Posts tagged sexuality
Stopping rape with smut – Broadsheet – Salon.com
Mar 10th
- Image via Wikipedia
Let me get this out there right upfront: I do not want to take your porn away. I am against the exploitation and objectification of women, but I am also against censorship and Puritanical bullshit, and porn tangles all of those issues up in such a way as to make me feel uncharacteristically dispassionate about the whole mess. My official position on porn: Whatever.
So if I saw a compelling argument that porn is good for society, I would probably not go out of my way to nitpick it. But Milton Diamond’s article at the Scientist, in which he discusses data that shows more porn is correlated with lower sexual assault rates, is not that argument. “[I]n every region investigated,” he writes, “researchers have found that as pornography has increased in availability, sex crimes have either decreased or not increased … Surprisingly few studies have linked the availability of porn in any society with antisocial behaviors or sex crimes. Among those studies none have found a causal relationship and very few have even found one positive correlation.”
Interesting. And if you’ve been going around saying that increased availability of porn causes an increase in sex crimes (or at least, that it did through the 1990s; Diamond doesn’t cite more recent findings on this subject), maybe you should stop. But speaking of the difference between correlation and causation, isn’t it kind of a big leap from that to “More porn equals less rape”?
via Stopping rape with smut – Broadsheet – Salon.com.
Sex addiction is a feminist victory. – By Hanna Rosin – Slate Magazine
Feb 6th
- Image via Wikipedia
When Tiger Woods checked himself into the Gentle Path sex addiction clinic, many women writers and activists reacted with suspicion and rancor. Lemondrop asked if the treatment is “merely a way for philandering men to pay lip service to their outraged wives?” Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon found the diagnosis “nothing short of maddening.” A group of female protesters in Australia showed up at a golf tournament carrying photos of Tiger with a purple pimp hat and a scepter, implying a certain winking noblesse oblige. Our own Amanda Marcotte wondered whether Woods had a disease or a “fairly typical set of attitudes about women coupled with a lot of opportunities.” Or, as she succinctly put it, are celebrities such as Woods who rack up the mistresses ” ‘addicts’? Or just pigs?”
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss in the FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAILGet Slate RSS FeedsRSSShare This ArticleRECOMMEND…Single PageSINGLE PAGE
Yahoo! Buzz
Facebook FacebookPost to MySpace!MySpaceMixx MixxDigg DiggReddit RedditDel.icio.us del.icio.usFurl FurlMa.gnolia.com Ma.gnoliaSphere SphereStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSE
It's hard, admittedly, to sympathize with a man who asks his mistress to change her voice mail because his wife has stolen his phone. Especially when that man is a millionaire golfer who has profited from his clean, good-boy image. But with some historical distance, the situation seems less suspect. Not so long ago, there was no easy way at all to publicly shame a celebrity pig or even any ordinary pig. The term “sex addict” does some of that work, and its introduction into the psychiatric idiom could be considered an important moment in feminist history. Suddenly, certain brutish behaviors that used to be overlooked were exiled as abnormal. And in the clinical literature, the word promiscuous came to primarily describe not hysterical women but rather predatory men.
The term “sex addict” was popularized in the late 1970s, when Patrick Carnes, who founded the Gentle Path clinic, published Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction. The book opens with a description Woods would find painfully familiar: the moment when every addict must admit his life is out of control because a “squad car has pulled into the driveway and you know why they’ve come,” and now millions are reading the “steamy news accounts.” The book’s first example is “Del,” a dastardly combination of Roger Sterling and Eliot Spitzer. Del is a lawyer who slept with his secretary and her boss at the same time. He “exploited relationships,” Carnes laments. He stalked women on the street. Carnes lays on the kind of scolding that would earn him applause if he were a guest on The View. No, you cannot tell someone you love her just so you can go to bed with her. No, you cannot tell her you love her if you love two other people as well.
via Sex addiction is a feminist victory. – By Hanna Rosin – Slate Magazine.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Tiger Woods ‘In Rehab To Cure Sex Addiction’ (news.sky.com)
- Tiger Woods in Hattiesburg Sex Rehab Clinic (blippitt.com)
- Tiger’s new world of treatment (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Stray Tiger Found in Mississippi (blippitt.com)
- Taking sex addiction seriously (healthzone.ca)
Pornography: Beneficial or Detrimental? | Psychology Today
Jan 22nd
- Image via Wikipedia
For the past several decades, a debate has raged as to whether or not pornography yields deleterious effects at the individual and/or societal levels (e.g., increased negative views toward women; increased rate of sexual crimes against women). In many instances, those who have sought to link pornography to countless ills have been ideologically motivated, as the aggregate scientific evidence hardly supports such conclusions. See chapter 6 of my book The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (p. 228-235) for some relevant references on pornography.
In today’s post, I’d like to briefly report on two recent studies that shed light on the matter. In a paper published in 2009 in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Milton Diamond reviewed a very broad number of studies that have explored the supposed ill effects of pornography. Subsequent to his extensive review, Diamond concludes (p. 312):
“Indeed, the data reported and reviewed suggests that the thesis is myth and, if anything, there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes. Further, considering the findings of studies of community standards and wide spread usage of SEM [sexually explicit material], it is obvious that in local communities as nationally and internationally, porn is available, widely used and felt appropriate for voluntary adult consumption. If there is a consensus against pornography it is in regard to any SEM that involves children or minors in its production or consumption. Lastly we see that objections to erotic materials are often made on the basis of supposed actual, social or moral harm to women. No such cause and effect has been demonstrated with any negative consequence.”
via Pornography: Beneficial or Detrimental? | Psychology Today.
Related articles by Zemanta
- China Cracks Down On Internet Porn (manolith.com)
- Sex Rehab : Who Doesn’t Love Sex And Masturbation? [Let's Talk About Sex] (jezebel.com)
- What’s Tiger Doing in Sex Rehab? Benoit Denizet-Lewis Knows [Sex Addicts] (gawker.com)
Broadsheet – Salon.com
Jan 6th
- Image via Wikipedia
Dallas police are treating sex workers as victims. Will it work?
By Tracy Clark-Flory
A woman is arrested for prostitution and given a choice: Jail or rehab — take your pick. It sounds like a far-fetched scenario — especially in the United States, where decriminalization attempts have been resisted — but it’s one that is playing out right now in Dallas. Call it a sex worker’s get out of jail drug-free card.
Once a month, police round up prostitutes at local truck stops and take them to nearby “mobile command units” in the form of 18-wheeler trucks, the Associated Press reports. They are pressed for vital intel (for example, whether any local pimps are trafficking underage girls) before undergoing a social services screening and being offered various medical tests and treatment. Then it’s off to a courtroom-on-wheels.
“If the women have no felony warrants and seem sincere, the judge gives them the opportunity to avoid jail and enter rehab,” according to the AP. “After 45 days of inpatient counseling, they receive help with education, child care and housing.” There is no doubt these women are desperately in need of the help: The truck stops are the “bottom rung of prostitution,” according to Dallas police Sgt. Louis Felini. “They are trading sex for survival needs: food, a place to sleep,” he says. Not to mention, the vast majority are users, crack being the drug of choice.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Dallas Police Aim to Help, Not Jail, Prostitutes (abcnews.go.com)
- Dallas police aim to help, not jail, prostitutes (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Police push prostitutes out of Vancouver’s downtown (cbc.ca)
- Dallas Police Help To Rehabilitate Prostitutes (huffingtonpost.com)
Why Men Like Porn
Jan 6th
As it turns out, men are pretty much hard-wired to like watching — or reading about — other people having sex. Here’s why they do it — and why it’s probably ok.
By Matt McMillen
WebMD the Magazine – Feature
Reviewed by Louanne Cole Weston, PhD
Most nights, after his wife, Kate, had gone to bed, Tom surfed the Internet for porn. Kate learned about this during their second session of couples therapy. Despite Tom’s claims that his nocturnal habit had nothing to do with their love life, she worried he preferred porn to having sex with her.
That’s a common reaction. “Often, one partner has a porn interest, and the other thinks that’s a problem,” says Russell Stambaugh, PhD, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based psychologist and sex therapist. “It rarely is. The best studies suggest that only about 5% of porn users have a problem that interferes with their daily life.”
That’s good news, because a lot of people look at porn. According to the May 2004 Tracking Survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 26% of male Internet users visited adult websites (only 3% of women went to these sites). In 2006, the porn industry raked in nearly 13 billion dollars.
via Why Men Like Porn.
Related articles by Zemanta
- China nabs 5,400 people for online porn in 2009 – Katu.com (domainmacher.com)
- Sex robots to save the adult entertainment industry? (crunchgear.com)
- Roku adding porn to their lineup (crunchgear.com)
Sex – Salon.com
Dec 21st
- Image via Wikipedia
It’s spawned a VH1 show and an excuse for Tiger Woods. But some experts balk at the idea of being hooked on nooky
By Tracy Clark-Flory
iStockphoto/Salon
After surrendering their vibrators and porno DVDs, the stars of VH1’s “Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew” have chain-smoked their way through three long, sexless weeks of treatment. The motley crew of pseudo-celebrities — including a porn star, a beauty queen and an obscure rock musician — have stripped their emotions bare in nationally broadcast group therapy, tearfully sharing stories of past abuse, anonymous sex, hours upon hours of smut surfing and, above all else, consuming shame. But here’s a question that the show, which ended its first season Sunday night, never bothered to ask: Are these people really addicts?
Since the term was coined in 1983, “sex addiction” has become so embroidered in our self-help vocabulary that most of us stopped questioning it. The term gets bandied about whenever Bill Clinton logs extracurricular time with an intern or Eliot Spitzer gets caught having sex in his socks or David Duchovny separates from his wife. Recently “Sex Rehab” host Dr. Drew Pinsky made headlines by suggesting that Tiger Woods has a sex addiction. It’s become the go-to defense for extramarital affairs (I’m not an asshole; I’m an addict!) and been sold to “Oprah” viewers eager to diagnose their porn-loving husbands as both addicts and assholes.
Patrick Carnes, the leading expert in sex addiction, defines it as “any sexually related, compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones, and one’s work environment.” But here’s the tricky part: What’s the difference between the symptom of a compulsive disease and a disease itself? Repeatedly lathering up in the sink is a sign of OCD. We don’t call those people hand-washing addicts, now, do we? Unlike most addictive substances, sex can’t be smoked, snorted or mainlined. The term isn’t recognized in the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the bible of therapists everywhere (although along with other controversial diagnoses, like those relating to gender identity, sex addiction is being debated for a new version). But for many sex educators and sex-positive experts, hearing the term spoken about so casually, so frequently, is nothing short of maddening.
via Sex – Salon.com.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Americans and their views on sexual misconduct: Tiger, Tiger Woods Ya’all… (unaskedadvice.wordpress.com)
- Dr. Drew: “I’m not an expert on sex addiction, I surrounded myself with … people who were” (realityblurred.com)
- Oprah : When Love Addiction Morphs Into Sex Addiction [Sexplanations] (jezebel.com)
- Sex Rehab : Who Doesn’t Love Sex And Masturbation? [Let's Talk About Sex] (jezebel.com)
- Addicted to Sex? The Internet? Friendship? (psychcentral.com)
- Dr. Drew sends addicted viewers to Sex Rehab on VH1 (tvsquad.com)
- Dr. Drew Takes Sex Addicts To Rehab In New Series (cinemablend.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5ccc11e7-3e9a-49dd-b797-b16ce8ea56c7 "Sex Salon.com")
Masturbation: 5 Things You Didn’t Know
Jun 11th
Experts say that just about every man who can masturbate does — and why not? You don’t need an expert to tell you that solo sex feels good, relieves stress, and is a terrific sleep aid. But here are five things you may not know about masturbation:
1. There’s no such thing as “abnormal” masturbation.
Men often wonder if there’s something abnormal about the way they masturbate. But experts are loath to offer specific definitions of “normal” and “abnormal,” pointing out that men show great variations in both frequency and technique. “We humans are too diverse to establish a norm,” says Betty Dodson, PhD, a New York City-based sexologist and the author of Sex for One. Every man masturbates in his own way, says Martha Cornog, the author of The Big Book of Masturbation, whether he “uses his hands, rubs against something, uses a sex toy or household object, wears special clothing, fantasizes, looks at a book or magazine, tries different positions, or looks in a mirror.”
2. Masturbation is very safe — but not entirely safe.
Unlike sex with a partner, masturbation can’t give you a sexually transmitted disease. Nor will it subject you to the muscle strains, pokes in the eye, and awkward moments that can come with partner sex. But masturbation safety isn’t guaranteed. “Masturbation is just about the safest sex there is,” says Cornog. “But the laws of physics and biology don’t stop operating just because someone is masturbating.”
via Masturbation: 5 Things You Didn’t Know.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Taboo Female Sex Topics Go Public As Sex Toy Parties Become Popular (content123.com)
- Dr. Kate: Bad Vibrations (hermenaut.org)
- 2009 Masturbation Champion (buzzfeed.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=04eb9506-b77a-430b-b9c1-d3dcd8dd253f "Masturbation: 5 Things You Didnt Know")
Charlotte Hilton Andersen: Does Fitness Improve Your Sex Life?
Jun 10th
Anyhow, today’s post is going to be one of those conversations is what I’m saying. It all started when a reader asked me in the comments of one of my Bodily Functions & Fitness 101 posts how exercise affects your sex life. She then added helpfully that her sex drive went through the floor when she was working out a lot. You know I love a good over-share!
Without asking too many personal questions, let’s take a look at the research (because you know somebody somewhere got grant money to study this!):
via Charlotte Hilton Andersen: Does Fitness Improve Your Sex Life?.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Make Your Marriage Sex Passionate, Wild and Fun (counselingonlinesite.com)
- What’s Normal When It Comes to Dating? (hermenaut.org)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=5382a27f-338c-40bd-96a6-9fe3f298302f "Charlotte Hilton Andersen: Does Fitness Improve Your Sex Life?")
Summer is coming, hide the virgins! – Broadsheet – Salon.com
Jun 8th
- Image via Wikipedia
Sun, sweat and stretches of bronzed skin — there’s no denying summer gets people thinking about sex. Most of us relish this sunscreen-slicked sensuality, but for some abstinence advocates, it presents the specter of young and unmarried bodies rolling in the sheets. It’s chastity’s yearly trial by fire. Recently, the seasonal panic has reliably yielded a crop of articles about the horrors of hookup culture and, sure enough, as the warmest months approach, it’s clear this year will be no exception.
Lopez suggests a role model for these women: a prepubescent sixth-grade girl.
NPR reports on the decades-old trend with the cutting edge of a retirement community’s resident-written newsletter: Apparently, “hooking up” means kissing, petting and having intimacies without any commitment! On the other end of the age spectrum, Cosmopolitan has a feature in its July issue about women in their early twenties who are still virgins. (Breaking news alert: College virgins do exist.) But the casual sex panic really begins with The National Review’s infamous Kathryn Jean Lopez, who got worked up over Cosmo’s reportage. Now, some snark is reasonable, given the non-news at hand, but that isn’t the bee in Lopez’s bonnet. She’s irritated because the article’s pure protagonists are “on the brink” of giving in to peer pressure and handing over their “v card,” as the glossy calls it.
Like a conservative in shining armor, Lopez comes to the rescue of these distressed damsels. In all seriousness, she suggests a role model: a sixth-grade girl — who probably hasn’t even gone through puberty yet. She trots out little Hannah, an abstinence-only grade school student in Newark, New Jersey, who says she’s learned she has “the right to say no to sex and drugs … to respect myself and the ones around me … to have trust, faith, and self-esteem.” That is a wonderful thing, truly. One day, though, she might learn how fragile “self-esteem” is when it’s built on an ability to police her own (and even more so others’) sexuality; maybe, too, she’ll realize that the respect those abstinence classes speak of doesn’t come from inside (where it really matters), but from the outside (where it shouldn’t).
via Summer is coming, hide the virgins! – Broadsheet – Salon.com.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=55c5f093-d267-44f3-ba49-58f308aaa872 "Summer is coming, hide the virgins! Broadsheet Salon.com")
Real Women Tell Their Orgasm Secrets: Sex, Love & Life: glamour.com
Jun 8th
OK, it’s truth time: Are you an always, sometimes or never kind of girl? The women on these pages share exactly where they stand on the orgasm meter and what it took to make theirs better, much better. Listen and learn.
This is how the orgasm fairy tale goes: You meet Prince Charming, and from the very first time, he knows exactly how your body works. There’s some kissing, some foreplay, some moaning and, after maybe 10 minutes of intercourse, bam—a shattering climax for two. Angels may even sing. If your sex life fits this description, kudos. If not, this story is for you.
In reality, women are all over the orgasm map, and in an effort to improve your sex life, we asked dozens of them to reveal what they’ve learned, what they do—and what they’re not afraid to ask for. After reading some of their stories, you’ll abandon your assumptions about the way orgasms are “supposed” to happen. And you’ll stop waiting, like some damsel in distress, for a guy to magically unchain your pleasure. Turns out, of course, that you are your very own knight in shining armor, and this is your road map to a happy ending.
via Real Women Tell Their Orgasm Secrets: Sex, Love & Life: glamour.com.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Taylor Swift: Let’s Not Talk About Sex! (justjared.buzznet.com)
- FOXNews.com – 6 Unexpected Health Benefits of Sex (via FriendFeed) (foxnews.com)
- 15 Things Women Do Wrong in Bed and How to Fix Them (amog.com)
- Science of orgasm video (boingboing.net)
- 10 Things you don’t know about orgasms! (bmimedical.blogspot.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=8a667097-87dc-4625-9334-44465c74d5f7 "Real Women Tell Their Orgasm Secrets: Sex, Love & Life: glamour.com")
Recent Comments