Dossie Easton

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Dossie Easton bigraphy, stories - Educators

Dossie Easton : biography

26 February 1944 –

Dorothy "Dossie" Easton (born February 26, 1944) is an author and family therapist based in San Francisco, California. She is polyamorous, and lives with her partner in West Marin, California.

Works

Nonfiction books
  • Easton, Dossie and Janet W. Hardy, Radical Ecstasy: S/M Journeys to Transcendence. San Francisco: Greenery Press, 2004.
  • Easton, Dossie and Janet W. Hardy, The New Topping Book. San Francisco: Greenery Press, 2003. ISBN 1-890159-36-0.
  • Easton, Dossie and Janet W. Hardy, The New Bottoming Book. San Francisco: Greenery Press, 2001. ISBN 1-890159-35-2.
  • Easton, Dossie and Catherine A. Liszt. When Someone You Love Is Kinky. San Francisco: Greenery Press, 2000. ISBN 1-890159-23-9.
  • Easton, Dossie and Catherine A. Liszt. The Ethical Slut. San Francisco: Greenery Press, 1997.
Poetry
  • Poems under the name Dossie Easton in the Marin Poetry Center Anthology.
  • Poems under the name Scarlet Woman and Dossie Easton in works edited by Patrick Califia, Joan Nestle ("The Persistent Desire"), Leslea Newman (The Femme Mystique), Lizzard Amazon ("Slut Utopia").
  • Scarlet Woman. "Roll Me Over and Make Me a Rose" and "Dress Shirt". The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader. Ed. Joan Nestle. Boston: Alyson Publications, 1992. pp 351–352.
  • Scarlet Woman. "Hold Me Down So I Can Fly." The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader. Ed. Pat Califia and Robin Sweeney. Boston: Alyson Publications, 1996. pp 101–103.
  • Scarlet Woman. "For DAVID & JERRY & CYNTHIA & MARK & now CHRISTOPHER too…" Coming to Power. Ed. by members of SAMOIS, a lesbian/feminist S/M organization. Boston: Alyson Publications, 1981.
  • Scarlet Woman: poems. Chapbook. 20pp. 1995.
Short fiction
  • "Theory of the Big Bang." "Dreaming the Dark" ed. Janet Hardy, Greenery Press.
Articles
  • “Shadowplay: SM Journeys to Our Selves,” in Safe, Sane and Consensual, eds. Meg Barker and Darren Langdridge, UK 2007.

  • “Making Friends with Jealousy,” in Nonmonogamies, eds. Meg Barker and Darren Langdridge, Routledge, 2010.

  • “Cultural Competence with BDSM Clients,” in Counseling Idealogies, Queer Challenges to Heteronormativity, ed. Lyndsey Moon, Ashgate Publishing, United Kingdom, 2010.

  • “Sex and Relationships: Reflections on Living Outside the Box” in Families – Beyond the Nuclear Ideal, eds. Daniela Cutas and Sarah Chan, Blomsbury, London, 2012.

Further references

  • Klesse, Christian. Sexualities Vol. 9 No. 5. Special issue on Polyamory. Contains interview with Dossie Easton, "The Trials and Tribulations of being a ‘Slut’ – Ethical, Psychological, and Political. Thoughts on Polyamory." December 2006. pp 643–650.
  • Love, Barbara, ed. "Women Who Changed America: Feminists from 1963-1975." University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Notes

Background

Easton is a non-fiction author and poet. She has co-authored The Ethical Slut: a Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities, Radical Ecstasy, When Someone You Love is Kinky, The New Topping Book, and The New Bottoming Book with Janet W. Hardy (who also writes under the pseudonym of Catherine A. Liszt).

She has been a plenary or keynote speaker at many conferences, including conferences of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, and the University of Hamburg.

Easton has given talks or guest lectures at many colleges and universities including University of California, Santa Cruz; Bryn Mawr; University of California, Berkeley; Mills College; Pomona College; and San Francisco State University.

Her B.A. is from New College of California, 1975; MA in Education and Counseling from University of San Francisco, 1989; Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, 1991, USF. Her bachelor’s thesis was titled Sex is Nice and Pleasure is Good for You.Easton, Dossie and Catherine A. Liszt. "The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities. San Francisco: Greenery Press, 1997. p. 19. She worked at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic Psych Annex in 1968 as a psychedelic crisis guide. She has been part of San Francisco Sex Information since 1972. She had a radio show on sexuality on KPOO San Francisco from 1973-1975 called "Get in Touch", as Mandy Jenkins. She has worked in battered women’s centers and mental health clinics in Santa Cruz, Sunnyvale, and San Francisco.

She was a member of the first Board of Directors of the Society of Janus in 1974, and is a life member; also is or has been a member of other well-known BDSM organizations such as SAMOIS; Outcasts; Exiles; and Black Leather Wings, a radical faerie group.

In 1969, Easton made a lifetime commitment to a philosophy of sex positive feminism and nonmonogamy.Easton, Ethical Slut, p. 10. Her books are often used and cited as fundamental to the polyamory movement.