Dell Williams died last year at the advanced and venerable age
of 92. But only after having earned some highly deserved fame as the brave
feminist force behind the creation of Eve’s
Garden, widely recognized as the US’s first women-focused sexuality
boutique and mail order business back in 1974.
If you’re among the folk who’ve heard of Ms. Williams,
chances are that you’re also among the countless millions who believe in their
true hearts that women’s sexuality – specifically women’s orgasms - are both a
resource and a gift of the sort that keeps on giving, largely in direct
relationship to how much we honor it.
Born in 1922, Williams came into her own after pursuing multiple
other endeavors including acting and a stint in a branch of the armed services.
After all, coming into one’s own is a process sometimes. It happened for Dell
Williams after she attended a Body/Sex Workshop with the fearless, talented and
wholly inimitable sex educator Dr. Betty Dodson in New York . There, Ms. Williams’ epiphany took
a deep and life-altering hold on her as she learned to explore the liberatory
experience of taking charge of one’s own pleasure.
She learned about the power of her female body, and most
importantly, how to tap into the source of her orgasmic energy through tactile
manipulation and the use of vibrators. Not
to the exclusion of partnered sex, but as a way to be independent in the
pursuit of sexual fulfillment, Williams spoke of the sheer empowerment that
derives from being in charge of one’s own pleasure and not dependent upon the
involvement of anyone else.
