July 2014

• Porn has always come with a soundtrack. And that soundtrack has become part of our collective erotic imagination. From “Deep Throat” to “Cafe Flesh,” the stories behind the sultry tunes that define our famous sex scenes.
  How sex got its soundtrack: The X-rated history of “boom-chicka-wa (Salon)

• “OkCupid’s ten-year history has been the epitome of the old saying: two steps forward, one total fiasco. A while ago, we had the genius idea of an app that set up blind dates; we spent a year and a half on it, and it was gone from the app store in six months.”
  We Experiment On Human Beings! (OkCupid)

• Alexandra Brodsky and Dana Bolger — the founders and current co-directors of Know Your IX, a sexual assault survivor-led group working to address campus violence — want to reform the law that forms the foundation of their group’s name. They want the colleges that fall short of Title IX to be slapped with a fine.
  One Simple Solution To Make Sure Colleges Start Taking Rape Seriously (ThinkProgress)

• When Masters of Sex works, the show is riveting, weird and funny. But lately it’s suffering from “Bill is the heroic sex doctor who never existed” syndrome. And last night’s incredibly distorted story of how intersex surgeries happened just took that way, way too far.
  An Awkward and Uncomfortable Masters of Sex Gets Everything Wrong (io9)

• Doctors treating a woman for severe weight loss and lethargy were shocked to discover she had a sex toy stuck inside her — and it had been in place for a decade.
  Surgeons remove toy stuck in woman’s vagina for 10 years (News AU, via JWZ)

• Toys like OhMiBod’s blueMotion are helping to popularize teledildonics, or cyberdildonics: sex toys controlled by computers, operated over geographical distances. It’s an idea that hasn’t yet materialized on a broad scale.
  This Bluetooth-Enabled Vibrator Might Bring Us Closer to Computer-Engineered Orgasms (Betabeat)

• Standing at 3’10” with a rare type of dwarfism called Kniest, Dr. Marylou Naccarato has become something of a pioneer in the Little People of America community. At a recent conference, she broke conservative boundaries to talk the ins and outs of sex, intimacy, and lovemaking with the various limitations that may come with life as a person of short stature.
  The Challenges of Having Sex as a Little Person (The Atlantic)

• The Satanic Temple announced on Monday that “informed consent” abortion laws — which require doctors to give state-mandated information that can be inaccurate or misleading to women seeking abortions in an effort to provide a “balanced” perspective — violate the temple’s religious philosophy.
  The Satanic Temple Wants to Use Hobby Lobby Against ‘Informed Consent’ Abortion Laws (Vice)

• “Yes, you read that title correct, $260,000 PLUS PER YEAR! Well, that is apparently how much the sex traffickers make in profits per year, per individual victim, and remember there are many (page 2, column A, para. 1). So that means that the traffickers are making MILLIONS! Per year, as per the “many” victims. But where exactly did this figure, the profits of the human traffickers, originate from?”
  $260,000 PLUS PER YEAR! (Kwe Today)

• TMZ Sports spoke with Skin Diamond who said she watched the video of US Olympian sprinter Josh Mance asking her out on a date this weekend and was flattered, but she’s in a relationship already.
  Porn Star Skin Diamond Rejects U.S. Olympian: ‘He’s Cute Though’ (TMZ)

• Experiment: “A stranger I met through Tinder would remotely control my app-based vibrator and I would, strangely and awkwardly, find some way to get off.”
  I Did It For Science: A Stranger Remotely Controlled My Vibrator (Nerve)

• Organizers of the recent online debate, “Women in Porn: Shattering the Myths,” declared the event successful and announced that a second discussion featuring the same panelists is already in the planning stages. The goal for MindBrowse.com, according to Rowntree, is to develop into a “TED-like platform for discussion of serious, weighty issues surrounding the adult industry”.
  ‘Women in Porn’ Debate Sequel in the Works (XBIZ)

• Photos by Nate “Igor” Smith of racy juggalettes spotted at the 2014 Gathering of the Juggalos, held July 23-27 in Thornville, Ohio. Juggalos were classified as a gang in the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment report.
  Juggalettes of the 2014 Gathering (NSFW) (Village Voice)

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VB note: My sweetie is running the SF Marathon this Sunday to raise money for The Trevor Project, an LGBT youth suicide prevention organization. Help us meet (or beat!) our goal!

• While American generals have been criticized for their handling of an epidemic of sexual assaults, Australia’s army chief, David Morrison, is getting rave reviews for a blistering video he released this week demanding, through clenched teeth, that sexists in his country’s military mend their ways or find another place to work.
  WATCH: Australia’s army chief demonstrates how you address sex abuse (The Week, thank you, Eric!)

• In a survey of scientists engaged in field research, the majority — 64 percent — said they had personally experienced sexual harassment while at a field site, and 22 percent reported being the victim of sexual assault.
  Young Scientists Say They’re Sexually Abused In The Field (NPR)

• At a luxury sex camp in the English countryside for women, hedonism and hard work go hand in hand. The brainchild of London-based best friends Lucy Arrowsmith and Vikki Van Someren, the four- to seven-day retreat aims to combat stress, exhaustion, trauma, and the loss of female identity and sexual energy.
  More Sex, Please (W Magazine)

• Men write most of the commentary about the disastrous effects of romance novels on women and the public despite the fact that women from all regions and educational backgrounds compose the vast majority of the genre’s writers and readers.
  Why Do Men Dislike Erotica for Women So Much? (Pacific Standard)

• Ye Haiyan, who goes by the online alias Hooligan Sparrow, is known for her outspoken, pioneering outreach work on sex work and HIV/AIDS. She was denied permission to attend the AIDS Conference in Melbourne when the Chinese government blacklisted her from traveling abroad, continuing a growing pattern of suppressing dissidents.
  China Bars Sex Worker Rights Activist From Traveling to International AIDS Conference (The Nation)

• Over the weekend, under the hashtag #twitterpurge, users took to Twitter to post nonconsensual nudes and porn in a riff off the release of film The Purge: Anarchy, in which there’s one night where nothing is illegal. The so-called purge primarily targeted girls and women. In other words, it was revenge porn.
  The Revenge Porn of #Twitterpurge (Slate, Guardian UK)

• A prestigious group of HIV researchers made a loud and scientifically supported plea for the decriminalization of sex work at the 20th Annual International AIDS Conference yesterday, during a presentation of a series of seven studies published in The Lancet.
  Scientists call for the decriminalization of sex work (Verge)

• Pleasure products giant Lovehoney takes center stage in the new reality series, “Frisky Business,” now available to U.S. viewers on Netflix. The six-part series offers insight into all aspects of the company – from the customer care team fielding intimate questions from shoppers to the returns department dealing with unwanted sex dolls.
  Lovehoney Documentary Streaming on Netflix (XBIZ)

• In light of the Malaysian Airlines tragedy, this Vogue Ukraine death-eros fashion photo shoot is more than a little unsettling. August issue.
  Marina Abramović and Crystal Renn in Vogue Ukraine August 2014 (25th Century, image above via)

• A new study looks at the evolutionary psychology behind our ideas of sexual morality, that is, why we slut-shame and moralize about things like promiscuity. The connection between sexual behavior and morality, the researches say, may have come about as a way of keeping a gender-based social order intact.
  Why We Care About Other People’s Sex Lives (The Atlantic)

• Terri Conley, a professor of psychology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan who studies polyamory, has analyzed a sample of 1,700 monogamous individuals, 150 swingers, 170 people in open relationships, and 300 polyamorous individuals for a forthcoming study. The Atlantic says, “polyamorous people don’t seem to be plagued by monogamous-style romantic envy.”
  Multiple Lovers, Without Jealousy (The Atlantic)

• This year’s Comic Con is holding the first ever trans specific panel, Breaking Barriers: Transgender Trends in Popular Culture, marks a positive step forward in comics, film, TV, and pop culture.
  Comic Con to Hold First-Ever Trans Panel This Year (SheWired)

• TimeGlider took data from Green’s Dictionary of Slang to create two charts of (often hilarious) historical genitalia slang, one for penis and one for vagina. Now they’ve done the same with three interactive charts showing the first appearance of English-language slang terms for sexual intercourse generally, oral sex and anal intercourse, and orgasms, bodily fluids, and contraception.
  Historical Slang Terms For Having Sex, From 1351 Through Today (io9)

• Dita Von Teese launched her signature lingerie collection this week, and to the surprise of many, and in contrast to Agent Provocateur, Dita’s lingerie is available in “full figure” sizes.
  Dita Von Teese Lingerie Collection (Bare Necessities, above image via)

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