First Time...

The First Time is a series of discussions and intimate disclosures about first sexual experiences; funny and fun for some, tragic and awful for others. In the opening chapter, there is a discussion of what virginity means in different cultures, ranging from sacred to an embarrassing hindrance, followed by twelve personal stories from men and women of different ages and cultures about how they lost their virginity. The book ends with thoughts on sexual behavior from two people from two very different walks of life: a sex industry worker and a Buddhist monk. Well-known Australian psychic, columnist and author, Susan Taylor, conducted interviews with men and women from all walks of life, and chose to publish the stories of those willing to tell all. "Everyone had a different story. I decided that given the voyeuristic nature of most people, it might be a good idea to put some information out there, that others would find interesting, if only by comparison. The stories allow people to see how different everyone's experience can be. I feel educating people through the sharing of information on this topic may help shed light on some of the absurdities and stigma associated with virginity." The First Time opens with an overview of sexual behaviour during the past 200 years. In the first chapter Our Sexual Behavior, Taylor takes the reader through time, from exotic 18th Century India and the Marquesas Islands to modern-day Horn of Africa, one of the many regions of the world where female genital mutilation still takes place. Chapters Two, Three and Four are written in first person. In Opening Night at the Opera, four naïve but mostly willing participants to virginity removal tell their stories; in I Didn't Sign On For That, the stories are darker, evil even. Here the participants tell of abuse, where the taking of virginity was violent and against their will. Great Expectations details the last four of the twelve stories, where hopes were high but the experiences were mostly disappointing. In the Final Say, the thoughts of a well-travelled Buddhist monk in his fifties and the philosophy of a forty-eight year old sex worker reveal surprising insights. As a social documentary, there is something in these pages for everyone. Many of us have hidden secrets about our sexual adventures, and reading about others' experiences help us realize that no matter how odd we think our own story is, it's no less normal than that of the next person.