I Was a Teenage Dominatrix

I knew I had to read this book when I saw the cover. Not the covered pictured here, mind you. The cover I saw depicted a voluptous woman in cartoon character form wearing a leopard print dominatrix costume. From the looks of the cover I assumed the book was some sort of graphic novel or comic book. To say the least, it intrigued me. When I opened I Was a Teenage Dominatrix I was surprized to find plain text within its pages. No matter, I read onward. And I am sure glad that I did. Shawna Kenney was born to young poor parents in Upstate New York. She spent her formative years in a housing project trying to avoid being a girl. She was loud at home and quiet in school, a quizzical paradox. Her family moved around a lot and eventually settled in Maryland where kids made fun of her for "talking funny." She found this bizarre since they were the ones saying weird phrases like "ya'll." At age 17 Shawna left home with $400 in her pocket to move to a big city. She settled in Washington D.C. She tried several part-time jobs to stay afloat such as waitressing and babysitting both of which bored her and did not allow her to make much money. Plus she had decided that she wanted to go to college and let's face it, babysitiing ain't going to pay anyone's tuition. One day she say an ad the local paper for exotic dancers. She answered the ad and tried her hand at being an exotic dancer for a while. She ended up hating it. She felt like the men who were watching her dance were the ones in control. This loss of control really got to her. The one good thing that came out of her stint as an exotic dancer was that it opened her eyes to possible careers in the sex industry. Shawna had a friend whose sister was a practicing dominatrix. She observed a few of these sessions and then conducted a few sessions of her own. She realized that this was a far more satisfying career than exotic dancing. In the world of a dominatrix it is the woman who has control not the man. After working a bit for her friend's sister Shawna answered an ad in the local paper calling for dominatrixes. She then began to develop herself as a professional dominatrix. Kenney's book is a masterpiece. Before reading I was a Teenage Dominatrix I had little to no idea of what being a dominatrix entailed. The whole sex industry was one mysterious blur to me. After reading this book I have gained great insight into what it is like to have a working career as a professional dominatrix. The book is informative and personal. It is a memoir but also a successful work of non-fiction. As a reader I began to hold great respect for what a dominatrix does. It is truly not an easy career. It is certainaly quirky but also seems to have rich rewards. One aspect that I really liked about the book was that Kenney painted the position of dominatrix to be one in which it is the woman who is truly empowered. I found this point to be true. As a dominatrix you are in control of the man or "slave". Being a dominatrix taught Ke

I had the pleasure of meeting Shawna Kenney at a publishing convention earlier this year. (I'm also an author.) She is a very bright, engaging woman who has seen some fascinating aspects of both men in particular and of life in general.Shawna is one of many attractive women who discovered that, if you approach it intelligently, doing various types of what is known by the general term of "sex work" can result in being paid (a lot) better and in being treated considerably better than is true of many mainstream jobs.She started out working as a private erotic dancer and then switched over to working as a professional dominatrix. After learning her craft and working in two professional domination studios, she established her own independent practice. Her work as a professional dominatrix allowed her to put herself through college and become the first person in her family to graduate. (The discipline she learned from her father, who was in the navy, also helped her.)She always treated her clients ethically and respected their privacy scrupulously -- including in the writing of this book. She also discovered that men have more varied reasons than the average person might imagine for hiring sex workers. While many had a unique aspect of their sexuality that they want to explore or further experience, particularly as it related to their erotic submissiveness, others merely wanted some female companionship. The descriptions of these latter encounters were among the most poignant passages in Shawna's book. Her description of the pain and loneliness these men endure is very moving. I don't see how anyone could doubt how sex workers often make a deep and positive contribution to the well-being of their clients after reading these passages.Shawna also discovered that doing sex work, of any kind, has its emotional stresses, including its taboo aspect. It cost her at least one personal friendship. Other friends of hers wanted to hear all about it.Shawna's book shows both the professional dominatrix and her clients for the human beings that they are. It also shows how irrationally and inconsistently society treats and values its sex workers.

The beauty about IWATD is that it's not about BDSM but a genuine, graceful, moving and collective memoir about a young woman's coming of age experience set forth to a modern "off-beat". For all you BDSM curious people out there, this is NOT a HOW-TO book, which would explain the absence of the psychological and/or erotic factors underlying BDSM. Hooray to the author for an ambitious first novel full of aggressive vitality and humor.

Placing myself into the class of " Curious Culture Vultures," which Pleasant Gehman mentions in her above review, Shawna Kenney's I WAS A TEENAGE DOMINATRIX serves as awesome prey for my voracious appetite. Kenney's well written, sure-footed anecdotes make it effortless to suspend one's thought - so much at times you may feel like a fly on a dungeon wall. Veracity, wit and detail equate to a terrific success!

A feisty title, a fresh voice, and a fun read! This is a shockingly good-natured and candid true story of how a runaway teen ended up working her way through college. She hit the books and then some. What comes through behind the words in this memoir is the sense that there truly is a real person who experienced all she writes about, that she's someone you'd trust and respect and like to know, someone you'd enjoy talking and laughing with. The writing is packed with wit, intelligence, and all kinds of professional details. Warning: May not satisfy those seeking salacious corn-porn. But readers who have any kind of curiosity about pop-psych cultural sociology or, uh, sex will be seduced by the unselfconscious, often poignantly honest focus on what goes on in the world of a young 90s American woman who just happens to hire out as a professional dominatrix. And no, doms don't sleep with the guys--they get paid to slap 'em Whap-py. If you remember liking some of Studs Terkel's in-your-face Working interviews, you'll appreciate the tasty authenticity of this hitherto unexposed slice of what satisfies certain sexual appetites. The book, however, is more than Studs T. Meets Gloria the Playboy Bunny-this temp worker was on the job for real. Those who might benefit most from reading I Was A Teenage Dominatrix probably never will, more's the pity. And that includes the prudes scared off by the ironic and uncompromising title. It's a most thought-provoking book, and I'm hoping she'll write more soon.