Dossie Easton



Dossie Easton (b. February 22, 1944, Winchester, Massachusetts) is an author and family therapist based in San Francisco, California. She lives in West Marin, California with her partner.

She is a nonfiction author and poet. Easton is the co-author of 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 UCSC, 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, and MA in Education and Counseling from University of San Franciso, 1989. Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, 1991, USF. Her bachelor's thesis was titled Sex is Nice and Pleasure is Good for You. 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. . Her books are often used and cited as fundamental to the polyamory movement.

Works
Nonfiction Books


 * Easton, Dossie and Janet W. Hardy, Radical Ecstasy: S/M Journeys to Transcendance. 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 Pat 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.