The other night, we went to the book launch party for the new sex manual, “Great in Bed,” at the SoHo Babeland in NYC. It had been years since we’d seen our old friend and former coworker, Grant Stoddard, but he was his typical funny, charming self as he and his co-author — Kinsey sex researcher Debby Herbenick, PhD — answered questions from the anonymous drop-box…for an hour and a half. Fortunately, there was champagne:
Q: “Grant, where do men like to be touched?”
A: [coyly] “Penis?”
Q: “Grant, would you share with us the exact dimensions of your penis?”
A: “I refer you back to our earlier discussion of average penis size. I am well within the normal parameters. If you include other cultures. Smaller cultures.”
Q: “Grant, what has shocked you most in your career in the biz?”
A: “When I learned about dolphin rape. Multiple people every year in the San Francisco Bay area die from being raped by dolphins in shallow waters because dolphins have these massive penises shaped like question marks and are very aggressive. It’s true, just Google it!”*
Dr. Debby: “I’m not so sure about that.”
The dynamic between them at the Q&A perfectly reflected their collaboration in the book. She brings the statistics, he brings the sexploits — which makes for a fun, informative read. As two co-authors ourselves who’ve written six sex books, even we learned some new things:
- Once people move past their teens and early 20s, they become decidedly less smart about condom use (one study found that only half of men in their 20s and 30s who’d recently had vaginal intercourse with a casual partner said they’d used a condom!).
- 95% of men have penises in the average (5 to 7 inches when erect) range.
- Seminal plasma contains zinc, calcium and other minerals shown to hinder tooth decay.
- The retro bush, aka hipster bush, has been making a comeback.
And that was just in the first few pages! Aside from the evo psych and the talk of foreplay as something separate from sex and the absence of sex toy material safety (tsk tsk Grant), “Great in Bed” sounds exactly like something we would write — which, of course, means we loved it! It’s fun, comprehensive, the design is cool and non-graphic. It’s a great addition to your sexual enlightenment library (after you’ve collected our six books first, of course).
*When we got home, we Googled it . . . twice.
