Comments on: Sex News: Mellisa Clarke, Autofellatio, Sesame Street, Houston Police Ignore Rape

By: J

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:30:30 +0000

ok, two things:

1) I don’t think Bert and Ernie are gay. I think Bert’s gay and the reason he’s so pissed off all the time is because he’s stressed over staying in the closet and frustrated that Ernie can never return his feelings. Ernie remains oblivious to all of this.

Besides, they sleep in separate beds. If they’re a couple, then their relationship is in some serious trouble, and has been for about forty years now. No way they should be getting married until they can work that out.

2) Does anyone have a list of the conservative anti-gay politicians who have gotten caught being gay? I’ve always thought there should be a word for that. How does ‘getting hinkled’ sound?

By: Loraan

Loraan — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:49:02 +0000

These politicians and their peccadillos are getting to be quite the cliche. I just wish they’d just set a schedule for all the usual announcements ahead of time…

“I’ll be denying any involvement with that woman/man/goat on Tuesday. I’ll be claiming someone hacked my Twitter account the following Thursday. My admission and loud refusal to resign will be the following Monday. Unfortunately, my resignation won’t be until two weeks after—my wife has a business trip she can’t postpone and won’t be able to stand tearfully behind me until she gets back. Oh, I will be entertaining book and movie rights deals at any point up until the indictment. Any questions?”

By: violet blue

violet blue — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:55:43 +0000

Lewis – I had no idea that Anna Richardson was fueling the anti-porn hysteria I’ve seen coming out of the UK over the past year or so. I saw the first few episodes of that Channel 4 show and I was really impressed by them – I really wished we had something like that in the US, as it would do a hell of a lot of good. But NOT with the porn misinformation. That’s actually pretty harmful, and it seems to follow the tradition of UK anti-porn pundits being these hysterical women operating on feelings, anecdotes and in many cases literally inventing the threat. I’m continually surprised that they’re not laughed out of their jobs and considered a liability to hire. What a shame to see that happen to such a promising show.

Justin – I really feel for Bert and Ernie, I do. I mean they are under a lot of pressure. What if they’re queer, questioning, or – the relationship no one ever talks about – a straight man with a gay best friend!? But seriously, I’m in agreement with you. Making over established characters isn’t genuine, no matter how much anyone ‘believes’ Bert and Ernie might be – or should be – partnered. I’d love to see the topic addressed and normalized, but not introduced in a way that might polarize fans and community.

And I’ll comment on the thing I presented without comment: WTF with another anti-gay politician getting caught trolling for dick!!?? Can we just now assume that all loud anti-gay campaigners are… And what’s with the wife cover-up club? Is this something they learn to do in finishing school? It’s just beyond the point of a joke anymore.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:47:17 +0000

I think Bert and Ernie are just good friends, albiet poor ones who have to share a bed and a bath (I think?) sometimes to keep their costs down. They’re not introduced as gay characters, even though some may see elements of a gay lifestyle in how they’re protrayed. I would like Sesame Street to perhaps introduce two gay human characters, perhaps even one gay and one lesbian couple, to help explain to kids how that kind of relationship can work and so they can better understand kids who have two mummies or daddies.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:07:01 +0000

The porn study was certainly interesting, here in the UK, we have a generally good education show on Channel 4 (a free to air partially public funded station) which teaches kids all about sex along with a website that they are encouraged to view with their parents. It’s far beyond the sex ed I had about 14 years ago which was pretty much the reproductive organs and how to put on a condom but their anti-porn agenda goes far beyond a warning.

They had such a one sided, pre-judged attitude towards porn, the presenter, Anna Richardson, has an obvious dislike of porn, so skews all the discussion towards how evil it is. She comes up with some nonsensical stuff like claiming she was generally searching for porn online like a child would and somehow found freely available child porn within a couple of minutes and never has any facts or figures to back up her theories. Most of stuff she does is shock tactics, like taking parents onto chat roulette and painting this as the normal experiences children get of the internet.

She rarely, if ever, in the several series on, talks about child filters or not putting a PC in the kid’s room where they can access it without supervision; and always paints porn as being this corrupting evil that is some sort of “boogieman” trying to force kids to click on links or pretending “niche” (for want of a better word) stuff like triple anal, scat, S&M etc stuff as being the sort of porn you instantly find on google.

I’m not saying 12 year olds should be looking at porn but the idea that they present is that kids will grow up warped and insecure because they are curious about sex and might search for some images or videos online or because they somehow stumbled upon hardcore sites.