MUCH needed break from it all and I drove to Portland, Maine for a long weekend with Tyler. The highlight of the trip was when two little baby squirrels at our campsite decided I was their mother and followed me around. The fact that I have a life long fear of squirrels after being attacked by one made this all the more amusing.

I learned Portland is such an amazing little city. It’s a bit like West Chester, or how West Chester would be if I was mayor. It’s packed with cool and unique independent shops (like one that sells nothing but different flavored popcorn), clothing boutiques that sell trendy but not overpriced fashions, parks with street performers, and not one but TWO feminist sex shops.

Whenever Tyler and I are in a new city, we peer in at for rent store fronts and talk about opening a second Feminique and what we think it would be like to live there. But walking down one little street I saw the slogan on the sign out of the corner of my eye “Enhancing relationships since 1992”.

“Could this be?” I thought. And it was! Right there off the sidewalk as you walk in were high end vibrators in a well-lit, porn-free, women-owed and operated sex shop. I had a big long conversation with the owner about the lack of controversy she encountered when opening 18 years ago. Her response when I asked her if she had any trouble was, “No, Portland is a cool town”. The other shop had actually heard of Feminique before, and since neither owner is a sexologist, we spoke of having me come up to present one of my sexuality classes for their clients. Yay for a possible paid trip to Portland! (In the pic, the store signs are the head shop, the “life is good” hippie clothing store, followed by the sex shop. That’s almost as good as the block in Amsterdam I spoke of)

Besides two sex-positive sex shops, another thing that makes Portland “cool” is the progressive art they have around the city. On the back of bus stop benches and the like are cool politically inspired art messages. This was anti-rape and anti-war message was on the top of a newspaper dispenser.

I give Portland and A as a pro-sex, pro-women town!