RORY MACLEAN
News Editor

Sex was in the air last weekend as young and old donned their flirtiest duds and got all oiled up for Saskatoon’s first naughty trade show at TCU Place.

Billed as an upscale consumer tradeshow, the Taboo Naughty but Nice show also aimed to create a bit of a party.

“It is what people make of it,” said Kevin Collins, spokesperson for Canwest Trade Shows, which sponsored the event.

“ ”˜Dynamic’ is probably the best way to describe it. A lot of people come out of their shell, do things they wouldn’t normally do. Some people just come down to have a look; a few giggles.”

Other people, including couples, use the event as an educational experience, he said.

The event featured a series of workshops over the day, including ones on oral sex and the female orgasm. These demonstrations were lead by vendors, so they would usually begin as educational and then quickly veer into a pitch for whatever they were peddling.

And now that you know where the G-spot is, let me show you how to stimulate it with one of our fine glass dildos.

The gawk factor was enough to keep TCU busy Friday and Saturday night, with about 5,000 visiting over the course of the weekend. Shirtless men and women in ill-fitting corsets or bras and panties were plentiful both nights, possibly lured by the $6 drinks as they wandered the aisles among rows of dildos, vibrators, oils, whips and paddles.

“Saturday got really, really busy. For a while it was shoulder to shoulder,” said Collins.

Canwest flooded the city with promotional tickets, otherwise $15 at the door, to ensure the event was busy. This plan provided plenty of exposure, but Collins says they have not yet determined if sales over the weekend were enough to bring the show back to the city.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be coming back or not. It’s not really my decision,” he said.

Canwest has to first hear from all their vendors and make sure they sold enough in Saskatoon. The overall impression from them is positive, though.

There are nine or 10 exhibitors who have booths at every Taboo show, the only event of its kind in western Canada, while others only appear at certain locations.

“I go across Canada with them,” said Viktoria Kalatera, who runs a glass toy booth. “On average, we could be selling up to 500 pieces over a weekend.”

At no less than $50 per toy, this makes the $1,200 booth well worth it. But since Saskatoon was new territory, they were uncertain if sales would be good.

“This is the first time Saskatoon has actually held a sex show, so we weren’t sure what it was going to be like or how it was going to be received.”

On Friday night, business was slow but Kalatera was encouraged that people were curious and asking a lot of questions.

As onlookers walked by, she would thrust a glass dildo — which had been heated with warm water — into their hands to show off one of the selling points of glass toys. They can also be cooled down before use, she said.

“I always tell people to pick them up, play with them in their hands,” she said. “I own five of them at home — that’s me.”

Taboo also provided an opportunity for local group Saskatoon Saskatchewan King Association to educate people on BDSM, which signifies bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism.

BDSM can encompass any range of activities but for newly engaged demonstrators Rob Thomas and Allison Carpenter, it focuses on the idea of giving and receiving pain.

“She is submissive to me and I am a dominant, more on a top level, which is described as the idea of bringing physical pain to someone,” said Thomas. “Bottom is the idea of accepting pain but it doesn’t necessarily mean submission. It could just be for sensation.”

Someone who likes to try both top and bottom roles is referred to as a switch. Vanilla is a term for those outside of the BDSM culture.

Carpenter is a bottom, which means she likes Thomas to inflict (controlled) pain on her. Sometimes it is done sexually, as foreplay, though sometimes it is an end in and of itself.

Carpenter said Thomas will sometimes stick 30 to 40 syringes through her skin. For her, it’s an interesting feeling, but not a feeling of pleasure. Sometimes the two will play with a knife, where Thomas will scrape her back with a large blade.

“It’s all about having trust in him not to hurt me and he’s aware of how far is too far,” she said.

For some people this is something they would only do with their partner, but for others it is an experience external to their romantic relationships.

Thomas and Carpenter only like to play with each other, though they used to have an open relationship.

“We had an open relationship for quite a while, but it gets too complicated,” she said. “I like the idea, but when you take everybody’s emotions into play — I mean, it’s hard enough with just two people.”

– –

photo: Robby Davis / Raisa Pezderic