Have any questions or comments related to sex or sexuality? If so, fire away.
More PostSecrets.
in Humour Etc.
Bra-free breasts fair better.
in Breasts
This is the sort of research that gets straight teenaged boys excited about science.
Keep in mind this is a single study and that it doesn't take into account many potentially confounding variables. From Counsel and Heal (and reported all over the place):
Women have long been told that a good bra can help support the chest, relieve back pain and prevent sagging. However, a new 15-year French study reveals the opposite: bras do little to reduce back pain and, over time, they can actually make breasts sag even more.
Researcher Prof. Jean-Denis Rouillon, a sports science expert from the University of Besançon in eastern France claims that "bras are a false necessity," according to The Local.
"Medically, physiologically, anatomically - breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity," said Rouillon. "On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra."
Rouillon and his team spent years measuring the changes in the breasts of 330 women using a simple slide rule and caliper at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (University Hospital) in Besançon, where he carried out his research.
He found that no evidence that bras helped ease back pain. Instead, he found that the chest supports could even add to the problem.
According to The Connexion, the findings suggest that breasts would gain more tone and support themselves if no bra was used. Researchers explain that bras limit the growth of supporting breast tissues, leaving the breast to wither and degrade more quickly.
The study found that women who took off their bras for good experienced a 7mm lift in their nipples each year they didn't wear a bra. Researchers also found that bra-less women developed firmer breasts and saw their stretch marks fade.
Some of the women who took part in Rouillon's study told France Info that not wearing a bra helped ease their back pains.
Capucine, a 28-year-old participant in Rouillon's study, swears by the results and hasn't worn a bra for two years.
"There are multiple benefits: I breathe more easily, I carry myself better, and I have less back pain," Capucine said, according to France Info.
However, Rouillon says the findings do not mean all women should throw away their bras.
"It would be dangerous to advise all women to stop wearing their soutien-gorge as the women involved were not a representative sample of the population," Rouillon said, according to The Connexion.
While his initial results "validated the hypothesis that the bra is a false 'need'," he says that women who have been wearing bras for a long time would not gain any benefit from stopping now.
Old-school sex advice.
Yikes. Click to make larger:
Blog: Beautiful Labia.
Presumably this blog was originally created to normalize all different sizes, shapes, and colours of vulva. I don't think the creator had expected that it would be as popular as it has become, or that anonymous followers would submit photos of their own labia. There are pages of submissions, interspersed with photos collected off the web, and comments and questions from followers (mostly about their own labia). If you aren't already convinced that there isn't a prototypical, so-called normal vulva, then go check out the submissions here (NSFW!).
Pubic lice an endangered species.
From Bloomberg:
Brazilian Bikini Waxes Make Crab Lice Endangered Species
Pubic lice, the crab-shaped insects that have dwelled in human groins since the beginning of history, are disappearing. Doctors say bikini waxing may be the reason.
Waning infestations of the bloodsuckers have been linked by doctors to pubic depilation, especially a technique popularized in the 1990s by a Manhattan salon run by seven Brazilian sisters. More than 80 percent of college students in the U.S. remove all or some of their pubic hair -- part of a trend that’s increasing in western countries. In Australia, Sydney’s main sexual health clinic hasn’t seen a woman with pubic lice since 2008 and male cases have fallen 80 percent from about 100 a decade ago.
“It used to be extremely common; it’s now rarely seen,” said Basil Donovan, head of sexual health at the University of New South Wales’s Kirby Institute and a physician at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre. “Without doubt, it’s better grooming.”
[...]
Brazilian waxing took off internationally in the early 2000s, possibly spurred by the attention it was given on television shows such as Sex and the City, said Spring Cooper Robbins, a senior lecturer and sexual health researcher at the University of Sydney.
[...]
“Pubic grooming has led to a severe depletion of crab louse populations,” said Ian F. Burgess, a medical entomologist with Insect Research & Development Ltd. in Cambridge, England. “Add to that other aspects of body hair depilation, and you can see an environmental disaster in the making for this species.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Thursday mail - May 16.
Have any questions or comments related to sex or sexuality? If so, fire away.
International clitoris awareness week.
From the Huffington Post:
'International Clitoris Awareness Week' Takes Place May 6-12
Mention the word "clitoris" and some people get touchy -- and not in a good way.
But that could change quickly because May 6—12 as the first ever "International Clitoris Awareness Week," a seven-day period designed to celebrate the female body part.
The organization behind the week is"Clitoraid," a Las Vegas-based group usually devoted to helping victims of female genital mutilation around the world.
However, Clitoraid spokeswoman Nadine Gary said the message behind "Clitoris Awareness Week" is more whimsical.
"We've noticed that the clitoris has not gotten its spot in the limelight. It makes people feel uncomfortable," she told The Huffington Post. "For this week, we don't want to focus on genital mutilation."
Gary said the clitoris has gotten the shaft since the 19th century when orgasms achieved by touching it were considered "immature" compared to vaginal orgasms.
"The clitoris doesn't have a reproductive function so it can be minimized," she said. "It's up to eight inches long -- same as a penis -- but it's inside."
Gary has experience doing offbeat awareness campaigns like Go Topless Day, which protests laws that prevent a woman from going topless and "Swastika Rehabilitation Day," which was designed to remove the Nazi stigma from the ancient symbol.
"We found that whenever something has an 'awareness day,' it makes it more comfortable to talk about," she said.
Future International Clitoris Awareness Weeks will be held the first full week of May, which just happens to be National Masturbation Month.
Masturbation is something that Gary hopes to touch on during Clitoris Week.
"There is a taboo around sexuality," she said. "We want to point it out and talk about it. Maybe some women will go to masturbation seminars."
To that end, Gary hopes to inspire other women to talk about their sexuality to others, much like actress Rosario Dawson did recently when she admitted in an interview that she calls her vagina "the General."
"We want to prompt women to speak out and celebrate their sexuality," Gary said.
She is hoping to arouse interest in "Clitoris Week" by having fellow Clitoraid members dress in giant vagina costumes and hand out fliers on the Las Vegas Strip.
Meanwhile, LA-based pornographer Mike Kulich is lending a hand to the clitoris cause by filming a DVD featuring various porn actresses engaged in self love tentatively titled "I Love My Clitoris" with all proceeds going to Clitoraid.
Regardless of how the inaugural "Clitoris Week" goes, Gary already is thinking about next year.
"Most American holidays have a drink associated with them," she laughed. "Maybe someone can come up with one."
More PostSecrets.
in Humour Etc.
First sexual experience.
From The Mystery Box Show (NSFW language!):
Many more amazing videos here. I'll post some over the term.
Feel free to share the awkwardness (or awesomeness) of your own first experiences in the reply section (anonymous posting available, as always, if you'd like).
Virginia-vagina.
From Seattle PI:
It’s tough being a Starbucks barista who has to write customer names on cups.
Is it “John” with an “h”? “Thanh Ha” with three “hs?” It’s all part of Starbucks’ effort to personalize things.
But one barista got a little too personal, when a customer named Virginia ordered a drink from a Starbucks in Hong Kong. According to the woman’s sister, the drink came with Virginia’s name scrawled as “Vagina.”
“This is my sister’s cuppa from your HKU branch,” the woman, Veronica Goh, posted on the Starbucks Hong Kong Facebook page, according to various news sites. Goh included a photo of the offending coffee drink.
“Fancy your staff not being able to spell an American name like Virginia. Forgiving she has been with every misspelled cup,” Goh continued.
“Her cup was once ‘Virgin.’ Every Starbucks experience for her has been coupled with fear and anticipation. But THIS is just UNACCEPTABLE.”
The Facebook post in question was “unavailable” Tuesday morning. But you can read about it via The Daily Mail andHuffington Post.
Another vulva self-shot submission blog: Show Your Vagina.
Check it out here - pages of submissions.
New app: Fundawear.
in Sex Toys
From iClarified:
Durex Unveils iPhone Controlled Vibrating Underwear
Durex has just unveiled his and hers iPhone controlled vibrating underwear dubbed Fundawear. The garments are currently being trialed in the company's Durexperiment lab.
Fundawear features a unique real-time server that communicates between both touchscreen devices and garments. The app, touch actuator technology and server were all designed to replicate the nuances of touch.
Fundawear is an innovation from Durex that allows touch to be transferred over the internet. So for the first time you can tease, tickle & tantalise even when you're apart.
Comfort, sexiness and flexibility were key challenges in designing Fundawear. Each garment houses sophisticated touch technology in a first for wearable electronics.
Take a look at a few introductory videos below.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J3tPZb6i7q8
It looks a little hokey, but it's great marketing campaign nonetheless.
Stoya on the reality that isn't porn.
in Pornography, Sex Work
From her blog:
Pornography is entertainment. Pornography is a business. Pornography is not a substitute for sexual education. The scenarios in porn plots are not a guide to dating or picking up partners for casual sex.
I always figured that anyone old enough to be legally viewing pornography would be able to comprehend the difference between entertainment and real life. I forget that we don’t all understand that a movie like Forrest Gump is not the same as a History Channel documentary on the Vietnam War. I also forget that we don’t all understand that a History Channel documentary on the Vietnam War may not be entirely accurate. I forget that even though pornography is made to be entertaining and portray fantasies, there is a large void in practical sexual education that people sometimes attempt to fill with porn.
I want to believe that people use critical thinking skills. I want to believe that people see Brazzers/Manwin’s Get Rubber campaign and the safer sex/condom use speech at the beginning of Vivid’s DVDs. I want to believe that people watch the pre and post scene interviews included in Kink.com’s videos. I really want to believe that people don’t need to see these disclaimers and interviews to understand that what they are watching is done by tested, consenting professionals. Apparently, though, this comprehension is not always the case.
As adult performers, our job is to show up with a clean STI test and act/perform in an adult production to the director’s satisfaction. It isn’t our responsibility to take on the task of educating people about sexual technique or safer sex practices. Our job description does not include worrying about the people who can’t differentiate between what they see on a screen and what is acceptable behavior in real life, the same as it isn’t Bruce Willis’s job to go around reminding people that action movies are super cool but shooting actual people with real guns isn’t, or that calling 911 is a much better tactic than shooting someone full of adrenaline in the event of a heroin overdose. But some of us do…
There are adult performers and sex workers who talk about these things: When Nina Hartley recounts a recreational sexual encounter on her blog, she regularly mentions the use of condoms and gloves. Sometimes she mentions less standard practices, such as having a specific pair of boots for BDSM that don’t touch the ground outside so that they can be licked without concern for what they’ve walked through.Danny Wylde writes frankly about his experiences in sex work and openly discusses his thoughts and emotions. There are countless others who do frank interviews or keep blogs discussing topics relating to sex work, the adult industry, and sex-for-work vs. sex in personal lives. If someone actually wants to know about porn, there’s a wealth of information online from a variety of perspectives.
We just don’t get nearly the amount of traffic or visibility that a major news outlet gets. Our voices need to be louder, because we are talking.
Thursday mail - April 18.
Have any questions or comments related to class or otherwise? If so, fire away.
High school student takes on AO sex ed.
From ThinkProgress:
High Schooler Protests ‘Slut-Shaming’ Abstinence Assembly Despite Alleged Threats From Her Principal
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. Katelyn Campbell, who is the student body vice president at George Washington High School, alleges her principal threatened to call the college where she’s been accepted to report that she has “bad character.”
George Washington High School recently hosted a conservative speaker, Pam Stenzel, who travels around the country to advocate an abstinence-only approach to teen sexuality. Stenzel has a long history of using inflammatory rhetoric to convince young people that they will face dire consequences for becoming sexually active. At GW’s assembly, Stenzel allegedly told students that “if you take birth control, your mother probably hates you” and “I could look at any one of you in the eyes right now and tell if you’re going to be promiscuous.” She also asserted that condoms aren’t safe, and every instance of sexual contact will lead to a sexually transmitted infection.
Campbell refused to attend the assembly, which was funded by a conservative religious organization called “Believe in West Virginia” and advertised with fliers that proclaimed “God’s plan for sexual purity.” Instead, she filed a complaint with the ACLU and began to speak out about her objections to this type of school-sponsored event. Campbell called Stenzel’s presentation “slut shaming” and said that it made many students uncomfortable.
GW Principal George Aulenbacher, on the other hand, didn’t see anything wrong with hosting Stenzel. “The only way to guarantee safety is abstinence. Sometimes, that can be a touchy topic, but I was not offended by her,” he told the West Virginia Gazette last week.
But it didn’t end with a simple difference of opinion among Campbell and her principal. The high school senior alleges that Aulenbacher threatened to call Wellesley College, where Campbell has been accepted to study in the fall, after she spoke to the press about her objections to the assembly. According to Campbell, her principal said, “How would you feel if I called your college and told them what bad character you have and what a backstabber you are?” Campbell alleges that Aulenbacher continued to berate her in his office, eventually driving her to tears. “He threatened me and my future in order to put forth his own personal agenda and make teachers and students feel they cant speak up because of fear of retaliation,” she said of the incident.
Despite being threatened, Campbell is not backing down. She hopes that filing this injunction will protect her freedom of speech to continue advocating for comprehensive sexual health resources for West Virginia’s youth. “West Virginia has the ninth highest pregnancy rate in the U.S.,” Campbell told the Gazette. “I should be able to be informed in my school what birth control is and how I can get it. With the policy at GW, under George Aulenbacher, information about birth control and sex education has been suppressed. Our nurse wasn’t allowed to talk about where you can get birth control for free in the city of Charleston.”
Campbell’s complaints about her high school reflect a problematic trend across the country. There are serious consequences when figures like Stenzel repeatedly tell young Americans that contraception isn’t safe. Partly because of the scientific misinformation that often pervades abstinence-only curricula, an estimated 60 percent of young adults are misinformed about birth control’s effectiveness — and some of those teens choose not to use it because they assume it won’t make any difference. Predictably, the states that lack adequate sex ed requirements are also the states that have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs.
Some of Campbell’s fellow students at GW High School are also rallying for her cause. They plan to take up the issue at a local board of education meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday evening.
And a tweet from Wellesley College in response to all the brouhaha:
More DYACs.
in Humour Etc.
New app: Lulu.
From The Gloss:
Review Men Like Restaurants With New Lulu App, The Yelp Of Romance (For Girls!)
Someone once Tweeted, ”Yelp.com: explore where local illiterates have recently stopped eating.”
If you are one of the many people who find Yelp to be a source of valuable information (not in the social anthropology sense), however, you may be receptive to this new Lulu app, which is to men as Yelp is to restaurants. All you need is a Facebook profile confirming your femaleness and you can go on Lulu and review exes, crushes, hook-ups, current loves, friends and relatives. Like meat, but with abs.
According to founder Alexandra Chong, she “created Lulu because my girlfriends and I needed it.” But also because people will download and use such a service, seeing as how any technology that promotes and cultivates human vileness tends to be very popular.
Here is a description of Lulu for you, by Lulu:
Lulu is the smart girls’ app for private recommendations and reviews on guys.
Lulu takes its cues from the real world: we meet a guy and think he’s cute, but want to know if he’s the charmer he appears or really a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So we ask our girlfriends, and look him up on Facebook and Google. It’s a private, fun ritual we all indulge in, often complicated by the fact that we don’t want the guy to know we’re checking out his creds.
Enter Lulu—the first database of men, built by women, for women. Through Lulu, you can read and write reviews of guys, which are pulled from a variety of tools, questionnaires, and fun features. The reviews show numerical scores across a number of categories, putting the emphasis on collective wisdom.
[...]
But there are obviously bigger and grosser aspects than the stupid hashtags. Namely, this whole thing is really objectifying. People aren’t movies. Or restaurants. They shouldn’t be reviewed and then ranked, publicly, according to their score. That’s what Maxim does.
It’s also impressive how poorly Lulu manages to reflect on both genders. Not every woman internet stalks dudes and then gabs with her “girlfriends” about it over lemon drops or half-caff beverages or fat free stuff because life isn’t the first act of a fucking romcom. Moreover still, not everybody’s straight (though Lulu is only concerned with them). Things just harken back to a simpler time with the Lulu app, a time when men were men (with lots of money and cars and love-believing!) and women were kind of sad and desperate with no real personality to speak of. Per the brand’s press release: Lulu aims “to create a discreet, private space for girls to talk about the most important issues in their lives: their relationships.” The worst.
Though we’re certainly more used to seeing stuff like this with women as the target, we’d like to emphasize this sucks when it’s done to anyone. Regardless of gender, we’re not in favor of anything that offers a space for people to say mean things about other people* under the guise of helping… though the glossy, airheaded faux female empowerment makes it even harder to swallow.
Read the rest here.
The homepage for the app is here.
Some enterprising young man has created an app that allows men access to the Lulu database (which they can't normally access) and see their own reviews, and reviews of their Facebook friends. Check it out here.
Course on pornography?
in Attitudes, Pornography, Sex Ed
This story makes me feel very grateful to teach where I teach.
From the College Fix:
College Offers Course Devoted Entirely To Pornography
A relatively new Pasadena City College class called “Navigating Pornography” – devoted to giving students a venue to study and discuss a touchy topic in an academic setting, according to its professor – has already prompted praise and concern.
First offered last spring, the class is a for-credit elective open to all students and does not require any prerequisites. In just one year, it’s come under national scrutiny after its instructor, Professor Hugo Schwyzer, invited a porn star to speak to its students.
But Schwyzer defended Navigating Pornography in an interview with The College Fix, calling the subject matter legitimate.
“(The course) focuses on giving students tools to understand pornography as a historical and contemporary phenomenon,” Schwyzer told The College Fix. “Students today live in a porn-saturated culture and very rarely get a chance to learn about it in a safe, non-judgmental, intellectually thoughtful way.”
[...]
He said he hopes students come out of the course with a better personal understanding of some of the seminal issues of pornography, such as: “why we love porn … why some people are deeply troubled by it … and how both to make decisions about porn in their own lives and how to have conversations about porn with others.”
Response to the course in the Pasadena community has been “excellent” in most respects, “save from some in the administration and the community,” according to Schwyzer.
“Students welcome it,” he adds.
Yet in an interview with The College Fix, a colleague of Schwyzer’s who teaches at the same community college called the course “absolutely appalling.” He asked not to be named, citing tension at the campus over the course, which recently prompted a wave of national controversy over its guest speakers: porn stars.
Read the rest here.
Bacon condoms.
From AmericaBlog:
Bacon condoms, yep. An American company (God bless American innovation) has created the bacon condom. It looks just like bacon, and if you use their bacon-flavored lubricant, it even tastes like bacon.
I’m not kidding.
The company, J&D’s, says that of the 5 billion condoms sold worldwide every year, none look or taste like bacon. Until now.
The company announces that the condoms are “proudly Made in America,” because you wouldn’t want some cheap foreign knock-off bacon condom.
As for the bacon-flavored lubricant, it’s apparently a lubricant and a massage oil. I love a good massage, and I love bacon. I’m not however convinced that I’d want to have bacon-scent rubbed all over me.
Interestingly, the company says that the idea did in fact originally start as an April Fool’s joke. But they had so many people write in interest, that they decided to create the product for real. Unlike Scope’s bacon-flavored mouthwash that was indeed an April Fool’s joke that apparently a lot of people didn’t get.
I’ll give them credit for taking something that can kill you and melding it with something that can save you.
Oh, and you vegans can put your minds at ease, the company notes that the bacon lubricant, and I suppose the bacon condom as well, are “vegan-safe.” Well, that’s a relief.
Read the rest here.