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Janet Orsi For Play: Sensuality Shoppe owners Dae and Gina Williams. Bliss SHOPLIFTING does not create sex-positive karma" reminds a sign taped inside a wooden bureau at the rear of Sebastopol's Sensuality Shoppe. Well, one guesses that this used to be a bureau, perhaps for storing gemstones or an elderly man's underwear, but its current use confuses the eye way past figuring furniture definitions. For now it's what co-owner Dae Williams refers to as a "toy chest." Surrounded by curtains that can be closed for privacy, the chest houses sex toys of many descriptions (and yes, a few are shaped like frogs) that customers may muse over without being the object of curiosity. When a particular item is chosen, one may simply request the toy at the front counter and it will be handed over pre-wrapped. This, as with all the other small touches here, is designed to remind one that sex--that angst-ridden, wished-for/feared, troublesome, meddlesome, all-consuming, mighty grand thing--is supposed, babies aside, to be fun. Williams even goes so far as to refer to her lover as her "sweetie," as in: people who are together should be sweet to each other. Are we all still together on this? Open since June of '96, and with only 10 percent of the merchandise devoted to adult material, the store--owned by Dae and sister Gina Williams--has a full line of skin-care products developed by Dae, lingerie for men and women, beautiful scarves and hair ornaments, and everything in between to add sensuality, languor, and a good dose of self-love to one's life. Very female-friendly, the Sensuality Shoppe also carries a full line of adult videos for rent, all prescreened by the Williams sisters for plot, dialogue, production quality, and actual erotic content. Additionally, a full slate of classes on tantra, sexuality, aphrodisiacal preparations, and just simply making each other happy are offered each month. 2489-A Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol. 829-3999.--G.G. [ Sonoma County Independent | MetroActive Central | Archives ]