cover image SEX IN THE SOUTH: Unbuckling the Bible Belt

SEX IN THE SOUTH: Unbuckling the Bible Belt

Suzi Parker, . . Justin, Charles & Co., $23.95 (312pp) ISBN 978-1-932112-16-0

While Southerners may be famous for churchgoing and family values, they also "like to liberate themselves," according to journalist Parker, a Little Rock, Ark., native with a reputation for sexual controversy. One needs only an Internet connection, a car and an open mind, and the South is a veritable sexual smorgasbord, with its Passion Parties ("think 1970s Tupperware parties but with rubber penises instead of plastic ice trays"), Iron Belles (for "muscle fantasy"), bondage and s&m clubs, aqua porn, swingers parties, strip clubs and BBW (Big Beautiful Women) parties. The South may look straight-laced, Parker admits, but the same ladies trying and buying double-penis dildos at Passion Parties in Maumelle, Ark., are also reading the Christian apocalyptic Left Behind novels and going to church every Sunday. For better or worse, Parker's no social scientist, so she's quick to ditch her hook (the religion vs. hot sex problem) in favor of wide-eyed voyeurism. At any rate, it's probably more fun to read about Ms. Cindy's projectile ejaculations than how she feels about sin. Holding fast to her mantra—"Your kink's not my kink, but your kink is okay"—Parker interviews a host of sexually adventurous people (mostly heterosexual white women) who are grateful the Internet has helped them connect with like-minded fetishists and pleased that their sex lives have become more fun or more profitable. Curiously, the last stop on Parker's erotic odyssey is a pilgrimage to Gennifer Flowers's bar for a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi, trans-gender) literary soiree that only leaves Parker fantasizing about Clinton. Agent, Erin Reel. (Nov. 15)