Barbara Carrellas | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Sex educator |
Known for | Tantric sex workshops and education |
Partner | Kate Bornstein |
Website | BarbaraCarrellas.com |
Barbara Carrellas is an author, sex educator, performance artist, [1] and certified sexologist accredited through the American College of Sexologists. [2] She facilitates workshops in which participants explore sexuality through a holistic approach that includes practices like erotic breathwork and Tantra, and she has lectured at various institutions, including the Museum of Sex in New York City, Vassar College, Barnard College, and the Chicago Art Institute. [3] She is known for her "breath and energy orgasm" techniques, which she says are "orgasms you can have using your imagination and your breath". [4] Carrellas learned the technique during the height of the AIDS epidemic as a way for people to orgasm without physical contact. [5] Such techniques, she says, offers a way for "people to have more safer-sex options". [6]
Carrellas spent five years in the 1990s living in Australia [7] but currently resides in New York City and lives with her partner, Kate Bornstein. In 2010, she appeared on the Canadian television show "Sex Matters", [8] and in the TLC show Strange Sex . [6]
In November 2016, Carrellas was given an honorary Lifetime Achievement Award at the London-based Sexual Freedom Awards for her contributions to the field of sexuality spanning several decades. [9]
During the late 1980s, Barbara Carrellas began teaching Sacred Sex workshops with Annie Sprinkle and Linda Montano. [10] Carrellas says that tantra can be a bridge between different sexual practices, and she calls this "neo-tantra". [11] She has specifically developed her brand of sacred sex in order to make tantra accessible to people who "felt left out" of such sexuality, [8] such as transsexual and transgender individuals. In 2017, she collaborated with sex educator Joseph Kramer to create the film Transcendent Bodies—The Erotic Awakening Massage for Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Bodies. [12] She has regularly worked with the LGBTQ and BDSM community. [13] [14] She maintains that breathing and being vocal are key to enjoying sex, and that many people are culturally discouraged from doing this as they are first learning to be sexual. [8] [15]
The G-spot, also called the Gräfenberg spot, is characterized as an erogenous area of the vagina that, when stimulated, may lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and potential female ejaculation. It is typically reported to be located 5–8 cm (2–3 in) up the front (anterior) vaginal wall between the vaginal opening and the urethra and is a sensitive area that may be part of the female prostate.
Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care.
Foreplay is a set of emotionally and physically intimate acts between one or more people meant to create sexual arousal and desire for sexual activity. Although foreplay is typically understood as physical sexual activity, nonphysical activities, such as mental or verbal acts, may in some contexts be foreplay. This is typically the reason why foreplay tends to be an ambiguous term and means different things to different people. It can consist of various sexual practices such as kissing, sexual touching, removing clothes, oral sex, manual sex, sexual games, and role playing.
Female ejaculation is characterized as an expulsion of fluid from the Skene's gland at the lower end of the urethra during or before an orgasm. It is also known colloquially as squirting or gushing, although research indicates that female ejaculation and squirting are different phenomena, squirting being attributed to a sudden expulsion of liquid that partly comes from the bladder and contains urine.
Erotic massage is the use of massage techniques by one person on another person's erogenous zones for their sexual pleasure. The process may achieve or enhance the recipient's sexual excitation or arousal and sometimes achieve orgasm. The person providing the massage is called a masseur (male) or masseuse (female). Massages have been used for medical purposes for a very long time, and their use for erotic purposes also has a long history. In the case of women, the two focal areas are the abdomens and pubis, while in case of men, the focal areas are the male breast muscles and nipples, male genitals, the anus, and the prostate. When the massage is of a partner's genitals, the act is usually referred to as a handjob for penises and fingering for vulvas.
Prostate massage is the massage or stimulation of the prostate gland for medical purposes or sexual stimulation.
Betty Dodson was an American sex educator. An artist by training, she exhibited erotic art in New York City, before pioneering the pro-sex feminist movement. Dodson's workshops and manuals encourage women to masturbate, often in groups.
The human sexual response cycle is a four-stage model of physiological responses to sexual stimulation, which, in order of their occurrence, are the excitement, plateau, orgasmic, and resolution phases. This physiological response model was first formulated by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, in their 1966 book Human Sexual Response. Since that time, other models regarding human sexual response have been formulated by several scholars who have criticized certain inaccuracies in the human sexual response cycle model.
Sex magic is any type of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One practice of sex magic is using sexual arousal or orgasm with visualization of a desired result. A premise posited by sex magicians is the concept that sexual energy is a potent force that can be harnessed to transcend one's normally perceived reality.
Fingering is sexual stimulation of the vulva or vagina by using the fingers. Vaginal fingering is legally and medically called digital penetration or digital penetration of the vagina. The term "digital" takes its significance from the English word 'digit', which refers to a finger, thumb, or toe. Fingering may also include the use of fingers to stimulate the anus.
Neotantra, navatantra, or tantric sexuality is a Western new religious movement influenced by the Eastern esoteric spiritual traditions of Tantra. Rooted in elements of Hindu and Buddhist tantras, neotantra blends New Age interpretations with modern Western perspectives, often emphasizing the sexual aspects of these ancient traditions. While some proponents reference traditional texts and principles, many utilize tantra as a broader term encompassing sacred sexuality, occasionally incorporating unconventional practices. However, neotantra does not always adhere to the complete range of Indian tantric practices, particularly the reliance on a guru.
Carol Queen is an American author, editor, sociologist, and sexologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen is a two time Grand Marshal of San Francisco LGBTQ Pride. Queen has written on human sexuality in books such as Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture. She has written a sex tutorial, Exhibitionism for the Shy: Show Off, Dress Up and Talk Hot, as well as erotica, such as the novel The Leather Daddy and the Femme. Queen has produced adult movies, events, workshops and lectures. Queen was featured as an instructor and star in both installments of the Bend Over Boyfriend series about female-to-male anal sex, or pegging. She has also served as editor for compilations and anthologies. She is a sex-positive sex educator in the United States.
Pompoir is a sexual technique in which the woman uses her vaginal muscles to stimulate the man's penis. Both partners remain still, while the woman strokes the man's erection using rhythmic, rippling pulses of the pubococcygeus muscles, so this practice is best performed in a woman on top position.
Ava Cadell is a former actress, writer, producer and currently a therapist and speaker on issues of sexuality.
Fur massage is a form of touch that is used in partner massage. It involves using a fur glove to touch one's partner in an attempt to arouse. In therapeutic usage, professional boundaries do not permit that the therapist (giver) be emotionally involved in a massage. Fur massage mitts are sometimes recommended by professionals as a sensual toy rather than sexual toy. Use of fur gloves for massage is considered a safe sex practice by the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.
Non-penetrative sex or outercourse is sexual activity that usually does not include sexual penetration, but some forms, particularly when termed outercourse, include penetrative aspects, that may result from forms of fingering or oral sex. It generally excludes the penetrative aspects of vaginal, anal, or oral sex, but includes various forms of sexual and non-sexual activity, such as frottage, manual sex, mutual masturbation, kissing, or hugging.
The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (IASHS) was a private, unaccredited, for-profit graduate school and resource center for the field of sexology in San Francisco, California. It was established in 1976 and closed in 2018. Degree and certificate programs focused on public health, sex therapy, and sexological research.
Kunyaza is the Rwanda-Rundi name given to a sexual practice found in the Great Lakes region of East Africa which is meant to facilitate female orgasm and female ejaculation during intercourse.
Tantra, or tantric massage, is a form of erotic massage, which incorporates elements from the neotantric movement in the Western world. The word Tantra refers to an esoteric yogic tradition that was first developed in India from the middle of the 1st millennium CE. Tantric massage focuses on the primary erogenous zones of the body, such as the mouth, the phallus (penis), the vagina, and the anus.
Joseph Kramer or Joe Kramer is an American sexologist, filmmaker and somatic sex educator. He is the founder of the Body Electric School and of the profession of Sexological Bodywork.