"sasha grey"

• New York’s Times Square has always been an eyegasm of advertising, so the adult website Pornhub’s enormous Times Square billboard featuring the winner of its contest seeking a great non-pornographic ad fit right in. Sadly, the ad was quickly removed.
  Pornhub Erects Huge Billboard in Times Square After Long Search for a Great Non-Pornographic Ad (Adweek)

• My first article for Playboy points out that Jennifer Lawrence is the new face of revenge porn, and that suing Google would be the least productive use of the power, influence and money she could bring to actually changing what revenge porn victims go through.
  Jennifer Lawrence: The New Face of Revenge Porn (Playboy)

• In a much-criticized post Wednesday on LinkedIn Pulse, business writer Bruce Kasanoff derided Jennifer Lawrence for posing modestly topless in Vanity Fair magazine. Originally titled “Why Jennifer Lawrence’s Breasts Confuse Me” and later changed to “Why Jennifer Lawrence Confuses Me,” Kasanoff’s piece showed an inability to understand consent. Kasanoff deleted the inflammatory article Thursday.
  Jennifer Lawrence’s Breasts Aren’t Sending Mixed Messages (TIME)

• Someone is trying to make “The Snappening” happen. Whether they’re trying to make it happen as a nude photo dump or as a hoax is unclear. Naturally, Snapchat says it’s their users’ own fault saying, “Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps (…)”
  A Third-Party App May Have Leaked Tens of Thousands of Snapchat P (Gizmodo)

• Actress Amanda Bynes made some startling accusations on Twitter about her father this morning and then retracted them. She had tweeted that her father “verbally and physically” abused her as a child.
  Amanda Bynes Accuses Her Father of Sexual Abuse, Then Takes It Back – Hollywood Reporter (Hollywood Reporter)

• A male-on-male sexual assaulter has put the SFSU campus on high alert this week after an incident on the running track. University police issued the alert after a male jogger reported having his ass grabbed by an unknown Asian male on Tuesday evening while he was trying to go for a jog.
  Guy Who Likes To Grab Other Guys’ Butts While Jogging Sought Near SF State (SFist)

• Playboy just spoke with Elijah Wood while he was promoting Open Windows — a thriller that revolves around a computer geek (Wood) gaining voyeuristic access to his favorite actress (Sasha Grey) via increasingly questionable means — and discovered the most disturbing movie Wood has ever seen in a film and which of his Lord of the Rings co-stars smells the best.
  Elijah Wood opens up to Playboy About Sasha Grey, and more (Playboy)

• Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s press office released details Wednesday of disciplinary action taken against eight state employees for viewing pornography on office computers while working for his Democratic challenger, Tom Wolf; Mr. Wolf, who has a big lead in polls over the incumbent Republican, accused Mr. Corbett of allowing a “culture” of porn viewing among his employees while he was state attorney general.
  Pennsylvania porn wars rock governor’s race (Washington Times)

• When pressed, an EPA employee recently admitted he’d been cruising NSFW sites for two to six hours every workday since 2010. Similar revelations have emerged recently at the Department of the Treasury, the National Science Foundation, and the Federal Communications Commission, where an employee said he watched porn for up to eight hours a week because he was bored. In 2010, 33 Securities and Exchange Commission employees were found to have viewed pornography repeatedly instead of doing their work.
  Watching Porn at the Office: ‘Extremely Common’ (Businessweek)

• The trailer for Disney’s documentary Bears got a hilarious spoof trailer… The video, about a different kind of Bears, is above. (“No bears were harmed in the making of this video.”)
  Disney’s nature doc ‘Bears’ gets the gay parody trailer you’ve been waiting for (Towleroad)

• “Escorts make $100 a hand job — but entrepreneurs like me? We make $5,000 a night. Welcome to the new economy of the oldest profession.”
  Sex Is Sex. But Money Is Money. (Medium)

• In news coverage of campus rape in recent years, scenarios with male sexual assault victims aren’t depicted too frequently. How gendered cultural scripts help conceal and laugh away a serious problem.
  When Women Sexually Assault Men (PS Mag)

• Digital swinging on Tumblr: Nerve talks to some of the couples and singles who enjoy Tumblr as they would any other kind of sex party.
  Digital Swingers (Nerve)

• Trigger warning for violence, gore in a sexual context: Kink, the world’s largest producer of BDSM and fetish entertainment has opened the world’s first erotic haunted house. “Hell in the Armory” runs all this month in the 100-year old San Francisco Armory where the company shoots its adult films. While the erotic haunted house isn’t nearly as explicit as the company’s films, parental guidance is strongly suggested.
  Hell In The Armory (Kink, hellinthearmory.com)

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• Pornhub announced their new creative director, out of over 3,000 entries from over 2,000 contestants. The winner of their PornHub Creative Director Challenge for best “safe for work” advertising campaign is 24-year-old Nuri Gulver, of Istanbul, Turkey. Gulver’s submission, All You Need Is Hand, “beat out the final 15 due to its inherent mass appeal and ease of penetration to different advertising platforms.”
  PornHub Selects Winner of Creative Director Challenge (Mediabistro)

• On Friday afternoon, a young American in Tübingen had to be rescued by 22 firefighters after getting trapped inside a giant sculpture of a vagina. The Chacán-Pi (Making Love) artwork by the Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara has been outside Tübingen University’s institute for microbiology and virology since 2001. Police confirmed that the firefighters turned midwives delivered the student “by hand and without the application of tools”.
  US student is rescued from giant vagina sculpture in Germany (Guardian UK)

• According to Morality In Media’s latest victory announcement, adult marketers may be facing further restrictions on advertising via search giant Google’s AdWords and Image Search programs. Following its pronouncement of “a major win” against Verizon last week, “this win is better than we knew at first,” Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of Morality In Media (MIM) and PornHarms.com, told supporters. In appreciation of Google’s submission to its demands for censorship, MIM is encouraging supporters to sign a virtual “thank you” card.
  Porn Under Attack: Google Tightens Content Restrictions (XBIZ)

• Dov Charney is gearing up for a legal battle against the American Apparel board that ousted him as chief executive. American Apparel said the termination “grew out of an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct.”
  Dov Charney demands American Apparel job back or he’ll sue, says lawyer (LA Times)

• The outraged response to Towie stars revealing all shows how conditioned we are to think of male nudity as sordid and unsexy. “When we’re surrounded by media reinforcing the ridicule of men, it’s hard to see them as people who are equally alluring and desirable.”
  Are men’s naked bodies the stuff of nightmares? I think not (Guardian UK)

• The California State Auditor blasted federal and state oversight of sterilization surgeries for female prison inmates, finding numerous illegal surgeries and violations of the state’s informed consent law. Of the 144 inmates who underwent tubal ligations from fiscal years 2005-06 to 2012-13, auditors found nearly one-third were performed without lawful consent.
  California female inmates sterilized illegally (Desert Sun)

• Pharmaceutical corporation Trimel has been testing its new drug that releases testosterone into the nasal cavity, which, at increased levels, is associated with an increased chance of female orgasm.
  Company Creates Nasal Gel That Increases Female Orgasm (YourTango)

• The wording from both the artist and the author of this piece – specifically the “iceberg” analogy, and descriptions in the listicle – are “amazingly” similar to much of the wording I chose and descriptions I wrote in my book on cunnilingus. How annoying.
  14 Crazy Amazing Facts About The Clitoris (Psychology Today)

• Although a number of industry companies have already adopted Bitcoin as a means to pay for online porn, Titcoin claims to be the first digital currency aimed squarely at the porn industry. Ceated by Edward Mansfield, Richard Allen, and a third anonymous founder, the payment method recently created a buzz on a bogus YouTube introduction video.
  ‘Titcoin’ Aiming to Be Adult’s Own Cryptocurrency (XBIZ)

• This article is confused. “Business models old and new are responding to demand for one-night stands as well as soul mates. The competition between dating apps has been called an “arms race”, with one startup flying in single women from New York to meet potential partners. Sex workers, meanwhile, are charging thousands of dollars per night.”
  Sex and Silicon Valley: the veritable arms race of the dating app industry (Guardian UK)

• Having promised an eight hour sex marathon if Chile defeated Australia (which she extended to 12 hours), porn star Marlen Doll went one better and offered a 16 hour event if her home nation beat Spain. Miss Doll later announced she’d spend 24 hours with a host of strangers if Chile beats Holland.
  Porn Star Marlen Doll Promises 24 Hour Sex Marathon if Chile Beat Holland (Caught Offside)

• Kelly Shibari is the first plus-size woman to grace the cover of Penthouse Forum in the magazine’s 40-year history.
  Meet The First Plus-Size Porn Star To Appear On The Cover Of Penthouse Forum (Buzzfeed)

• Starz has given the greenlight to Steven Soderbergh’s 13-part anthology series inspired by the 2009 film of the selfsame title starring Sasha Grey, “The Girlfriend Experience.” The series will explore the relationships of exclusive sex workers who provide their clients with far more than sex.
  Starz Greenlights ‘Girlfriend Experience’ TV Series (XBIZ)

• What could be hotter than a robot who can seduce and murder you with ease?
  Bionic is a great example of what happens when a sexbot becomes murderous. But she isn’t the only one. Here are seven of the sexiest killer robots…
  7 Killer Sex Robots (Future of Sex)

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• Morgana Maye (the amazing Mistress Morgana) goes on Masocast to talk about BDSM as therapy, how kink is perceived in the medical community, guilt and shame, how to play with someone on a deeper level, the DSM and much more.
  Morgana Maye on Masocast (Masocast)

• Chinese police have detained 501 suspects in a nationwide crackdown on prostitution, the Ministry of Public Security announced Monday. More than 1,300 cases of organizing, luring or introducing sex services were uncovered by police, and 2,410 pornography dealers had their business closed by police, the ministry said.
  Prostitution crackdown in China detains 501 people (UPI), China’s Sex Crackdown is Doomed to Fail (Bloomberg)

• Molli, now a UK-based sex worker, was “rescued” by an anti-prostitution NGO while employed as a sex worker in India. She tweets the truth of what happens in NGO-run, sex worker “rescue” centres, and her revelations inspired the Twitter hashtag #notyourrescueproject which gained publicity recently. “Rescued” sex workers [by certain NGO's] are saying they are beaten, held against their will, have to “pay” NGO staff with sex, and must have someone pay for their release. They are also afraid to state the names of the NGOs doing this, as they believe the NGOs will come find them again.
  TTITLE (Cliterati)

• Calvin Darden, Jr. was charged by federal prosecutors Thursday for allegedly crafting an intricate scheme to defraud banks and impersonate his prominent father in an attempt to buy men’s magazine Maxim. The U.S. Justice Department alleges Darden lined up $28 million in loans from three lenders to scoop up the risqué mag. As part of the scheme, which nearly came to fruition, Darden allegedly impersonated his father, Calvin Darden, a director at Target (TGT) and former executive at United Parcel Service (UPS).
  Man Charged in Scheme to Fraudulently Buy Maxim Magazine (FOX Business)

• NPR thinks that porn’s piracy problem is tied to its users desire for anonymity. This is not entirely accurate; porn’s piracy shares the same issues *all* digital media (music, movies, software, etc.) are grappling with – and can be solved in the same ways. That said, take a look at NPR’s newest porn piece.
  Hurting For Cash, Online Porn Tries New Tricks (NPR)

• A survey conducted by adult webcam site Cam4.com and French survey institute IFOP surveyed a representative sample of 1,023 adults about their pornography habits. Ninety percent of men and 60 percent of women reported watching porn regularly. Fifty-three percent of survey participants watch porn as a couple, and 66 percent said they would watch with their partner if asked.
  People Who Watch More Porn Have More Sex, Survey Finds (HuffPo)

• Amateur porn website Homegrown Video cataloged all video submissions they received over a six-month period. They found that almost one-third of homemade sex tapes submitted between July and December 2013 were created not in sexually liberal coastal cities, as one might imagine, but in the Bible Belt. Furthermore, 56.9 percent of videos were submitted by women (VB note – or accounts posing as female?).
  You May Be Surprised By Who’s Filming And Uploading Amateur Porn (HuffPo)

• Afternoon Palate Cleanser: Women Reading Grindr And Scruff Messages (SFist)

• A federal bankruptcy trustee plans on putting up the Girls Gone Wild franchise for auction in April, effectively selling off its trademarks and domain names. The plan to sell off the assets of the longtime adult entertainment brand includes a stalking horse bidder — one that has already drawn out a plan to potentially acquire the assets — that would raise $1.825 million to partly pay off Chapter 11 claims. XBIZ has more information on issues around the sale, and the full list of domains on the block.
  Girls Gone Wild Bankruptcy Auction Planned for April (XBIZ)

• Queer porn producer Pink & White Productions has announced the launch of its new emerging pornographer series Point of Contact. The studio said the series showcases first-time filmmakers equipped with camera and micro-budget, who “take to the streets and sheets to explore sexuality and grow as pornographers.” The project launches with five directors: James Darling, Minax, Tina Horn, Cyd Loverboy, and Shanna Katz. A dozen more directors are slated to follow.
  Pink & White Launches New Series for Emerging Filmmakers (XBIZ)

• I’m guessing Kinsey Confidential missed the whole Sasha Grey / Stoya popularity thing, where they made bush a hot thing at least five years ago, even long after European and Aussie sites cashed in on demand for the eroticism of pubic hair… Still, I’m surprised no one mentioned the nipples :)
  Mannequins: Foreshadowing The Return Of The Retro Bush? (Kinsey Confidential)

• This is a great longread, and I’m happy to see I Want Your Love in the lineup. “Why should it be fine to show murder but not an act of love? Nicholas Barber applauds a new wave of sexual frankness.”
  Let’s do it: How sex in cinema is getting physical (Independent UK)

• Despite a stupid title, Gizmodo’s writeup on its visit to Crave is great – and provides a peek into high-end vibrator production.
  Go Deep Inside a San Francisco Vibrator Factory (Gizmodo)

• A reader asks Dr. Glickman, “How do turn my history of confusion over “bad behavior combined with good intent” into a skill for identifying and dealing with people who don’t know that they have bad behavior?”
  When Good Intentions Meet Bad Behavior (Charlie Glickman)

• The UK government is planning to extend its broken, deeply problematic and censorship-friendly ISP-level internet filtering to “extremist” content. The filters were implemented to censor “adult” content and have swept a wide variety of sites into the void, including health websites, tech forums and at one point, even WordPress blogs.
  Ministers bid to block extremist videos posted on foreign websites (BBC)

• Eros Guide wanted to know how some sex workers spend Valentine’s Day, so they checked in with some of the most popular female sex workers on the Eros Network to see what they had planned for Valentine’s Day — and then asked a few other questions to see just how romantic they are.
  How Does Your Escort Spend Valentine’s Day? (Eros Guide)

• The Associated Press originally sought the records for U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan after US military sexual assaults against Japanese women raised political tensions there. The AP analysis found the handling of allegations verged on the chaotic, with seemingly strong cases often reduced to lesser charges. In two rape cases, commanders overruled recommendations to court-martial and dropped the charges instead.
  Documents Reveal Chaotic Military Sex-Abuse Record (ABC)

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• A federal court in Wisconsin has sanctioned a lawyer for adult film producer Malibu Media (also known as X-Art) for filing lists of “disturbing lewd, unusual and unredacted titles of pornographic films allegedly also downloaded by the defendant” but not produced by Malibu, in eleven lawsuits. Judge William Conley said that the list “appears calculated principally to harass defendants.” (I stopped promoting X-Art over their evil tactics last year.) The ruling will hopefully put a stop to this awful tactic nationwide.
  Judge Fines Copyright Troll Lawyer for Harassing Tactic Used Nationwide (EFF)

• “Masters of Sex,” one of this fall’s most hotly-anticipated new series – based on the groundbreaking 1950s sex studies conducted by Virginia Johnson and William Masters – is headed to Showtime on September 29 but the premiere has hit the Internet two weeks early.
  ‘Masters Of Sex’ Premiere: Showtime Releases Episode Online Two Weeks Early (VIDEO) (HuffPo)

• New study shows that after viewing porn, people who are assholes behave more sexist. Media outlets are picking this one up as “porn makes men sexist” – but the study clearly states that the people who behaved more sexist after watching porn were already unpleasant and had disagreeable personalities to begin with. Viewing porn didn’t actually “make” anyone sexist. Earlier this year, the same group of researchers found that porn may not influence teenagers’ sexual behavior as much as often thought.
  Watching porn makes men [and women] sexist (universitypost.dk)

• United Nations researchers just published a sweeping study on the roots of sexual violence, spanning six countries and two years. The survey, which they say represents the world’s largest scientific project into the subject so far, aimed to investigate the “under-researched” area of male-perpetrated rape.
  What We Can Learn From The Largest International Study On Rape That’s Been Conducted So Far (Think Progress)

• LELO is responding to Standard Innovation’s latest message to its retailers and distributors, notifying of possible further legal action against LELO for its newest couples massagers, the Ida and Tara.
  LELO Responds to We-Vibe’s ‘Threats’ to Block New Products (XBIZ)

• The adult film industry has announced it will lift its latest moratorium on porn production this Friday, because its actors are no longer at risk for contracting HIV on set after a recent scare.
  Porn Industry Lifts Production Ban, Increases STD Testing (ABC News)

• Photo: Former adult film star Sasha Grey discussed, signed and read from her book The Juliette Society on Aug. 28 at an event at Book Soup on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood.
  Sasha Grey Book Signing [GALLERY] (XBIZ)

• Wikipedia has reportedly abandoned efforts to implement a filter to remove explicit images from its user-generated online encyclopedia after board members could not agree on a feasible method to do so. The Wikipedia Foundation attempted to clean up “questionable” photos and videos from its site after FoxNews published an exposé concerning the offending material, FoxNews said in a recent article.
  Wikipedia Gives Porn a Break (XBIZ)

• Porn company Shane’s World started an Offbeatr campaign and is telling press that it is the first adult film studio to attempt to fully crowdfund porn (we all know it is not – but HuffPo bought it). The company is raising money from fans for its series “Shane’s World 43.” Contributors will get to choose the show’s location, stars and stars’ activities, and a few will travel with the crew to wherever filming will take place. Other contributors win sex toys, porn star phone calls and custom-made sex videos.
  Crowdfunded Porn Reality Show Will Let Contributors Dictate The Show (HuffPo)

• “He’s become a staple for the gossip pages, particularly the New York Post’s Page Six. In November he was banned from the midtown outlet of Robert De Niro’s celebrity sushi joint, Nobu. Ten days later he was taken into custody for allegedly pulling a gun on an elevator operator. And most notoriously, this June it was revealed that he had been sending friends copies of a sex tape involving three women that he filmed in the back of a limousine.”
  Guns, Girls And Sex Tapes: The Unhinged, Hedonistic Saga Of Billionaire Stewart Rahr, ‘Number One King Of All Fun’ (Forbes)

• More than 2 million people in the U.S. are sickened by antibiotic-resistant germs each year, and at least 23,000 die, according to the first report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank the threats. Three bacteria, including drug-resistant gonorrhea, are classified as urgent threats with the potential to become widespread.
  Gonorrhea Among Drug-Resisting Germs Sickening Millions (Bloomberg Businessweek)

• This is a lot of fun. Interviewee: Pauline, 98, retired mother of two. Divorced. Lives in Florida; grew up in New York. Married in 1923, 1941, and 1959.
  Sex Advice from a 98-Year-Old Woman (Esquire)

• In an era when many Playboy readers have grown up viewing online pornography and a monthly title featuring narrow stereotypes of softcore pinups is irrelevant as fuck, the men’s lifestyle magazine is in the midst of an editorial reboot – of sorts. As Playboy approaches its 60th anniversary, the magazine faces decades of ebbing influence, declining circulation (from a 1972 peak of more than 7 million issues distributed monthly to 1.25 million today) and, worse still, a lowering in August by Standard & Poor’s of Playboy Enterprises Inc.’s corporate credit rating from a B-minus to CCC-plus.
  To Playboy magazine, sophistication is the new sexy (LA Times)

• Alpha Media Group, parent of Maxim, has sold the brand to Darden Media Group (owned by former UPS executive turned property developer Calvin Darden Sr). The sale includes the magazine and its 15 international editions sold in 34 countries, all Maxim events and digital assets. Maxim was taken over by creditors after a $250 million buyout; financial terms of the Darden deal weren’t disclosed.
  Maxim Sold to Darden Media Group (FishbowlNY)

Post images courtesy of friendly and fun French production company Dorcel Club.

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