Getting To Know You

By my calculations, I’ve spent 200,000 hours trying to understand what makes you tick. I’ve been a talk show host, a senior executive at Victoria’s Secret stores, a weekly web columnist, a design director, an entrepreneur, a marketer, product developer, senior consultant about women to American business and now an Internet writer/website publisher.

For over 25 years, I’ve spoken with you indirectly about many subjects — but one in particular: sex.

We got to know each other in the all American dream place of Victoria’s Secret, fine lingerie shops in Paris and Vassarette brand at Walmart I share your love for shopping and buying new products that will improve our lives, the ones that help you express the real woman in the mirror.

Pino “Morning Breeze”

American Marketplace

For better and also for worse, I’ve lived my whole life in the world of the American marketplace. Am I corrupt and slightly jaded? Probably, but I’m a realistic optimist with a business conscience and ability to connect with people.

Lingerie is not my only expertise. During the course of a globetrotting, adventurous career, I’ve touched you in other big companies like Avon, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, Revlon and Lane Bryant.

From London to Bangkok; during a solo morning run through the back streets of Shezen, China; or flying to Zurich, Milan and Paris in a single day, I’ve spent countless hours thinking about desire, human sexuality, and what’s really going on in your bedroom.

More important, I’m always try to connect with your inner urges, dreams and desires, the woman you are when nobody’s looking.

It takes one to know one. Superficiality is not our expertise. Being a woman, I understand that for us, sexual desire is deeply rooted our minds.

I’ve chatted with you in Boston and Lubbock, Texas. You surprised me in San Diego, so much so that I broke the rules of focus group procedures and cornered you — a Lane Bryant Cacique customer — in the ladies room.

Your comments about orgasms had me totally intrigued, and I’ve never been one to sit behind that mirrored wall for very long.

You’ve taught me many lessons about sexuality over the years, but one is clear in my mind.

I’ve learned that what you say about sex and what you do, aren’t always the same thing. This is understandable. Why would you sit in a focus group of total strangers and discuss your sexuality, especially knowing that I was sitting behind that mirrored wall, listening to you and taking notes?

Pino Mystic Dreams

Victoria’s Secret Brand

The rise of the Victoria’s Secret brand is a great American entrepreneurial story, and you created it. As a key merchant, then director of product development and lastly as the fashion design director for Victoria’s Secret stores, I watched you embrace our message that a sexy you is a beautiful, respectable woman.

That message is quaint today, dated in the world of Angelmania, but it is the original Victoria’s Secret customer promise. I remember when men stood in line for an hour or more, lined up outside Victoria’s Secret lingerie stores, knowing that only one teddy box was acceptable under the Christmas tree.

Yes, he bought a red lace one, and you cringed, but his heart was always in the right place. It was all about you in those years.

It was America women who built the Victoria’s Secret temple of lingerie. We gave you the option of throwing everyday boring out of your lingerie drawer, and you cashed in big for shareholders.

How times change.

Today, we’re bombshells jumping out of helicopters and strutting ourselves across the tarmac like supermodels in the Israeli army. In the late Eighties and early Nineties, we were happy enough to look in the mirror, embracing ourselves as beautiful, sensual butterflies, emerging guiltless from our repressed American sexual cocoons.

Loving our Miracle bras two decades after feminists didn’t burn them at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City was an important psychological breakthrough for American women. We could be sexy and seriously competent at the same time. Feminism didn’t require us to swear off black lace.

Global Sexual Morality

Unlike the Europeans, Americans have always maintained an official, tight-lipped disapproval and unease about sexual matters. Our national ambivalence about the virtues and benefits of human sexuality — especially women’s sexuality — continues to this day.

We cannot underestimate religion’s influence in undermining the ability of loving couples to create a rich, life-enhancing sensual lifestyle 24/7. So many American women have an almost subversive unease about themselves, always wondering what “he” thinks.

I speak of Mr. Big — no not Carrie’s main man — but the ultimate, primo Big Guy — the one advising you to be a good girl always. He has apostles, those men who are always telling you to keep your knees together while chosen ones sneak a glance up your skirt.

My relationship with Br. Big is rock solid. When in doubt about how to advise you, I always speed dial for divine guidance. We’ll be calling Him from the road, once we get started. In fact, Apple has arranged for a dedicated direct line.

Speaking of iPhones, I’ve never worked on a technology account, or thought up new ways to sell you more George Forman grills. We always end up talking about sex, when you and I get together. I’m not a doctor or sex guru, but with great instincts, an inquiring mind and total discretion, we have major girl talk when hooking up for a chat.

This is the reason for my writing this book.

Many Americans want to pursue “responsible pleasure”, a sensual lifestyle grounded in the pursuit of creativity, beauty, spirituality, intimate connections, healthy living and good sex.

In writing this book, I’ve studied the research, interviewed the experts, and buried myself in the emerging science of sex as a key aspect of wellness. Few activities carry more overall health benefits than good sex, fueled by healthy eating, self-love and physical exercise.

Time out. We’re about slow seduction, and I’m rushing you. Anne