As I'm a Bay Area based girl with a lot of ties/readers/tied up readers in the UK, I thought it might be a good idea to start letting some guests post about UK events/workshops that are of interest! This is a review by Penelope Star of a workshop she attended. It was offered by Bristol-based Pomegranate Boutique, a lovely women-focused, environmentally aware sex toy store I recommend for it's excellent, classy taste. I mean, look at harnesses like this! LOVE. 


Anyway! 

Wanking – are there really all that many ways to do it? Hope I don’t sound too big-headed, but I went along to the Art of Sensual Touch workshop at Bristol’s Pomegranate Erotic Boutique thinking I might pick up only one or two “extras” to add to my tried and tested technique. Boy how wrong I was. This workshop has revolutionised the way I wank.

Just to be clear, we are talking about attention to the male parts, ie touching and massaging the penis and surrounding areas. The workshop was women-only, although most workshops at Pomegranate are mixed-gender.

As a woman who wanks off men, or nowadays, a man, I had obviously never had the benefit of having my own penis, testicles and surrounding area to really understand how it felt. Teacher Missy Bijou has spent many hours watching men and imitating the methods they use themselves, and combines this knowledge
with tantric ‘lingam massage’ to create an easy-to-learn but really explosive set of techniques.

Missy Bijou referred to wanker’s claw – I’m sure many of us have been there. The wrist can get sore. It can get boring. With Missy’s technique, this does not happen. Trying it out on my man, I have had to go very, very slow and very, very carefully or it’s all over way too quickly, if you know what I mean! This means that the whole experience becomes something you can savour and totally enjoy, and the connection with your partner is epic. It never goes near to being a race to the finish line, or an endurance exercise.

Along with the manual stimulation technique (which we practiced on cucumbers), the evening also involved some great oral and general massage advice. The setting (glamorous boutique) and free-flowing glasses of champagne meant that the evening had the ideal balance between being a fun ladies’ evening and a nuts-and-bolts, highly-practical sex education class.

Most of us have probably not been to sex education class since school, and then it was just about the basic biology of the act. As adults, we tend to muddle through, learning by trial and error, but often feeling frustrated about our own sexual responses and our abilities to please our partner. Classes like those at
Pomegranate are sex education for adults – a safe and relaxed space to learn a few quite easy practical things that can transform the way we experience sex.

There’s a class on “Sexual Intuition” November 30th, along with another “Art of Sensual Touch” class on December 8th. If you're in the Bristol area, seriously consider checking them out!