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Phonesex
Twin Palms is pleased to offer Phillip Toledano's second book, Phonesex. Toledano has photographed nearly thirty phonesex operators in the intimate setting of their own homes, offering a seldom-seen glimpse into the reality of what otherwise is a fantasy created by the operator's voice, and caller's imagination. Accompanying every portrait is a text written by each subject touching on some aspect of his or her experience as an operator. Whether touching, humorous, or disturbing, every operator's point of view is compelling.
- GenresPhotography
60 pages, Hardcover
First published December 3, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 11, 2019
My eldest daughter and I went into Southbank today, to three galleries, and we ended up at the National Gallery. As we were leaving to head home, I wandered around the gift shop and said to her, something I’d never really thought about before, why is it there are never any art materials in art gallery gift shops?
There was a table with reduced price books, and I love books on sale, and so I found this one. I wasn’t going to buy it, I was just going to show it to Fi, give her a laugh, but then I opened it and read the first page or so, and thought, actually, I think I need to read this.
The more I find out about what people get up to in their spare time, the more I realised just how dull I am. It would never occur to me to phone someone and to act out some sort of sexual fantasy with them. Not least, because I’m not even sure that I have any sexual fantasies, certainly not ones that involve strangers and telephones and handing over large quantities of cash to act out.
This book has photographs of phone sex operators and then a quote from them too on the opposite page – mostly of them discussing something or other about their clients. Some of these quotes are relatively standard fare – I want to be your tampon (presumably Prince Charles putting on an American accent), I want you to tell me how naughty I have been, I want to confess all of my sins. All a bit sad, really. And then some of them are over-the-top horrible. The operator with the man who shot himself on the phone and then the heavy thud of him falling to the ground – dear god, just horrible beyond belief. And this hadn’t even been the only time it had happened to her. I wouldn’t be able to cope with something like that. I’m not sure I would be able to even use a phone again, never mind go back to being a phone sex operator.
Books like this show me my lack of imagination as if I was staring into a mirror. It absolutely had never occurred to me that woman might use these services. I tend to think that men are the most fucked up when it comes to sex. In the main, I just imagine most women as being long-suffering. But there are straight men who work as phone sex operators to straight women. Like I said, this had never occurred to me as even a possibility.
I think, perhaps, my favourite here was the female operator who had a man who would phone and pretend to be a dog, and she would have to talk to him about what she would do with him, if he was, in fact, her dog. He would just listen (dogs generally can’t talk, so he was well within character) but this would then mean she would get no feedback from him at all. As she says, “I used to hate when he called, because I knew I would have to pull an hour plus worth of bullshit out of my ass.” You know, I can just about get how you might get off from someone saying, “Oh god, you’re so big, and I’m so wet, I want you, I want you now” – although, how you could sustain that for an hour, I’m not so sure. But I’m really not sure how you might get off from “and then I’ll talk you down to the park, to your favourite place, and once you’ve finished shitting, I’ll use the doggy bag to pick it up and carry it, warm and comforting, in my hand to the bin”.
These people must be truly remarkable. Many of them talk about how creative they have to be, and how they have to know which way to move the story along, since the fantasies that the people on the other end of the line are expecting to have enacted for them, are likely to be things they are only prepared to hint at. And as an operator says, “I think if all women did phone sex before they lost their virginity, they would make much better choices”.
There was a table with reduced price books, and I love books on sale, and so I found this one. I wasn’t going to buy it, I was just going to show it to Fi, give her a laugh, but then I opened it and read the first page or so, and thought, actually, I think I need to read this.
The more I find out about what people get up to in their spare time, the more I realised just how dull I am. It would never occur to me to phone someone and to act out some sort of sexual fantasy with them. Not least, because I’m not even sure that I have any sexual fantasies, certainly not ones that involve strangers and telephones and handing over large quantities of cash to act out.
This book has photographs of phone sex operators and then a quote from them too on the opposite page – mostly of them discussing something or other about their clients. Some of these quotes are relatively standard fare – I want to be your tampon (presumably Prince Charles putting on an American accent), I want you to tell me how naughty I have been, I want to confess all of my sins. All a bit sad, really. And then some of them are over-the-top horrible. The operator with the man who shot himself on the phone and then the heavy thud of him falling to the ground – dear god, just horrible beyond belief. And this hadn’t even been the only time it had happened to her. I wouldn’t be able to cope with something like that. I’m not sure I would be able to even use a phone again, never mind go back to being a phone sex operator.
Books like this show me my lack of imagination as if I was staring into a mirror. It absolutely had never occurred to me that woman might use these services. I tend to think that men are the most fucked up when it comes to sex. In the main, I just imagine most women as being long-suffering. But there are straight men who work as phone sex operators to straight women. Like I said, this had never occurred to me as even a possibility.
I think, perhaps, my favourite here was the female operator who had a man who would phone and pretend to be a dog, and she would have to talk to him about what she would do with him, if he was, in fact, her dog. He would just listen (dogs generally can’t talk, so he was well within character) but this would then mean she would get no feedback from him at all. As she says, “I used to hate when he called, because I knew I would have to pull an hour plus worth of bullshit out of my ass.” You know, I can just about get how you might get off from someone saying, “Oh god, you’re so big, and I’m so wet, I want you, I want you now” – although, how you could sustain that for an hour, I’m not so sure. But I’m really not sure how you might get off from “and then I’ll talk you down to the park, to your favourite place, and once you’ve finished shitting, I’ll use the doggy bag to pick it up and carry it, warm and comforting, in my hand to the bin”.
These people must be truly remarkable. Many of them talk about how creative they have to be, and how they have to know which way to move the story along, since the fantasies that the people on the other end of the line are expecting to have enacted for them, are likely to be things they are only prepared to hint at. And as an operator says, “I think if all women did phone sex before they lost their virginity, they would make much better choices”.
December 31, 2018
This was a fascinating read. An honest look inside of the lives of those working in the sex industry that was honestly eye opening and inspiring. A look at the relation of intimacy from another angle.
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October 23, 2018Photography.
"Phone sex is theatre. An artificial passion-play in real-time, directed by a skilled verbal fantasist, with only one possible conclusion."
-Phillip Toledano
"Phone sex is theatre. An artificial passion-play in real-time, directed by a skilled verbal fantasist, with only one possible conclusion."
-Phillip Toledano
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews