Georgia Payne, a dominatrix who cheerfully admits that's not her real name, knelt on a stage in a cavernous hall of the L.A. Convention Center. Facing about 50 people, she'd asked for a volunteer and gotten Tom, a 39-year-old graphic artist from La Crescenta.
Payne, who earns $250 an hour, was about to demonstrate the fine art of spanking, which -- contrary to what you might think -- is not as simple as it looks. The hand should be cupped, not flat, she explained, and positioned on the lower part of the buttocks, never at the top, never on the leg and never \o7ever\f7 near the tailbone.
"If your husband went to Catholic school," the 32-year-old Payne said with a sly smile, "he's probably secretly dying for it."
In the audience, more than half of whom were women, Jennifer and Jonathan Chavez, 19-year-old newlyweds from Lynwood, giggled. Their baby was home with grandma, and the pair were happily exploring the first night of Erotica L.A., a three-day retail expo that ends today at 6 p.m.
"This bondage stuff is pretty fun," said Jennifer, neatly encapsulating the evening's risque but unthreatening vibe.
This year's expo is a far cry from the first Erotica L.A. show, at the Hollywood Palladium 10 years ago. It attracted about 1,200 people, mostly men, to a warren of swap meet-like booths selling X-rated videos. This year, organizers said they were hoping for 50,000 paying visitors, an increase of 10,000 over last year. They have directed much of their marketing effort -- including 90% of a $300,000 promotional budget -- toward women, buying time on female-dominated outlets such as the Lifetime Channel and the Oxygen network.
To be sure, many events appeal to the male libido: "strip offs" on one of the three stages (nudity is verboten, stripper poles are not), a cheerleader tryout for "Debbie Does Dallas ... Again," autograph signings and picture posings by many hard-bodied porn queens -- most notably Jenna Jameson, who just sold her adult entertainment business, Club Jenna Inc., to Playboy Enterprises for undisclosed millions. And everywhere, there are scads of scantily clad women with zero body fat and amazingly inflated chests, working as "spokes-models." They are trailed by men with both their tongues and cameras out.
But there are also many couples, many clusters of women, and a vibe in the air that this place is just as much about romance as sex. It's hard to find a seminar that is not tailored to attract a female crowd (or at least couples).
