Lover's Guide To Self Pleasuring, A Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  2/4/2005

The Little Details

Running Time: 58 min.

Production Date: 05 / 2003

Director: Mark Schoen, Ph.D.

Cast: Jane Monreal hosts, Beverly Whipple, Ph.D., RN, FANN and Eli Coleman, Ph.D. give clinical thoughts, and stars such as Wendy Divine, Eric Masterson, Chennin Blanc, Cheyne Collins, Joelean, Julian St. Jox, Pason, Kris Slater, and others give demonstrations. The stars who gave demonstrations were all given names, but I’m leaving them out since the names given to people I know were often different than their regular name.

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Sinclair’s instructional movies have been hit or miss for me. I have some hope here, but I’m not quite sure how much.

Initial Reaction: It’s very nicely done.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody curious about masturbation or looking for a new technique with their partner

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody in the mood for a movie featuring trios of midget circus clowns giving cream pies to fat women

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are very well done. The audio is clear and well balanced, and I don’t think I noticed a single background noise. The video is also very well done. It has a little grain that gives it almost a film-like look. It’s very nicely lit and often has a slightly artistic look to it.

Music: The music is nicely done. It varies a little so that it’s always at a comfortable level, and keeps a sexy style as well.

Menus: The menus are simple, but nicely done. The main menu is just the Sinclair logo and a few selections. The chapter menu lets you jump to a specific subject, and even gives you a still to go with it.

The Feature

Currently, we live in a culture that’s fairly negative sexually. Yes, it’s getting better in many ways, but it’s still hard to talk about sex in most places. Due to this attitude, the Sinclair Institute has put out several instructional movies. They’re developed as being a video textbook, and Sinclair advocates watching them with your partner so you can stop it and talk about different subjects as you go. This time around, the subject is self pleasuring and how it can be beneficial even when one has a partner.

The movie starts out with a look at masturbation through history before moving on to give a quick anatomy lesson. A few basic techniques are explained, and several toys are also demonstrated. The toys are nicely identified while being demonstrated, and a little information on them is often given. Lubricants are also discussed, as well as the positive and negative aspects of the different kinds. Things move on with tips on anal stimulation for both men and women as well as mutual masturbation. They even work in a couple variations, such as masturbating while your partner dances and teases you and phone sex. There isn’t a lot that’s left undiscussed about masturbation.

The different subjects are presented very well. There’s a nice balance between the clinical views, demonstrations, and comments from the people in the demonstrations. They comment on things such as what they liked about the different toys and masturbation methods to how it helped their relationship. Yes, it’s a little dry at times, but it also shows everything concerned with masturbation as a positive and natural thing.

A Lover’s Guide to Self Pleasuring is a nicely done educational movie. Although there are porn stars in the movie under other names, they come off like real normal people and I think do a great job of giving the movie a friendly feeling. It does a great job of balancing information with sexual demonstrations, and both are handled well enough that I think somebody who has quite a bit of sexual experience could watch it with a partner who isn’t nearly as sexually experienced with neither of them feeling uncomfortable or bored. Although this seems like a subject that I was afraid would make for a fairly boring movie, A Lover’s Guide to Self Pleasuring had my attention almost the entire time, and frequently put a smile on my face as well. If you’re at all interested in A Lover’s Guide to Self Pleasuring, pick it up.

The Extra Stuff

In addition to a bonus feature and behind the scenes featurette, there’s a menu that lets you go to different parts of the movie based on the sex toys in the movie to see them demonstrated. There’s also sexual health information and a bonus short.

The bonus short lasts about a minute and a half and is called Get In Tune. It’s a short and simple romantic short that packs a good message. It gets the point across without being overly preachy, and I think could teach the rest of the industry a little something. If you pick up this DVD, make sure to check it out.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts about ten minutes. Both Beverly Whipple, Ph.D., RN, FANN and Eli Coleman, Ph.D. talk about some of their past, and several of the cast members talk a little about what they hope for with the movie or why they wanted to be involved. It’s a very different behind the scenes featurette because it often puts together several different camera angles in different windows while letting the stars do a voice-over or are in one of the windows. It continues to teach a little about sexuality, and at the same time it shows some of the making of the movie. It makes for a unique behind the scenes featurette as well as a great accompaniment to the movie.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Instructional, masturbation (both male and female), toys, anal stimulation (both male and female), and oral

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Condom Usage: None

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many of the Sinclair Institute’s DVDs can be found online for between about $13 and $28 with a few stores offering them at the lower end. If you feel a little lost when it comes to masturbation, you could do a heck of a lot worse than picking up this movie. There’s plenty of nicely presented information as well as nicely captured demonstrations. There’s also some nice care put into the technical aspects as well as the extras. A Lover’s Guide to Self Pleasuring is a very well done instructional DVD.

Note to The Sinclair Institute: It’s great to see you putting such nice care into your DVDs.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight