American journalism has a beginner's complex when it comes to fucking. Gawking instead of touching, overthinking instead of cozying up, giving tips instead of giving tip. One in five Americans view porn, and between a quarter and a third of all global Web searches are for porn. Yet magazines and newspapers keep sex at a gigantic arm’s length. For an industry stuck at second base (specifically, side boob), there’s finally a foreshadowing of journalism’s sexy coming of age. Thanks to foreigners, porn and women. But mostly porn, in the hands of women.
The foreigners are key. Relentless, fast, dismissive of America’s tormented sex drive. Canadian-born, New York-based Vice investigates Swiss brothels, tests out homemade sex toys and runs an entire Not Safe For Work section next to Travel and Tech. Gawker Media, founded by a British-Hungarian, launched, ran and released Fleshbot, a blog with more ass-fucking than “Before Night Falls.” Its Jezebel site is always talking sex and publishes gems like the “March Madness Sex vs. Chocolate” competition, a clever play on the annual month-long U.S. college basketball tournament. (Blow jobs easily beat hangnail fingerbang in the first round.) Ten years ago, Vice and Gawker were considered journalism backwaters. Now they’re valued at $1 billion.
Sex should already be everywhere in American journalism. The media are part of a sensual family of artists, singers, musicians, novelists, writers, filmmakers and poets. Every song is about foreplay, fucking or fallout; “Fifty Shades of Grey” is the latest bestseller and a painter’s raison d’etre is the nude. I remember in Dorothy Allison’s “Bastard Out of Carolina,” the leading lady, Bone, masturbates against a tree limb at 12 or 13. That’s honesty you’ll never read in a newspaper, which is ironic, because papers are supposed to reflect the public’s interests. Journalism’s always been tied down by two prude dudes: America, who decided that political gossip and violence stories are more acceptable than naked booties. And advertising, who always bows to political heat or gets up in arms when an ad is placed too close to sex. As if a Chevy is more sacred than fucking. Scram, guy!
Then the Internet came, tsunami-style, to rearrange the madness. Conservative as an ism is suddenly floating upside down in a bottomless sea of everyone. Every second, another voice, another layer, another site, a billion times over. The Internet unmoored civilization’s three deepest anchors: Money’s no good here, everything’s free; assault is impossible; and property doesn’t exist. The Web is generally a very kind place: LOL cats conquered the world without displacing a soul. We get a much more beautiful equilibrium between masculine and feminine tastes, especially when it comes to sex.
By 2010, one in every two-and-a-half Web pages was porn. Two years later, hard core is giving way to more sensual porn, women are taking over the director’s chair and sites like Viv Thomas, X-Art and Hegre refine the pace.
A West Virginia high school student is filing an injunction against her principal, who she claims is threatening to punish her for speaking out against a factually inaccurate abstinence assembly at her school.
New Zealand's parliament has passed marriage equality legislation, making it the first country in the Asia-Pacific region and the 13th country worldwide to legalise same-sex marriage.
Rekindling the old debate on whether size matters, new research finds that women may take a man's penile endowment as a key factor in "mate selection," ranking it as important as his height.
...It’s not necessarily surprising that women were more attracted to men with larger penises, Mautz said. What is surprising is that it had an equal effect on attractiveness as greater height, he said. And larger penises made more of a difference in a man’s attractiveness if he was taller.
The Women’s Studies Program will change its name to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies starting next fall, a move meant to better represent the department, Women’s Studies Interim Program Director Sonia Hofkosh announced at the LGBT Center’s 20th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
...
“From my very first classes, I realized that there’s way more to women’s studies than just feminist history,” Griffiths, a junior, said. “Gender studies [and] queer studies are ... really important intersectional aspects of a lot of the stuff we do in women’s studies, but [currently] there’s no home for it in Tufts.”
If television is a reflection of society, then a study of two programs on cable TV by a New Mexico State University researcher may help to expand how women's sexuality is viewed in the United States. Kassia Wosick, assistant professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently shared her findings at the Pacific Sociological Association annual conference in Reno, Nev.
At the heart of Wosick's research are two television series that depict women who pay for sex. Wosick, along with one graduate student and two undergraduates, are using content analysis and focus groups to study HBO's "Hung," a scripted production, and ShowTime's "Gigolos," a reality-based series.
..."People have a tendency to dismiss sex research," Wosick said. "They have a tendency to relegate it to biological or physiological, and the sociologist has so much to say about sexuality in general. And partly why my research is so timely and important is that it really brings together traditional discourses with more contemporary discourses in terms of sexuality, the body, pleasure and desire."
Wosick's research involves investigating women's sexual consumerism using the two TV shows. She is looking at how women consume sex-related materials and services in an industry that is traditionally targeted toward men. Wosick is gathering data about women as consumers of pornography, erotic materials, sexual experiences, and also male-focused services such as strip clubs.
In “Sex and the Citadel,” Shereen El Feki asks an array of highly personal questions about present-day sexual relations in Muslim societies.
“Men in Egypt, in the gulf, they always want to have sex in the wrong place,” one Egyptian woman whispered to the writer Shereen El Feki, while she conducted her research into sexual proclivities in a rapidly changing Arab world.
The comment was about anatomy, not geography. And it’s indicative of the frankness Ms. El Feki’s “Sex and the Citadel” sometimes achieves. Though she warns her readers that she is not writing an encyclopedia or staging a peep show, Ms. El Feki does ask an array of highly personal questions about present-day sexual relations in Muslim societies, with particular emphasis on Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. A number of people tell her that anal sex gains appeal when a culture places a high premium on virgin brides.
Clark’s lecture focused on “Sex: Why is Europe Different?” She discussed the popular idea that Europeans are more open with their sexuality than Americans.
“Europeans tend to regard sex in a matter of fact way,” Clark said.
Many European couples live together, have children and only marry years later or “out of order” compared to Americans. The teenage birthrate is 15 to 19 percent compared to the United States’ 40.2 percent. Abortion rates are also lower in Europe than in America, Clark said.
Sex education must be taught in European schools and parents cannot pull their students out of the class. Schools provide condoms and birth control for students.
...Clark credited the welfare state and sexual liberation movements of Europe for the openness.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Europe saw a backlash against the church and its strict rules regarding homosexuality and pre-marital sex. After World War II, consumer societies replaced the church’s role. Women and teenagers began working, giving them a new-found independence and the birth control pill was introduced in 1961. The church could no longer respond to the changing society and church attendance fell.
Better welfare was also introduced. The government gave allowances to families, childcare for single women and universal healthcare.
“I always wondered why Europe was more liberal with sex, but the welfare state explains that,” said senior history major Kyle Mathers.
A 1934 study on sex differences in sex dreams by Richard Husband found various things. First, men were more likely to have sex dreams than women. Second, men’s sex dreams more often involved major ...
by DAVID EDWARDSA high school science teacher in Idaho is under investigation by the state’s professional standards commission because he reportedly used the word “vagina” during a biology lesson.Tim McDaniel, who teaches 10th grade science at Dietrich School, told the Twin Falls Times-News that four parents were upset when they learned that his lesson included the word “vagina” and information about the biology behind female orgasm.“I teach straight out of the textbook, I don’t include anything that the textbook doesn’t mention,” McDaniel remarked. “But I give every student the option not attend this class when I teach on the reproductive system if they don’t feel comfortable with the material.”[Believe it or not, there is MORE by clicking the headline.]
A proposed bill in Kansas is calling for people with HIV or AIDS to be quarantined.
Lawmakers are close to passing a new law discriminating against those who have HIV or AIDS, forcing them to be isolated or have their movements restricted.
Kansas House Bill 2183, which has passed in the Kansas Senate, will update the state’s public health statute by allowing quarantine of Kansans with ‘infectious diseases.’
Senator Marci Francisco attempted to restore an amendment providing an exclusion for people living with HIV/AIDS, saying the disease is not spread through casual contact and the bill could permit discrimination.
Clearly within policy arenas there are mixed perspectives on the impacts of the PEPFAR restrictions with regards to sex work. However, real world prevention care and treatment of HIV and AIDS for sex workers does not occur in policy arenas but rather on the ground, in venues and avenues far removed from policy discourse. Meanwhile, although policymakers reflect on the intent or the outcome of the pledge, on the ground the policy has and may continue to have consequences. As a result of the pledge, in many instances information sharing about successful programming with sex workers has nearly ceased. Sex work programming has become a taboo topic; organizations that receive other funding are likely to be interested in or to seek US government contracts and funds. Others with specific missions have reigned in all activities unrelated or tangentially related to their missions; this has affected many sex work projects the world over. The anti-prostitution pledge has prevented the sharing of information about successful programming and prevented scaling up successful operations.
Our contributor Jewely Hoxie studies Human Sexuality at the University of California Santa Cruz (read her blog here). She has this to stay about the slut stigma…
How many times have you heard people say, “If she wasn’t such a slut…” or, “She’s kind of a slut, but…” or, “I can’t believe she’s slept with [X number] of people”?
I always interject by pointing out that being a slut is not a bad thing — at least, not in the way I define it, i.e. enthusiastically enjoying your sexuality in ways that are always physically and emotionally safe. There is a big difference between sleeping with ten different guys in one month and taking ten Plan B pills in one month. The former is perfectly fine sluttiness (that I encourage!) while the other has nothing to do with sluttiness and everything to do with being careless and irresponsible. I’ll take the side of sluts any day.
This advice applies to folks of all sizes, not just thinner folks partnered (in all the myriad ways one can partner) with fat folks. And a lot of it is good advice for sex in general, regardless of whether or not your partner is fat.
What I have found are films that have empowered and inspired me. Films that feature women I can identify with. Mothers and daughters, single or partnered, younger and older, thinner or plumper. Women who confront culturally imposed sanctions regulating their behavior, and deeply felt issues shaping their lives. Women who reject the speed limits of desire enforced upon women. Women who refuse to be labeled.
Behind these films are educated women with high ideals and intriguing visions. Women who object to the discriminating portrayal of their sex in porn and popular media, and who speak up for women sexually and politically. Some of them stay clear of the “porn” word lest they turn their targeted audience away from their work. Instead they market their films as “adult,” “explicit,” “sensual,” or “erotic.” But others refuse to allow men free rein in defining porn, and therefore claim the “porn” word as a way to subversively change its meaning.
Nielsen/NetRatings surveys have repeatedly found that women represent approximately a third of all online porn consumers. A new major international research project on people’s everyday uses of porn (in any format) also quotes this number in a preliminary report, which furthermore reveals that younger women show significantly greater interest in porn than do older women, suggesting a generational shift that may eventually “reduce the overall differences between male and female interest in pornography.”[iii] In 2010, the UK-based edition of the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan found that 60 percent of its readers have watched porn and an additional 14 percent said that they were open to the idea.[iv]
Nevertheless, a “woman watching porn” is still surrounded by a lot of social stigmas. Even researching porn is not a neutral topic. I’ve received many awkward reactions, unwelcome solicitations, and unkind rejections from people when they find out about my work on porn.
If a new report about an NFL player coming out comes true, the league could find itself opening up to an unprecedented reality — and might find itself as the surprise leading voice on gay rights in sports.
Michael Massaia is a documentary style photographer who specializes in black and white film. His "Lost: Las Vegas Call Girl Cards" series touches on the over-saturation of advertising, commodification, waste, and salaciousness within our culture.
This is what happens with most flyers and promotional pieces of paper that are handed out on the streets, put on windsheilds, etc. The fact that it's about selling sex makes me take pause...This appears to be one case where erotic images of women involved in sex work are actually adding value and humanizing the advertisements. Food for thought.
In an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week," House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said he "can't imagine" that having a gay child would change his position against marriage equality.
Lynne Osterman who was elected as a Republican to the Minnesota legislature says regrets casting a "political expedient" vote for Minnesota's "Defense of Marriage" law that outlawed same-sex marriage. She tears up when talking about it and urges Minnesota lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage.
There’s an app for that? Now your phone tells you when to have sex.
[T]he new trend in this technology is tracking something that women have monitored for centuries – the menstrual cycle. Given some basic information, apps like Kindara tell women when to have sex so they can plan or prevent pregnancy.
Steaks and blowjobs come to those who deserve them, not because Google Calendar dinged on your phone. Today's holiday, like Valentine's Day, is merely here to remind you what you should be doing the rest of the year to show your fondness for the opposite sex, not the other way around.
An opinionated woman obsessed with objects, entertained by ephemera, intrigued by researching, fascinated by culture & addicted to writing. The wind says my name; doesn't put an @ in front of it, so maybe you don't notice. http://www.kitsch-slapped.com
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