May 2014

• On Friday night, 22-year-old student Elliot Rodger killed six people and wounded seven more in Santa Barbara: Rodger shot himself before police caught him. According to his own videos before the murders, Rodger was an outraged “pick up artist” (PUA) who wanted to kill [sorority] girls for not fucking him. The PUA boards he was on have deleted his posts, and claim that proper use of game – manipulating girls into fucking him – would have “saved lives.”
  The Pick-Up Artist Community’s Predictable, Horrible Response to a Mass Murder (Slate)

• “Talking with a good friend the other day about all the recent attention regarding sexual assault on college campuses… we quickly got around to an angle that cuts close to home: What would we tell our teenage sons, who themselves will go off to school in the next few years?”
  What I’m Telling My Son About Drunk Sex and Consent (TIME)

• Intimate photographs – specifically photos with nudity – should be deleted at the end of a relationship if one of the partners calls for it, a court in Germany has ruled.
  ‘Revenge porn’ victims receive boost from German court ruling (Guardian UK)

• SugarDVD is working on an app for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. It currently is working with motion-capture studios in Los Angeles to generate original, virtual reality-optimized content that will take full advantage of the Oculus Rift’s technology.
  SugarDVD Planning an App for Oculus Rift VR Headset (XBIZ)

• The Casual Sex Project, an online experiment dedicated to gathering the most diverse, engaging, and enlightening hook up sex stories, is run by Dr. Zhana Vrangalova, a NYC-based sex researcher, educator, and NYU instructor.
  This Woman Is Collecting Thousands of Casual Sex Stories to Learn More about How We Hook Up (Nerve)

• A poster depicting Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis as “Abortion Barbie” was unveiled in Los Angeles on Thursday in advance of her Hollywood fundraiser and bankrolled by a conservative Midland [Texas] woman.
  Conservative Midland woman funds “Abortion Barbie” posters in Hollywood (My San Antonio)

• DAMMIT. The naked men in Denmark doing Crossfit (Spartan Mentality) story is a hoax.
  Nude Crossfit Is A Hoax? NSFW Workout Photos Go Viral (Social News Daily)

• A three-story Bushwick [New York] building is being converted into a judgement-free living space for polyamorous lovers. Leon Feingold (of Open Love NY), the real estate agent representing the free-love residence claims “It’s not a sex-fest. It’s not a place to come and get your freak on. It’s a place to come home to.”
  Brooklyn Based Apartment Building for Polyamorists (Observer)

• 18-year-old Alyssa Funke performed in one scene for CastingCouch–X as Stella Ann. After putting on a brave face to rebuff online ridicule and bullying, most believe the torment led to her suicide.
  The tragic suicide of a teenager harassed for an amateur porn video (Washington Post)

• The deep-necked T-shirt is a dangerous item of clothing for a man. There is only one thing it’s good for, and that is a visual hammer-blow to focus attention on a manly chest, a dead-aimed bull’s-eye boast for the breasts, an in-yer-face whoop for a studly rack.
  Jude Law and the Great Male ‘He-Vage’ Crisis (Daily Beast)

• Toronto agency Union helps Axe reinforce its position as the mating-man’s go-to product by adding pheromones to company business cards.
  AXE adds sexy sweat to essential business card information (FastCo Create)

• “As a sex worker of 10 years who has been involved in activism and policy work, I have heard the full gamut of assumptions people make about the industry… so let’s go over nine of the biggest lies told about sex work.”
  9 Lies We Have To Stop Telling About Sex Workers (Policy Mic)

• Madonna and Katy Perry donned erotic accessories and posed in erotic shapes, but the whole shoot is remarkably sterile and unerotic. It’s a feat in and of itself.
  Madonna & Katy Perry by Steven Klein (Fashiontography)

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• What could possibly be offensive about an adorable anthropomorphic vulva who wants to teach women how to masturbate? According to the Apple app overlords, quite a bit. In disappointing news for those awaiting the educational female-masturbation app HappyPlayTime, designer Tina Gong reports that the app has been rejected from the Apple iTunes store.
  Apple Won’t Sell a Female-Masturbation App (NY Mag)

• Since two-thirds of the 17+ rated app’s users are in the U.S. and almost all of them are teenagers, porn bots have been having a field day on Kik.
  How Kik Is Tackling Its Porn Bot Problem (Forbes)

• For artist and designer Peiqi Su’s thesis project at NYU’s ITP graduate program, she 3D printed 81 penises and fitted them with motors and an ultrasonic motion sensor and hacked them to respond to viewers’ movements or, brilliantly, to realtime changes in the stock market.
  This Wall of Wiggling Penises Is Absolutely Mesmerizing (Nerve)

• “My nose, thumbs, and feet don’t raise any suspicion, but despite avoiding linen pants and going commando, (more power to ya, Jon Hamm, but I stick to the tightiest whities I can find), the good news always seems to travel fast.”
  Having a Huge Penis Is a Lot Harder than It Looks (Nerve)

• “I have committed dating fraud, but I did it to find love – not for myself, but for other people. And I did it for the money. I was an online dater for-hire…”
  I Got Paid To Be An OkCupid Ghostwriter (The Bold Italic)

• This is a privacy nightmare in its enforcement, and it deserves more press. The California Assembly is moving on rules to establish compulsory condom use for adult film performers. It requires they turn over sensitive medical information about their HIV status to anyone they work for, including a forced waiver of their right to medical privacy.
  Sex Workers Ask Cali Lawmakers to ‘Keep Adult Performers Safe’ by Rejecting Mandatory Condom Bill and AB 1576 Passes Appropriations Committee (Reason, XBIZ)

• “This morning, I found this bag in my bin. (…) Do you recognise this stuff? Is this your well-chewed paddle? Is it? Is this your cum-stained police uniform? Are you aware that impersonating an officer of the law is illegal?”
  Is This Your Sex Bag? (VICE)

• “Sarah Gidick is on a mission to make some porn. But this porn will be porn “for women.” So, not porn. Gidick’s website is the latest in a long line of attempts to erase women’s interest in sex and claim that we really get our thrills from just about anything else—food, novels, clean homes, Shonda Rhimes dramas.”
  28 Non-Pornographic Things That Have Been Described as “Porn for Women” (Slate)

• “Knowing what was expected of us, we learned sex as technique, as mechanics. I had a working knowledge derived entirely from trashy magazines and hearsay of how to perform that ancient oblation, the blowjob, by the age of 12. When I finally met a hard dick in person, I was astonished to discover that it was possible to work out what you wanted to do with it from your desire rather than from technical expertise.”
  My Gay Shame, or, How Patriarchy Stole Sex (The New Inquiry, thanks J!)

• “Imagine if every thing you learned about sex and gender you learned from pornography. It wouldn’t be great. So instead of asking whether or not you should talk [to your kids] about pornography, I want to ask questions about when should you do it, and what should you say.”
  I Found Out My Kid is Searching for Porn (About: Sexuality)

• To those just tuning in, PornHub challenged the world to make G-rated, family-friendly ads for the site in March. And many of the entries gave us quite the chuckle. Check out the finalists and vote on PornHub’s SFW Tumblr.
  Here Are the 15 Finalists in Pornhub’s Search for a Brilliant Non-Pornographic Ad (Adweek)

• Newsweek’s cover claims “High-Profile Sex-Trafficking Activist is Serial Fabricator” — which I’m inclined to believe because sex-trafficking activisties are usually debunked as freaked-out suburbanites. But it’s difficult not to mention that the ‘new’ Newsweek is tainted by its failed reintroduction with its weird (also failed) debut with the lame and fake “we found the Bitcoin guy” story.
  Newsweek Says High-Profile Sex-Trafficking Activist is Serial Fabricator (Slate)

• When H.R. Giger died last week at 74, after a fall, he left behind a trail of images that linger in the mind much like the nightmares that troubled his sleep. His artwork became the center of a legal case around the Dead Kennedys’ third album, “Frankenchrist,” after Biafra inserted a poster of Giger’s “Landscape XX” (also known as “Penis Landscape”) in the album sleeve.
  The obscenity trial that made H. R. Giger an icon for punk rock and free speech (Quartz)

• It’s an unusual question that isn’t often asked: What happens to sex workers once they retire? Photographer Bénédicte Desrus spent six years answering that question while documenting Casa Xochiquetzal, a home in Mexico City for (mostly) retired sex workers.
  The Lives of Retired Sex Workers in Mexico City (Slate)

• Abel Ferrara and screenwriter Chris Zois’ Welcome To New York, inspired by the 2011 sex scandal surrounding former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, just had its world premiere in Cannes.
  Cannes: Abel Ferrara’s Sex Scandal Pic ‘Welcome To New York’ Penetrates La Plage (Deadline)

• Adult performer Eden Alexander had a bad drug reaction, which triggered a rare skin infection, building into a swarm of secondary illnesses. She needed to raise money for treatment. Instead of a quick fundraiser, she ended up tangling with a payments company over porn, rallying a following, and led a large discussion about the way money moves on the internet.
  Sex, power, and money: how a porn star took on web payments and won (Verge)

• A TSA Screening Supervisor was arrested at Kennedy Airport accused of setting up a meeting in the Dominican Republic to engage in sexual activity with minors. He says this happened 45 times but claims all the girls were older than 18.
  TSA supervisor at JFK accused of having sex with minors, arrested (ABC 7 Online)

• A Georgia woman has sued her town over an ordinance requiring a doctor’s prescription to buy a sex toy. Melissa Davenport filed the lawsuit against the city of Sandy Springs because she doesn’t think the government should regulate the private lives of its citizens. The ordinance prohibits the sale of sexual devices without a legitimate medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial, or law enforcement purpose.
  Georgia woman sues town for banning sale of sex toys without a doctor’s prescription (Raw Story)

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