Like gay marriage, marijuana use and tattoos, public perception of female sex toys is not what it used to be. While male sex toys still weigh heavy on the shame scale, a female pleasure device is mostly seen as a cute novelty. Encountering one while snooping is comparable to finding a rutabaga in the fridge or a Kid 'n Play record on the shelf: more "Oh, that's interesting" than "You filthy slut."

In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, which opens tomorrow at the Bug, takes us back to a time before female sexuality was acknowledged, when the buzzing phallus was used to treat women for "hysteria" -- and once its alternative uses were made known, was vilified as an unmentionable weapon of evil, a disgusting appliance of hell-bound harlots.

In honor of this theatrical monument to the social evolution of female sexuality, we are proud to present this brief pop-culture history of the vibrator:

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All photos by Britt Chester

There was great fashion, loud music and heavy-pours, and probably some hooking-up and broken hearts: Yes, it was Derby day again in Denver! Apparently, there was also a horse race in Kentucky or something, but those people are all backwoods rednecks, anyway. There were giant hats to be worn, people!

Did we mention there was great fashion?!?! Below are a few memorable outfits, fits and faces of the Kentucky Derby parties we snuck into over the weekend.

Also see:
- Downtown Derby Debauchery
- 138th Kentucky Derby at Chloe and the Lobby

Now, onto the memorable Derby'ers.

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Becoming sage, by Kasi Alexander, has everything a reader could want: sex, violence, mastering, slaving. And the emotional autobiographical novel also two things that can't be safe-worded out of -- cops and family drama.

In it, Alexander, a local author, tells the story of a woman who leaves the vanilla world and jumps with both feet -- encased in uncomfortable four-inch heels -- into BDSM and polyamory, and find out how exotic, emotional and downright crazy it can be if you're doing it right, and how much more intense it gets when you make mistakes.

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J. Wohletz

The protest demonstration at KFADEN.

A group of Denver kinksters staged a protest at the KinkForAllDenver conference last weekend. The demonstration was planned and executed amid accusations -- prior to the event -- that two KinkForAllDenver organizers censored presentations to discourage too much BDSM content and actively sought to exclude local kinksters.

The event, which took place on February 25 at the Tivoli Student Union, included about seventy people, who attended discussion groups, presentations and teach-ins. It was organized by Rebecca Crane of Boulder and "Maymay" a well-known kinkster, formerly of New York the co-founder of KinkForAll.

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The main virtual hall

Most conventions are pants-mandatory kinds of affairs -- even those of the adult nature. For the world's first virtual porn convention, however, I'm not wearing any (relax...I'm in my PJs).

This past weekend, XBiz and Red Light Center hosted the Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention, porn's first online-exclusive gathering in a 3-D web environment called "Utherverse." If that all sounds a bit strange and complicated, you don't even know the half of it.

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If you are kinky, want to be, or are just curious about sexuality and different lifestyles -- check out KinkForAllDenver, a full-day conference taking place tomorrow at the Community College of Denver's Auraria Campus. The conference will be a hands-on (crack a joke here, pervs) teach-in with presentations by sexual freedom and education advocates, including local kinksters, and it's free and open to all ages.

Westword spoke with Rebecca Crane of KinkForAll Denver about goals for the event, how she feels about anti-kink detractors, and how Denver stacks up with other cities in terms of kink-friendliness.

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Meghan Ralph

Even the cast of Casual Encounters/Missed Connections is shocked by the show's online inspiration.

As a kid, playwright Sean Paul Mahoney was "totally obsessed" with the Madonna/Rosanna Arquette movie Desperately Seeking Susan. Both the voyeurism and the romance fascinated him, but in his mind, he was Arquette's character. "I always wanted to be that person that someone saw on the subway and thought was so awesome they just had to reach out," he says.

He still does, though that back story is now more technologically advanced. So when he embarked on his most recent artistic venture, Mahoney focused on what he sees as a modern equivalent: Craigslist.

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BEEFCAKE!

The Mi Pueblo Market at 125 Knox Court in the Barnum neighborhood might be the best grocery store in the entire world. On any given day, the clean and brightly decorated market is warmly bumping a reggaeton Rihanna remix as shoppers peruse cascading bins of fresh avocados, bananas and tomatillos. Horchata sells by the jug, queso only comes in one variety (awesomely melty) and the butcher's counter has a delicious array of marbled, unbleached meat that looks nothing like what can be found at the average chain supermarket.

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Alex Xiao Wu (left to right), Uri Talmor, Ryan Danielson, Devin Jamroz, Colin Swan and Ben Hauth.

This year's holiday play at Denver's Dangerous Theatre has everything you could ever want to see: rednecks, guns, cussing, sex, violence, intrigue -- and an angel in his underwear. Kentucky Claus & the Rebel Elves, which opens tonight, is an hour and 45 minutes of backwoods insanity, starting with six brothers whose Christmas isn't turning out to be so bright and cheery: Their truck won't start, there's a blizzard, and the eggnog is snowed in the shed. With no way to pick up their girlfriends -- and their Christmas supper -- they take to the woods in search of something to shoot for dinner, and end up popping a cap in jolly old St. Nick.

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Have you taken the Westword sex survey? If not, you have until Friday to lay yourself bare. In the meantime, let's get kinky with Mistress Saskia.

So you're comfortable whacking your wife with an electric flyswatter, chaining your husband to the hot water heater, watching your girlfriend hump a mop handle on webcam, and "forcing" your boyfriend to pick up the contents of an entire bag of Doritos off of the carpet--with his mouth. You've owned your kinkiness, and you're ready to meet and greet other like-minded adults for friendship and maybe more. But how, exactly, do you take your kinks from the bedroom to a local playspace?

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