The Hitachi Magic Wand and beyond (continued) BY SARA DONNELLY

Rourke says her customers range in age from 18 to over 60. Many come with their partners (which she encourages), but some come alone. Rourke says she has seen as many men as women since opening several months ago. Customers have visited from all parts of the state and beyond, including Bangor, Belfast, Bethel, Camden, Brunswick, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. One of her most popular nights is her women-only Thursday-evening block, which runs from five to eight. This bracketed women-only time is unique to Portland-area sex stores.

Wendy Chapkis, whose book Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor is sold at Nomia, believes Rourke offers a service that many in Portland are ready and waiting for.

"I thought it was very bold when Gina decided to open a sex store for women on Exchange Street," says Chapkis, who worries that Rourke might feel pressure from Portland Police in the way the Fine Arts Cinema and Video Expo did 10 years ago. "Not because it’s out of keeping with sexual attitudes [in Portland] because I think there are women and men who are eager to learn about sexual products. In Portland, the problem is not one of community standards being anti-commercial sex or recreational sex but one of law enforcement’s negative attitude."

However, managers at Portland’s other sex stores — Condom Sense, Video Expo, and the Treasure Chest — say the market is wide open for a store like Nomia. Not since the mid-1990s, they say, have they felt any kind of pressure to close from the Portland police the way Chapkis alleges. Rourke feels positive about her sex store, too.

"Creating a comfort zone does not happen overnight," she says. "But so far, the support and enthusiasm for this place has been kind of astonishing. In the beginning, before I banned cell phones [in the store], it was not uncommon for women to come in, eyes bug out, take out their cell phone and call all their friends."

Chapkis hopes Nomia’s presence on the local sex-store landscape will encourage area women to explore their sensuality.

"I hope women go to it and it survives because other stores that sell sex are not as welcoming to women as they should be," she says. "Women have a right to and a desire for sexual pleasure."

Rourke hopes to hire someone soon to assist her at the store, thus freeing her up to organize both her classes and her extensive inventory of sex products domestic and foreign. A quick run-down of items at Nomia illustrates how large a task this can be. There are whips and feathers and black-lace bodices; multi-colored dildos and underwater vibrators; strap-ons, board games, and STD advisories; how-to-make-love videos and hard-core porn; scented massage oils and Kama Sutra guides; sex-theory books, sheer lingerie, condoms, dental dams, vibrators shaped like cars, butt-plugs, Ben Wa balls, and several varieties of lubricant including one called Rocket Fuel, which, judging from the pained expression of the man on the package, will no doubt bring you immediately to violent, soul-crushing climax.

And in case the sight of all of this sex makes you dizzy, Rourke, in ladylike fashion, offers access to a spring-water cooler free of charge. How civilized.

I COULD TELL YOU the anal-sex class was scandalous, but I’d be lying. In fact, the atmosphere at the workshop was so cool it was nearly academic. After passing out neatly stapled handouts which included diagrams of the inner-rear and various sexual positions, Gellman crisply introduced the group to an array of butt plugs (small to not-so-small), a few hand-held vibrators, and a massive plug-in baton called the Hitachi Magic Wand (known to those in the industry as the "Cadillac of vibrators.") Each toy was passed around the room with clarifying comments from Gellman like "this toy is perfect for the beginner" or "ladies, in case you didn’t know, men like vibration against their penises." About 20 minutes into the seminar the formidable, completely indecent Magic Wand made its jittery way around the room into my lap. As I stared at the wand, I felt myself surrender to the awkwardness of a seminar, with strangers, about the holiest of holes. It felt kind of like engaging in a camp sing-a-long or attending a Falmouth Contradance — you’re not sure the whole thing is exactly your bag but you’ll give it a shot because everyone else seems to be having a hell of a time.

Stuck over the top of the Wand was one of Nomia’s toys, a prostate tickler shaped like the nose of my favorite Muppet Gonzo. Unsure of what I was meant to do with the Gonzo wand, I peeled off the toy and then popped it back on again. The wand continued to hum in my hands. It looked like a good toy for the ass, as far as I could tell. Although, if my partner came at me with this vibrator the size of my forearm I think I’d high-tail it the other way.

I don’t care how "sex-positive" it is.

Around this time, Gellman launched into a well-received vignette about shorting out the lights of an entire German hotel when he plugged in his Hitachi during one romantic vacation.

"It’s a different sense here," said one woman after the seminar. She and her partner attend sex workshops all over the country and drove down from their home in Windham to try out Nomia’s curriculum. "Usually stores are more geared toward men, with all the toys out in packaging with porn stars on them. It’s much more progressive here. It’s much more open."

Her partner, the man to my right who had so gently passed along all manner of sex toys without once asking for my number, smiled in agreement.

"We think sex and love is an educational process," he said, nodding in unison with the woman whose body he spends his free time learning about. "We believe that."

Sara Donnelly can be reached at sara_donnelly@hotmail.com