Review Of The Ultimate Guide To Anal Sex For Women

Tristan Taormino's Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women (1999)

Anal sex is something that the porn industry loves, and yet often the focus of anal genre films is pain or degradation. This can be offputting for some women.

Anal queen Tristan Taormino comes to the rescue with this film. She originally made a name for herself as a writer and sex educator, publishing her book The Ultimate Guide To Anal Sex For Women in 1997. She's long been a campaigner for safe, pleasureable anal sex and has doled out advice to many a confused punter hoping to engage in a bit of back door shenanigans.

The story of how the book became a porn movie actually appears in the film: Tristan walks into the office of "Buttman" aka John Stagliano and suggests he help her make an anal sex film. Stagliano says he'll do it on the proviso that she gets porn star Ruby to do anal sex. Thus, Ruby is brought around to the office and Tristan works her magic with lube and vibrators. Buttman is impressed and bang, you've got a movie.

The film itself is a somewhat strange mix of instructional guide and full-on gonzo porn movie. The setup for the film involves Tristan giving lessons on the right way to have anal sex to a group of porn stars at John Stagliano's house. In between each "lesson" there's a hardcore anal sex scene. It all ends with a wild anal orgy in which Tristan happily joins the action. Apparently she scripted and planned the whole scenario beforehand.

I both loved and hated this movie, mainly because it's two things at once. It keeps switching between a sex-positive, interesting, downright hot film and an unsavory sleaze-fest, thanks mainly to the influence of John Stagliano - inventor of the gonzo genre - as the cameraman.

Fact is, when Tristan's on screen and directing the action, it's great. She's got a lot of interesting things to say and she engages the porn stars in discussions about why they like anal sex. The problem occurs when Stagliano insists on sniggering inane comments into the camera, or shooting the action like a 15 year old boy. An example: Tristan asks a porn star about their first experience of anal sex. We don't get to hear her full answer because Buttman is too busy zooming in on the woman's pussy and drooling "Oh yeah, look at that" into the microphone.

That may be fine for the raincoat brigade, but it effectively means that this movie is not as female-friendly as its title suggests. And I think it's a real shame, because there's still a lot to love here.

Take the fact that the anal sex really is hot. Take it from me, you WILL need a vibrator handy when watching this movie. There's also a real focus on female pleasure. All the female stars are thoroughly primed with a vibrator and lube before taking it in the ass, and they all have thundering orgasms, something I'm always happy to see in a porn film. No doubt about it, everybody enjoys having anal sex in this movie, and it's not treated like a tool of dominance by the men. Most of the guys seem in awe at the abilities of their co-stars to get off this way.

It's also over three hours long so you definitely get your money's worth.

Overall, it's a good, memorable film and one worth watching if you're a bit of a backdoor gal. Just be prepared to turn down the sound whenever Buttman gets loose.

Starring: Tristan Taormino, Nacho, Chloe, Jazmine, Sydney Steele, Inari Vachs, Nina Hartley, Ruby, Tony Tedeschi, Jewel
Director: Ernest Greene and Tristan Taormino
Studio: Evil Empire

Available From
Gamelink: DVD or Download
Also available to buy at: Ms Naughty
Also available to stream or pay-per-view at: Ms Naughty AEBN

Also available: The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women 2
Ms Naughty: DVD
Sex Superstore: DVD
Gamelink: DVD or Video On Demand

Note: Tristan has directed a large number of adult films. Visit this page for more information.

Reviewed September 2006