Sex News: Katy Perry, Olympic sex test, financial fetishism, more Lara Croft, Hollie Stevens

  • Here it comes: “(…) let’s talk about the shit storm broiling over the pre-release material for the next Tomb Raider game, in which the protagonist, Lara Croft, is retconned as a survivor of sexual and physical assault. (…) Industry mandarins seem to have assumed that gamers, by which they mean male gamers, can only carry on loving cold, powerful, beautiful Lara Croft if someone “break[s] her down”.”
    Lara Croft and rape stories: breaking down the bitch (New Statesman)
  • Even if you heard about this, the details are amazing (for all the wrong reasons) and deeply troubling. She said “vagina.” The House responded: “What she said was offensive,” said Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville. “It was so offensive, I don’t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.”
    Lawmaker barred from speaking after ‘vagina’ comment (The Detroit News)
  • As part of her recently completed PhD, Ms Monique Mulholland undertook a study involving children aged 13 to 16 from three high schools. While the study confirmed that young people are finding sexual images readily accessible, Ms Mulholland said they did not seem to be “taking over their hearts and minds”.
    Teenagers not taken in by raunchy imagery (Flinders News)

  • If you’re on Quertee, please vote for this USBGendered shirt so I can buy one!
    USBgendered (Qwertee)

  • Morning-after pill now officially “not abortion.” The Food & Drug Administration quietly updated its consumer guide to birth control (PDF) this week, deleting claims that two kinds of contraceptives—the morning-after pill and the copper IUD—can prohibit an egg from implanting in the womb after fertilization. The changes are significant because a number of religious groups, pro-life activists, and politicians view contraceptives that prevent implantation as the equivalent of an abortion.
    FDA Quietly Changes Its Guide to How the Morning-After Pill Works (The Daily Beast)
  • Pro-porn activist on Twitter points out that British anti-porn feminist Gail Dines is participating in a Morality in Media anti-porn function – again. She has claimed to be politically and religiously unbiased.
    iamcuriousblue (Twitter)
  • Liberty Media Holdings (LMH) is suing two roommates in New York, alleging the illegal downloading of a pornographic film, even though LMH argues that only one made the infringing copy. Remarkably, LMH claims that the non-downloading roommate is also responsible for copyright infringement, simply because the Internet subscription is in his name and he might have known his roommate sometimes made illegal downloads.
    Porn maker’s lawsuit against roommate threatens free Wi-Fi (Network World)
  • I hadn’t realized that my books had been honored as a Father’s Day favorite over the weekend! Yay! Comes with a bonus anti-VB comment from a conservative, neat: “It may damage your mind to know that your mother and father still are active in the bedroom, but sex is what keeps a marriage healthy.”
    Gallery: 5 awesome and affordable Father’s Day gifts (ZDNet)
  • Domme FF writes, “Financial fetishists come in a couple of different stripes, but they all have dayjobs in investment banking or hedgefund management. There is the guy who gets off on me asking him to buy me things of increasingly ridiculous expense while stroking his cock.”
    Favoured Strangers: Notes on Financial Fetishism (Favourite Strangers)
  • An anti-porn “boot camp” in Utah for teen boys? Yup. So, who’s up for a paramilitary rescue mission? You know I’ve got the skills. “some parents are taking drastic steps to reform their porn-addict sons (ages 13-19) – by sending them off to a desert ‘boot camp’ to help them overcome their troubling behaviour.”
    Oxbow Academy: Desert boot camp helps teens beat addiction to internet porn (Mail Online)
  • A new United Way of Greater Milwaukee teen pregnancy prevention campaign recently launched which likens sexual predators to rats and snakes. Print ads/posters feature teen girls, one with rats all over her, the other wrapped up in a snake.
    Rats, Snakes ‘Have Sex’ With Young Girls (Adrants)

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6 Comments - COMMENTARY is DESIRED

  1. You’ll be pleased to know that the bid to fast-track the bill that would make the purchase of sex illegal in Scotland has failed so the (clueless) politician who’s trying to force it through now has to go back to the beginning and put her proposal through the consultation process. I work for an organisation called SCOT-PEP that campaigns for the rights of sex workers (http://www.scot-pep.org.uk/). Because of the fact that it would make work more dangerous for sex workers by forcing the industry underground, we’re campaigning against the bill and are delighted at this latest development.

  2. Hi Violet –

    I tweeted a couple of times on the Olympics issue but figured a comment was more effective.

    I follow Track & Field fairly well, was a Division I college participant, am familiar with the USATF and IAAF (National and International governing bodies for Track & Field) testing procedures and rules.

    The Olympics isn’t “testing” all the women to see that they’re women. ALL the athletes are tested year around for testosterone and other substances, in order to verify that they’re not using performance enhancing drugs. In fact both Men and Women are both tested for Estrogen as well, as (in men especially) in can be a sign that you’re using drugs.

    A couple of additional points

    1) Female testosterone at the higher or above average range, is still a fraction of a man’s at the low end (let alone an Olympic Athlete). This rule would be for women who have near male levels.

    2) The rule was created for the Caster Semenya case, she is an intersexed Track Athlete and doesn’t have Ovaries and instead has internal Testes that produce large amounts of testosterone. For the record she’s allowed to compete.

    3) Both Male and Female athletes take testosterone as a performance enhancing drug (it’s the most common one, and the hardest to detect if you game the system)

    4) There is a HUGE gap between male and female performances, so much so that Men who aren’t even National Class athletes could declare themselves women and dominate the women’s ranks. A 10.5 100m sprinter isn’t really remarkable at the high school level, good, but not one of the best in the nation for high schoolers.

    He could declare himself trans and dominate the women’s races.

    This leaves the IOC with an issue.

    If they respect all gender declarations, they open the door for unfair competition “I’ll just race the girls” or allow people to cheat “Yes my testosterone was high, but it’s my natural level, don’t invade my privacy with more tests”

    In the end the rule was created for one athlete who is allowed to compete (and will probably win Gold), despite the fact that her testosterone levels would get other athletes banned for cheating.

    I’m not saying it’s perfect, but the goal isn’t discrimination it’s to keep women whose muscularity is more male than female from competing against women who don’t have a chance.

    It’s important to remember that it’s not men who pushed for rules like this, or are concerned about this for women’s sports. It’s other WOMEN.

    Finally, why aren’t men tested to prove they’re men? Because they wouldn’t be in the competition in the first place. Men who need testosterone supplementation, have high estrogen, etc, have trouble maintaining the muscle strength, energy, et al to compete.

    The key is that all of this testing centers around testosterone, having more is an advantage, having less is a disadvantage and it’s a common PED.

    The rule isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we have and it’s probably better to suggest a better alternative than calling it discrimination.

    Especially since women are the ones who complained about Caster, not men, and women are the ones most concerned about intersexed athletes.

    Still, considering that in all likelihood no one will fall under the rule, it’s all rather moot.

  3. Making prostitution illegal is a step backwards. If you look around the world, you quickly will see that prostitution exists in every single culture where money is used. Even repressive religious countries like Saudi Arabia still have it. The only thing that does happen is that the more illegal it is, the more underground it is and the more it gets tied up to other criminal activities. And invariably it is the women that get hurt by the illegal activities. And the more illegal it is, the less of the money actually ends up in the women’s pockets.

    And I am so tired of hearing people bring up human trafficking as a reason to illegalize prostitution. If it’s legal then the activity is out in the open in licensed businesses that can be inspected. A customer that suspects something shady can report to the police and the women can be unafraid to talk to the law. If it’s illegal then everything is underground and trafficking can flourish in an atmosphere where everyone is already breaking the law and scared to talk to the police.

    These misguided laws won’t stop the activity. They just endanger the very same women that are supposed to protect.

    As far as “moral” reasons to outlaw prostitution: It’s just another way people try to tell a woman what she can do with her own body.

  4. Is it just me, or does taking horny, teenage, porn deprived boys and shipping them off to the hot Utah desert with a bunch of other horny, teenage, porn deprived boys sound like a formula for disaster?

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