Review: Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Advanced Anal Sex

by Jason Stotts

Tristan Taormino just recently released her newest movie, the “Expert Guide to Advanced Anal Sex” and was kind enough to send me a review copy of it.  Unsurprisingly, Tristan does not disappoint in the movie.  This is my first review of an adult product here on Erosophia and I must say that it was rather exciting to get an advanced review copy directly from Vivid, for free no less, on a subject that I’m very interested in.

I should start by saying that I was disposed to like the movie before I ever watched it.  I’ve read several of Tristan’s books and they’ve all been very well written (for example, The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and Opening Up) and I saw her speak live in LA and her presentation was very good.  The only book that I think is better than Tristan’s on anal sex is Jack Morin’s Anal Pleasure and Health and it’s a very different kind (more medical) of book.  Nonetheless, I think Tristan does a fabulous job on pretty much every subject I’ve seen her cover.

The DVD starts with a review of anal sex basics and anatomy.  You should pay attention in this part, but if you haven’t mastered the basics, you should probably not be jumping right into advanced anal.  She talks about anal preparation, addressing concerns about cleanliness and enemas.  She then discusses lubes and their necessity for anal (and they are very, very necessary).  She does a good job emphasizing the importance of warming up your ass before anal play (again, very important).  She finishes up her part discussing more advanced positions for anal and some more advanced techniques.

After that, there are various anal sex scenes (porn) where we can see anal sex in practice.  However, before the scenes, you get to listen to the performers talk about their feelings about anal sex and whether they real like it, etc. I thought this was refreshing to give the performers a voice and I thought it made the movie feel more complete somehow.

I really liked that they had a section on strap-on sex, enemas, and safer sex.  I really, really, liked that they showed male anal play and they didn’t make a big deal out of it.  To see a guy having his ass played with (and even pegged!) in straight porn is all too rare.  I hope that it will go a long way to helping to dispel the taboo that if a straight guy enjoys anal sex, then he’s really gay.  That’s just nonsense.

A few criticisms.  I know this is part of the Vivid Ed series and Vivid is a porn company, but the movie felt a little light on the info (compared to Tristan’s books) and a little heavy on the porn.  This may be what a lot of consumers want, but it’s not what those of us who are into learning about anal sex want. Anal porn is easy and free on the internet, whereas good information is much harder to find.  If I’m going to pay for a movie, I want it overflowing with information and I don’t really care if there’s sex in it at all.  My other criticism is that the movie included a section on choking.  Let me say that I am emphatically against choking as the risk of death is all too real and many people do die from erotic asphyxiation and auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Finally, it was a nice treat to see Nina Hartley in the film  It seemed to me to be a kind of passing of the torch type film (Nina has been making good instructional videos for a long time now) and I liked the fact that they were working together.

All in all, I’d highly recommend this video to anyone who had some experience with anal and had already mastered the basics.  For the rest of you, I’m sure you’ll still learn something, but you may want to start elsewhere.