Enhancing the Sexual Experience

Feeling especially dominant today? Or just horny?

"MASTER," "MISTRESS" or "SLAVE," there's a studded dog collar out there with your name on it.

Not to mention a few body harnesses, handcuffs, whips, chains--and if you can stomach them, cock rings or nipple clips (that conveniently vary in degrees of tightness, of course).

Hubba, hubba, hubba...

Where Passion is Fashion

The store at 932 Mass Ave., where they say they "had bullwhips before Mapplethorpe," is aptly named Hubba Hubba. This erotic establishment, which started out as an antique clothing store and later moved to punk, today features what artist/owner Susan R. Phelps calls "bondage and fetish clothing."

For Phelps, who earned a bachelor's in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, the store is her "palette."

For her customers, the store is, well, palatable.

Among other 'accessories,' Hubba Hubba features passion fruit and blueberry flavored condoms, Ben-Wa balls, and a plethora of dildos--a few of which go by names, such as "Junior Executive" and "Clitorator." The specialty lingerie includes leather corsets, cupless bras and crotchless, edible, thong or zippered panties.

Handcuffs, legcuffs, whips, paddles, masks and spread bars (with arm and leg restraints) make up the store's vast sadomasochism section. Rabbit covered handcuffs are available for those into "a softer kind of bondage."

The Spanking Thing'

Phelps says she sells these items "to enhance the sexual experience."

In a time when AIDS and other dangerous sexually transmitted diseases have become epidemic, S & M toys help couples enrich monogomous relationships and alleviate the desire to find excitement through many different partners, Phelps says.

But for many people, S & M and kinky sex paraphernalia are just not a part of daily life. Phelps says people look down upon bondage because they either "fear being out of control," or because they have fallacious ideas about what S & M actually is.

"Just because someone buys a whip doesn't mean they want to whip the be-jeezus out of you," says Phelps. "It's the perfect amount of stimulus that's just enough to make the blood rise to the surface. That's what the whole spanking thing is about."

"The truth is, the slightest nipple tweak or the act of laying down on someone is an act of restraint and bondage," she continues.

According to the owner, bondage's bad reputation comes from people who "mess up" or "don't communicate."

"You can't start off tough on somebody," Phelps explains, "You've got to start easy and work up to it. It's a human desire to inflict pain and to want to receive it in a limited way. That's what makes bondage partners. People want to push the limits of normalcy."

Phelps says Hubba Hubba's clientele runs the gamut: "everything from skinheads to gray-haired business men with briefcases." The members of Aerosmith and the Cars are some of the more high-profile characters who frequent this pleasure palace.

Aside from the regulars are the simply shy but curious sorts. One recent customer browsing the Hubba Hubba selection, local bartender Jonathon M. Newell, would say only that he was "looking for something special" and that he didn't "care to elaborate."

"I'm just looking for handcuffs--what the hell," was the reaction of Peter J. Maher, a Business School student checking out the goods.

But by and large, Phelps says the clientele the store maintains is a loyal one: "Once they shop here they usually come back and back because there's nothing quite like it in Boston."

Three-year Hubba Hubba employee Marty Starr--who plays Dr. Frankenfurter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the Square each weekend--says that Phelps clearly had a vision in creating Hubba Hubba.

"It all stemmed from her--she's the big old, strong old seed." says Starr. "she has been able to make fantasies come true for so many people. A lot of people have left here very happy. Everybody should be so good to society."

Starr says he sees Hubba Hubba's role as teaching people how to bring diversity to their sex lives. "You're not just born and you want to have sex tied to a wall--it's an evolution," he explains. "It's [for] the people that have normal sex that want to move on."

No K-Mart

Hubba Hubba occasionally puts on fashion shows at nightclubs, according to Starr. "We do it to warm up the audience," he says.

In the way of new fashion, a recent addition to the store's collection has been clothing and 'equipment' made of latex--according to Phelps, latex is what leather used to be. "You can buy leather in K-Mart now, so this is the new leather," she explains.

The store carries all items--from lingerie to spiked boots--in both women's and men's sizes, as it caters to cross-dressers. "Women have been dressing like men for years, but men are not allowed to dress like women," says Phelps, "so we're trying to even it out."

For Hubba Hubba, catering to people that few cater to, and offering people what others dare not to, makes it an especially special specialty store--and that helps business tremendously.

While most retailers have suffered heavy losses with the recent plunge in the Massachusett's economy, Starr says that business at Hubba Hubba has slowed a little, but adds, "We're not as bad as everybody else though. There's not as much competition because we're so specialized. You can't get his on every corner."

Or K-Mart.

"You're not just born and you want to have sex tied to a wall-it's an evolution."