Sex News: Reddit and Blogger, porn in China, understanding male sex workers, Geeksphone sex tracker

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• Reddit announced a change to its privacy policy on Tuesday that prohibits posting nude photos or videos of people engaged in sex acts without their prior consent to have it posted.
  In Privacy Update, Reddit Tightens Restrictions on Nude Photos (NYT)

• The American Sexual Health Association investigates the question of porn addiction. The short answer – to “Is porn addictive?” – is no. Do some people have problems regulating their use and interest, as with impulsive/compulsive sexual behavior? Absolutely.
  Is Pornography Addictive? (American Sexual Health Association)

• Porn Studies is an international, peer-reviewed journal, which publishes original research examining specifically sexual and explicit media forms, their connections to wider media landscapes and their links to the broader spheres of (sex) work across historical periods and national contexts. This special issue of Porn Studies invites scholars, critics, artists and producers, activists, and educators to explore the contours of Pornography and Labour. (Disclosure: I’m on the Editorial board.)
  PORN STUDIES: Porn and Labour (Call for Papers) (Pink Label TV)

February 27 (2am PST) update to all news about Google’s Blogger listed below: Google reverses porn ban on Blogger after backlash (VentureBeat)

• This week, sexual expression has taken a serious hit after Google abruptly decided to banish adult content from one of the globe’s most popular hosting platforms, Blogger. (Note: This site. tinynibbles.com, is not a Blogger site. The Blogger links to this site, and more importantly, links from this site, that will go dark in March; killing links harms the overall health of the Internet.)
  Google banishing explicit sex blogs is a cull that goes against everything the internet should stand for (Independent UK)

• Every Blogger user behind an “adult content warning” page was told Monday by Google to delete sexually explicit content, or find their blog removed from every form of access (and external search) except registered users. This move is part of Google’s worsening record on restriction of sexual expression, and what’s become a downward slide for free speech on the powerful corporation’s many communication, commerce and information products and utilities (See: Google Sex Censorship Timeline).
  Google bans ‘explicit’ adult content from Blogger blogs / Timeline: Google’s role in global sex censorship (ZDNet, ZDNet)

• If you’re (rightfully) worried about how Google’s Blogger sex purge will most likely screw you without recourse the minute someone who doesn’t like women, or gays, or trans people, or BDSM, or sex for pleasure, or sexual expression in Western countries decides to report you… Here are a few solutions where writers, artists, LGBT people, and yes, the porny people can move to slightly safer free platforms or not-free but self-hosted solutions, with somewhat minimized headaches.
  Google wants you to stop using Blogger: Here’s how to leave (Violet Blue / TinyNibbles)

• Pornography isn’t just censored in China. It’s illegal. And the Chinese Communist Party sees it as an important enough issue to hire officers whose sole purpose is to watch hundreds of adult films every week and record their contents, scene by scene.
  China Is Hooked on Japanese Porn—and That’s a Good Thing (Daily Beast)

• There have been no rigorous studies of male sex workers in the U.S. Without data that gets into the granular differences between those working in different parts of the industry, crafting initiatives that are responsive to the needs of these men and boys is nearly impossible.
  Why It’s So Hard to Understand Male Sex Workers (TakePart)

• Rachel Kramer Bussel saw 50 Shades and writes, “(…) I fear that we are mixing up fact and fantasy when we expect a work of fiction to hold to the standard of nonfiction.”
  My Biggest Problem With Fifty Shades Of Grey, The Movie (Thought Catalog)

• For its monthlong sex issue, Wired does an in-depth piece on last year’s MyRedBook (one of the more popular sex worker listing websites with reviews of both workers and customers) raid and shutdown.
  The Rise and Fall of RedBook, the Site That Sex Workers Couldn’t Live Without (Wired)

• Smartphone maker Geeksphone, perhaps best know for its partnership with Silent Circle over the pro-privacy Android fork Blackphone, is expanding from handsets into fitness wearables. GeeksMe will also include two less commonly found features in what is a very crowded space: namely “ecological footprint” tracking, for the environmentally conscious, and a sex tracker. (FYI, this article perpetuates the dated perception which presumes all readers think this is a weird/bad thing.)
  Geeksphone Is Getting Into Wearables — With A Sex Tracker (TechCrunch)

• What changes when the motive for sex moves from pleasure to procreation for male-female couples?
  Doing It Like It’s Your Job (DAME Magazine)

• Elle Magazine writer Cheryl Wischhover took it upon herself to find out, and asked five porn stars if they “fake it” in real life and/or on camera. This summary is better than the original article.
  Elle Magazine Asks Porn Stars If They Fake Orgasms (XBIZ)

• Leading anime ladies tend to be rather buxom. But if your DNA didn’t deem DD-cup would be your natural bust size, one designer has come up with a silicone-free solution for your cosplay conundrum: a literal breastplate.
  Literal breastplate will give you a cosplay-ready, anime-class bust in seconds (Rocketnews24)

• Adult payment processor Epoch has announced that clients can now accept PayPal from consumers throughout the world. The announcement was made by the Internet payment service provider on its website.
  Epoch Adds PayPal for Transactions Worldwide (XBIZ)

• Soon, the San Francisco building that’s like no other will be home to an equally unique office setup. Kink.com‘s underused building (The Mission Armory), which looks like a Medieval fortress and is dubbed the “porn castle,” also will house a traditional office user — a tech or media company, perhaps.
  How a porn studio and tech company could share the same San Francisco office space (Silicon Valley Business Journal)

• One week after NPR profiled “female Viagra” drug flibanserin on All Things Considered, Buzzfeed matches NPR’s original “Female Viagra” piece in a longer format (with no reference to NPR’s prior reporting).
  Will The “Female Viagra” Ever Get It Up? (NAME)

• Warning for survivors of sexual abuse, trauma or assault. VICE decides to talk to porn workers about portrayal of incest fantasy in porn. Inter-familial relations have become topical recently following a certain NY Mag article about Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) and a detailed Q&A about consensual incest between a woman and her biological father.
  Why Is Incest Porn So Popular? (VICE UK)

Violet Blue

The London Times named Violet Blue "One of the 40 bloggers who really count" and Self Magazine named TinyNibbles one of the “Best Sex Resources for Women.” Blue is an autodidact and pundit on sex and technology, hacking and security, porn for women, privacy and bleeding-edge tech culture. She is a journalist for ZDNet, CBS News, CNET; she's an educator, speaker, crisis counselor, volunteer NGO trainer, and the author and editor of over 40 award-winning books.

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