• Never afraid of adventure, Mad Max actress Zoe Kravitz got dressed up in fetish attire for her cover story for the April/May 2015 issue of Complex.
  Zoe Kravitz Goes Dominatrix For Complex April (Celebrity Gossip)

• New rules proposed last week by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHA) would require adult film actors to wear eye gear for many scenes. The rules, which have yet to be finalized, would also impose strict hygiene standards and outlaw common porn practices.
  California porn stars could soon have to wear protection. Eye protection, that is. (Washington Post)

• Adult film star turned Bollywood actress Sunny Leone on Wednesday (May 26) visited the Thane police headquarters and met cyber crime cell officials based in the premises in connection with a recent FIR registered against her. The Dombivli police station in the Thane district had on May 14 booked Sunny Leone for obscenity under the Indian Penal Code, the Indecent Representation of Women’s Act and the Information Technology Act, and had forwarded the complaint to the Cyber Crime Cell for further investigation.
  Sunny Leone records statement in connection with obscenity case (Indian Express)

• Warning for survivors of sexual abuse, trauma: The U.N.’s poor handling of child sex abuse claims against French soldiers has human rights staffers in the field fearing for their jobs as they struggle with how to respond to highly sensitive allegations in the future, according to a letter to the world body’s human rights chief obtained by The Associated Press.
  Child sex abuse claims shake UN as revelations continue> (Refinery 29)

• Because of the advertised intended usage for most lubes, the FDA has been known to classify some brands as “class 2” medical devices, which would require official clearance before allowing further distribution. The process of receiving this “501(k) clearance” has proven in the past to be extremely costly, drawn out, and morally compromising. (Animal testing is required.) Failure to adhere to these mandated requirements can result in your products being seized by the FDA.
  Lube’s Battle: The FDA’s Crackdown on Lubricant Labeling (XBIZ)

• This season’s Bachelorette lady, Kaitlyn Bristowe, thought she had found a potential match. She gave her first one-on-one rose to Clint Arlis. But her heart was quickly broken when he declared his love for another man… His fellow contestant JJ Lane.
  Two Straight “Bachelorette” Contestants Fall In Love, Confess To Hooking Up In The Shower (Queerty)

• They might not have had the technology to send dick pics, but a graphic description of a “pego” and “gingambobs” would probably be enough to get a love interest itching to “bagpipe” you. Check out this 18th-century sex slang, and please oh please oh please find a way to work it into your sexting.
  How To Talk Dirty Using 18th Century Sex Slang, Because It’s Time To Take Your Sexting On A Time Machine Ride (Bustle)

• In a segment for Tyson’s podcast StarTalk, Bill Nye stopped by New York’s Museum of Sex to talk about the evolutionary imperative that drives all creatures to procreate.
  Bill Nye talks about sex (Mashable)

• Walking down Eddy from Market Street in downtown San Francisco, you wouldn’t notice the Citadel sandwiched between a karaoke joint and a parking lot.
  Fuck 50 Shades: A look inside the real BDSM scene (Kink and Code)

• Rapidly developing 3D printing technology has already had a major impact in many industries, including space exploration, food, and prosthetics. redOrbit asked the opinion of Tom Sancelot, who developed the site SexShop3D in anticipation of major market changes as result of 3D printing.
  Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1113398847/how-3d-printing-may-change-sex-toys-forever-052815/#lZfyl3L5oxv0zzjr.99
  How 3D printing may change sex toys forever (redOrbit)

• The result of four years of hard work? A robotic butt named Patrick, who delivers instantaneous feedback to students about the prostate exam he’s receiving. Patrick comes equipped with four sensors, and its highly-visual software can inform students whether they’re applying optimal pressure. He might inform the student if the pressure is too soft or if they have neglected to cover the whole prostate.
  Robotic Butt Helps Medical Students Learn Professional Intimacy (KQED, thank you Cyrus!)

• Congrats, UK. It sucks to be you: Britain is at the cutting-edge of censorship, it has been claimed, as government plans to implement ID-based age checks for pornography websites gather pace.
  The UK is becoming the world leader in censorship (NAME)

• Merriam-Webster has updated its dictionary to include the words, WTF, meme, photobombing, and… NSFW! Yay! I remember having to explain to San Francisco Chronicle staff and management what that was. Not fun!
  Merriam-Webster Unabridged (Merriam-Webster)

• This is a wonderfully written first-person essay by a trans woman about her experiences with orgasm, pleasure and self-discovery. Highly recommended for all genders, actually.
  A Trans Woman Learns To Masturbate (Eros Media)

• CNN is staffed by drunk hamsters. There, I said it.
  Sex trade goes underground in China’s ‘sin city’ (CNN)

• Burgeoning industries like fintech, edtech and healthtech are constantly in the news. But not sextech. Given the ubiquity of sex, is that about to change?
  What is sextech and why is everyone ignoring it? (Hot Topics)

• A handful of anti-gay activists and their cameramen held an event Friday morning dubbing the longstanding Leather Archives & Museum a “perversion museum” that promotes incest, pedophilia and sadomasochism to children. But Rogers Park neighbors weren’t having it.
  Neighbors of Leather Museum Tell All 4 Anti-Gay Protesters to ‘Go Home’ (DNAinfo Chicago)

• The statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of sexual assault has just gone from four years to 20 in Nevada – and that’s because of the wave of accusations against comedian Bill Cosby. (I counted over two dozen last time I could stand to look.)
  Bill Cosby Assault Allegations Trigger Change in Nevada Sex-Crime Law (Daily Beast)

• Men are fulfilling their dreams of having giant penises that weigh multiple pounds with this medically dubious, illegal intervention. In Monster Meat, Vice meets Micha from Berlin, who decided a few years ago to take this irreversible step.
  This Is What Life Is Like With A Gigantic Penis (Vice/YouTube)

• I wasn’t wearing a skimpier top than usual, and I hadn’t recently gotten a boob job. The only thing I’d changed was my perfume. For a week, I’d been wearing synthetic pheromones “guaranteed” to make me more attractive to other humans.
  I wore ‘pheromone perfume’ to become a sex goddess (Fusion)

• Not many details on the yet, but it may have to do with the EU’s stance on net Neutrality. A leaked EU Council document shows that plans are afoot to stop Cameron’s censorship/web filtering plan in its tracks — and with the UK on the verge of trying to debate a better deal for itself within Europe, the Prime Minister is not in a particularly strong position for negotiating on the issue.
  Leaked document shows Europe would fight UK plans to block porn (Betanews)

• A recent report by Ameritest, one of the industry’s leading advertising testing firms, found that sex actually doesn’t sell. Sean Scott, Ameritest senior brand consultant, told Ad Age that sex just “doesn’t perform that well in spurring purchase intent.” In particular, the report took a close look at one of Carl Jr.’s latest ads, its 2015 Super Bowl “all-natural” burger commercial featuring model Charlotte McKinney and her bouncing “natural” boobs.
  Copyranter: Sex just don’t sell like it used to (Digiday)

• San Francisco, this looks fun: “What is it like to see a performance when you’re naked?” This question sparked “Nude Night” at the festival THIS IS WHAT I WANT. While patrons at San Francisco’s CounterPulse won’t be required to participate in the clothing-optional aspect of the opening night of festival (they’ll be asked to “be aware and respectful”), those who do get a $5 discount off the ticket price.
  Desire in focus at CounterPulse fest (SF Examiner)

• Games that deal with sex in a realistic way are largely unexplored territory. Mainstream games with sex scenes like Mass Effect or God of War exist to titillate and empower. But indie designers like Nina Freeman are pushing back, hoping to recouple sexuality and humanity by making players feel confused, awkward and vulnerable.
  If Sex Videogames Make You Feel Weird, That’s the Point (Wired)

• On Tuesday Night a joint operation involving Pattaya’s Tourist Police and a team from the Chonburi Provincial Police Special Operations Unit took place and targeted two shops which were reportedly selling penis and breast-shaped soap to locals and tourists. No one knows why.
  Penis and Breast-Shaped Soap seized by Police from South Pattaya Stores (Pattaya One)

• Two of Britain’s top creatives have teamed up to make one of the most extravagant erotic brand films ever — a frenetic two-and-a-half-minute film for London adult retailer Coco de Mer.
  Ad of the Day: Adult Retailer Makes Probably the Craziest X-Rated Ad Yet (AdWeek)

• This Friday the news hit that 3.5 million personally identifiable records were leaked from systems belonging to the adult oriented website, AdultFriendFinder. The really interesting part wasn’t so much the tenting of fingers and overly ravenous bystanders but, more so the number of people cringing behind their monitors across the vast expanses of the Internet.
  The human cost of the Adult Friend Finder data breach (CSOnline)
  See also: Adult Friend Finder confirms data breach 3.5 million records exposed (CSOnline)

• What you won’t find [on PornHub], despite the fact that in book form it has sold over 100 million copies and as a film has made more than $500 million, is contract porn. But now, with its release on DVD, Fifty Shades of Grey — maybe the only movie ever made that’s understood the appeal of a woman looking at a man across 12 inches of hard-wood conference table and murmuring “no anal fisting” — puts contract in the light it deserves (glowing, above the Apple logo). It’s not so much that with Fifty Shades, porn has gone mainstream; it’s that with Fifty Shades the mainstream has been revealed as porn.
  50 Shades of Libertarian Love (The Los Angeles Review of Books)

• In 2006, Oprah Winfrey cancelled an appearance on her show by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the parents whose 15 children had made them famous not just to fellow evangelical Christians but to the secular world as well. Only now is Discovery beginning to acknowledge the likelihood that eldest son Josh Duggar molested all but one of his five younger sisters.
  The Web Has Known About Josh Duggar for Years. When Did TLC Find Out? (Defamer)

• Sex and robots: The concept of AI—specifically of the foxy, sexualized persuasion—has permeated pop culture for a very long time, most recently exemplified with Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. And should these AI rise up, what kind of role would sexuality and sexual identity play in their existence—if at all? Hopes&Fears corralled a group of varied experts to weigh in through a group panel discussion to see what the future holds for us, the AI… and our respective crotch parts.
  Artificial Sexuality: a roundtable discussion on screwing robots (Hopes and Fears)

• Federal agents arrested a State Department employee flying out of Atlanta this week and charged him with running a massive, repulsive “sextortion” racket using U.S. State Department computer access. He stole sexually explicit photos of young women from their Internet accounts, threatened to release personal information on them and their families (or cause them to lose their jobs), and then blackmailed them for more sexual photos and videos. He phished, hacked and terrorized hundreds of women with the aid of his government computer access.
  State dept. worker accused of ‘sextortion’ has hearing in Atlanta (AJC)

• Simone Steenberg and Lolo Bates, both photographers studying at the London College of Fashion will be curating a fashion photography show, called Pink Pistols, at Doomed Gallery in Dalston London opening June 18th 2015, about celebrating and exploring the female body and showing unconventional fashion photography.
  “Pink Pistols” A fashion photography show celebrating and exploring the female body (C-Heads Magazine)

• “The mainstream video game industry, replete as it is with violence simulators and power fantasies, is a shrinking violet when it comes to honestly portraying intercourse. Sex [in video games] is treated like a Fabergé egg, a delicate treasure with incalculable value but no other purpose than to look nice on a shelf and point out to friends. In the God of War series, sex is a reward mechanic that churns out points in exchange for quickly mashing buttons. But you never see the sex, you just hear it!”
  Let’s Talk About Sex (in Video Games), Baby (The Mary Sue)

• It’s the yearly article where someone discovers the used panty trade and tries to make the topic seem… not used.
  Inside the Thriving Online Market for Women’s Dirty Underwear (VICE)

• “In real life, almost every article about sex dolls (a term I’m using interchangeably here with “love doll,” even though not everyone who owns such a doll does so for sexual purposes) has stated that the market for such dolls is almost entirely male—but not entirely.”
  The Human Side of Sex Dolls (LadySmut)

• Ever wonder what it’s like to see a penis ejaculate into your face while dressed to the nines in the South of France? Well then Gaspar Noe’s Love might be for you. Despite several instances of tastefully lit fellatio, and a 3D image of a large penis’s sperm cascading towards the audience, Gaspar Noé’s Love proved to be the dumbest movie screened so far at Cannes — as well as the most soporific.
  Cannes’s 3D Porn: High Heels, Tuxedoes, and Midnight Money Shot (Daily Beast)

• Controversial op-ed: “To paraphrase Janet Mock: Trans people aren’t ‘passing’ as men or women. We’re being. Out of all the words in the transgender lexicon, “passing” is the one I hate most. And that’s no small feat.”
  Op-ed: I’m a Trans Man Who Doesn’t ‘Pass’ — And You Shouldn’t Either (Advocate)

• A first-person essay about male bisexuality.
  Learning to Embrace Sexuality’s Gray Areas (NYT)

• They were supposed to be enforcing the law. Instead, the FBI alleges, a pair of rogue FBI agents ran a sex-for-hire stable, staffed with illegal talent. One DEA source told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity that the incident is a slap in the face for the agency.
  DEA Agents Ran Jersey’s Sleaziest Strip Club (Daily Beast)

• Yay Stockroom! Fetish gear from L.A.-based erotic boutique The Stockroom appear in the latest Taylor Swift music video, Bad Blood, above. Stockroom took a chance on me and published my book Fetish Sex in 2006. Swift’s people reportedly picked up $13,000 in fetish clothing from The Stockroom, and Swift wears an outfit from The Stockroom’s latex brand, Syren Couture, in the video.
  Stockroom Supplies Fetish Attire for New Taylor Swift Video (XBIZ)

• Last month the A&E Channel aired a few episodes of its reprehensible show 8 Minutes, a reality program about a pastor who “saves” sex workers from “the life.” Now several women have come forward after being on the show saying that they were never connected to the resources promised, were pressured into signing contracts, and were misled about their level of anonymity on the show. The show, unfortunately, is not an anomaly.
  Combating Trafficking Takes Much Longer Than Eight Minutes (RH Reality Check)

• As politicians in D.C. push to censor the web in the name of catching sex traffickers, civil-liberty lovers may find some solace in a recent federal court ruling. Maintaining a “free and open Internet” is more important than thwarting traffickers at all costs, ruled Judge Richard Sterns of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
  Backpage.com Lawsuit: Sex Trafficking Doesn’t Trump Internet Freedom, Says Federal Judge (Reason)

• I don’t know about you, but this raises some questions about just how cozy Facebook is with law enforcement in sharing (and spying on) its users’ private communications. Also, warning for survivors of sexual abuse and trauma on this one. No one seems to know — or wants to say — just how often Facebook gets involved in tipping off law enforcement about suspicious online behavior. Facebook won’t say, ICE claims it doesn’t know, and FBI just said “No” when asked if they had any data on the number of Facebook tips they investigate.
  Facebook helps police bust sex predators (Fusion)

• Today, the U.S. government released a sizeable tranche of documents and other material recovered during the Osama Bin Laden raid on the Abbottabod, Pakistan, compound used to hide Bin Ladin. An official at the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence today said that the sexually explicit content would remain classified even as other parts of Bin Laden’s personal files were released.
  Bin Laden’s Porn Stash Is Kept Secret (XBIZ)

• Faced with a Department of Justice investigation into air marshals, the men and women charged with protecting U.S. commercial flights from terrorism, former and current air marshals are coming forward to describe a “wheels-up, rings-off” culture rife with adultery, sex work, and other misconduct.
  Air marshals say a party-hearty attitude prevails at the agency (Reveal)

• The prostitutes at AP need to brush up on their sex work terminology… A California sex worker charged with killing a Google executive with an overdose of heroin aboard his yacht pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter and administering drugs. A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge sentenced defendant Alix Tichelman to six years in prison, bringing a sudden and unexpected conclusion to a case that garnered national attention.
  Sex worker pleads guilty in overdose death of Google exec (AP)

• I would like to test this, please: Lovense and VirtualRealPorn are creating a way to enjoy synced-up virtual reality sex. The trick involves using a Bluetooth dongle, specially coded VR videos, and Lovense’s Max and Nora sex toys to make the toys’ vibrations and rotations sync with the VR action seen in your headset.
  New Sex Toys Sync Up to Virtual Reality Porn (Wired)

• A judge in Fresno County, California, ruled last week that a lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District’s abstinence-focused sex education program was justified because it was out of compliance with the state’s law mandating sex education to be medically accurate and free of bias.
  Judge’s Ruling in California Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Case Shows Importance of Strong Policies (RH Reality Check)

• Well-deserved: Big congrats to Cecilia Tan! The Pioneer Award is given annually to a few “pioneers” of romance, and the Career Achievement Award in Erotic Fiction is an honor – Tan won both this year!
  RT Award Recap: Cecilia Tan Pioneer & Career Achievement Award speeches (Cecilia Tan)

• Join San Francisco Sex Education for a night of education on and exploration of Sex and Video Games, led by a specialist in the field. Morgan “Red” McCormick has been a regularly invited speaker at Penny Arcade Expo on the topic of transgender representation in video games, and much more. Join us as we learn about the history and progression of sexuality in video games.
  SFSI Seminars: Sex and Video Games (Brown Paper Tickets)

• Dr. Nadim Uddin Siddiqui hosts a weekly call-in show about sexual issues on a Pakistani cable television channel. The program, Clinic Online, is a rarity for a conservative Muslim nation, but has proved popular, particularly among women.
  Live On Pakistani TV: A Call-In Show About Sex (NPR, via Thomas Roche)

• Religious leaders aren’t usually the best advisers on how to spice things up in the bedroom, but Orthodox Jewish couples struggling to sustain passionate marriages are finding a savior in Rabbi Natan Alexander. Men and women dissatisfied with their love lives are making pilgrimages to the Judaean Mountains near Jerusalem, where Alexander may prescribe them a Sqweel.
  Toy Vey: The Rabbi Selling Kosher Vibrators (Bloomberg)

• Twenty years ago, while people were shoveling processed foods down their gullets, they were also erotically consuming the sex toy equivalent of toxic processed foods. Yes, in the not so distant past folks were heading to their local smut emporium to purchase dildos, butt plugs and other goodies made from toxic, porous materials chock full of phthalates and other unpronounceable scourges.
  The frisky new world of non-toxic, cruelty-free, eco-friendly sex toys (Hopes and Fears)

• Fun article: A growing cohort of Torontonians are indulging their wildest fetishes – and negotiating every slap, spank and lash of the whip.
  The Kink Club: inside the secret world of BDSM (Toronto Life, thanks, Viviane!)

• The group of eight women sing, dance and enact poetry as getting-to-know-you exercises, but the themes written on the whiteboard reveal the deeper nature of the work: “Misconception, whore, mother, domestic violence, abandoned-thrown out, rebirth.” These are big motifs to tackle, but that’s what the San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival (now in its ninth year) is about — asking difficult questions.
  Sex workers act out in S.F. theater workshop (SF Gate)

• An Egyptian court has ordered Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb to impose a ban on pornographic websites. A similar decision taken two years ago denounced pornographic content as “venomous and vile,” but failed to come into force. The Wednesday ruling is to be immediately enforced.
  Egypt Court Bans Online Adult Content (XBIZ)

• Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma. Author Cathy Young writes: “To me, this crusade against “rape culture” over-simplifies the vast complexity of human sexual interaction, conflating criminal sexual acts like coercion by physical force, threat or incapacitation—which should obviously be prosecuted and punished whenever possible – with bad behavior.”
  Feminists want us to define these ugly sexual encounters as rape. Don’t let them. (Washington Post)

• On the 27th of April, The Singing Sailor Underwater Defense System was installed into the sea in the archipelago due east of Stockholm. The Singing Sailor is a subsurface sonar system sending out the Morse code: “This way if you are gay”. For any submarines passing close by, The Singing Sailor also features the message “Welcome to Sweden. Gay since 1944.” (the year Sweden legalized homosexuality) as an animated neon sign.
  The Singing Sailor (svenskafreds.se)

• While the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling left intact most of 18 U.S.C. § 2257, the recordkeeping regulation for producers of sexually explicit content, the decision is a victory in many respects. Diane Duke, the CEO of trade industry group Free Speech Coalition, remarked that today’s decision prohibits “the routine, warrantless inspections, which were the hallmark of the original regulation. The 3rd Circuit’s decision struck down the recordkeeping inspection as unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.”
  FSC Responds to Today’s 3rd Circuit Ruling Over 2257 Regs (XBIZ)

• Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie and A Haunted House) has announced that a parody of Fifty Shades Of Grey is in the works. The Hollywood star confirmed that he has taken on the challenge of reworking the film adaption of EL James’s S&M trilogy for a new audience. The project, entitled Fifty Shades Of Black, will be a comedy co-written by and starring the White Chicks actor. Wayans is teaming up with filmmaker Rick Alvarez once again for the forthcoming movie.
  Fifty Shades Of Grey to be given Scary Movie treatment by Marlon Wayans (IB Times)

• The HBO documentary Thought Crimes aired last weekend, about the so-called “Cannibal Cop,” a Queens-born NYPD officer convicted of conspiring to kidnap, cook and consume young female targets). I’m in it commenting about extreme fetishes, though you don’t get to hear me talk about vore/cannibalism fetish, and the importance of context with extreme/disturbing fetishes. It’s a great, but frustrating (and disturbing: warning for survivors) documentary.
  The 60-second interview: Erin Lee Carr, director of ‘Thought Crimes’ (Capital New York)

• A federal jury is hearing opening arguments next week in a civil case where Continental Airlines’ baggage handlers are accused of humiliating a gay couple by causing a sex toy to be exposed when released on a baggage claim carousel.
  Sex Toy Gets Exposed at the Airport; Couple Sues (XBIZ)

• Mic spoke to Lust Films director Erika Lust, porn creator Ms. Naughty and MakeLoveNotPorn.tv content curator Sarah Beall about what it’s like to create porn for women. For Lust, Beall and Ms. Naughty, feminist porn wasn’t a business venture so much as it was about creating a social change and providing material women might actually find sexy.
  6 Empowering Things Feminist Pornographers Can Teach Us About Sex (Mic)

• From Norway comes a frank sex ed series for preteens, to teach kids the science of the birds and the bees. Line Jansrud, a medical doctor and host of Newton—Norway’s science show for 8 to 12 years olds—is French kissing a tomato. “This tomato does not have a tongue, but it feels roughly the same,” she says. The program is a new part of the sex education that third graders get in Norway, via NRK, the Norwegian public broadcast channel and NRK Super, the largest Norwegian website for children.
  Are These the World’s Most Graphic Sex-Ed Videos? (Daily Beast)

• It’s not just penises that are taking Instagram’s backchannels by storm, it’s all manners of sexy bits: 15-second jerkoff videos, exposed anuses, a bevy of braless breasts. Though nudity is banned by Instagram’s community guidelines, a cottage industry of illicit hashtags has sprung up to find and share these photos.
  Inside Instagram’s Long Guerrilla War on Porn—and the Users Who Keep Coming Back (Talking Points Memo)

• With the launch of its new blogging platform nearing, adult search engine BoodiGo is calling for adult performers, bloggers and webmasters to start reserving subdomains now. “BoodiBlog will offer adult bloggers a stable, adult-dedicated platform on which they can write about and promote whatever they wish.”
  BoodiGo Taking Name Reservations for New BoodiBlog Platform (BoodiGo)

• In a decision that’s being hailed as “historic,” a judge in California has ruled that health classes focusing exclusively on telling students to remain abstinent until marriage fall short of the state’s comprehensive sex ed requirements.
  ‘Historic’ Ruling States That Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Isn’t Sex Ed (ThinkProgress)

• It’s hard to look at this and believe that AdWeek isn’t trying to create controversy by reminding brands they now live in a world where not everything is under their control, and that user platforms are for users.
  Here’s Why Twitter’s Porn Problem Freaked Out Brands (AdWeek)

• Kate Peters’ collaborative project Cam Girls is a terrific portrait series. Her pixelated images are photographs of a computer screen, and the women on them make their living offering online sexual performances.
  Portraits of Sex Cam Girls, Captured Through Skype (NSFW) (Wired)

• Though it requires STD testing for every straight-sex scene it films, Kink.com’s precautions for gay actors contributed to the spread of HIV, an actor claims in court. Plaintiff John Doe says he notified Kink.com immediately when he tested HIV-positive in May 2013, but that studio bosses kept his status quiet until shooting wrapped, leaving regulators in the dark and causing a delay that potentially resulted in HIV exposures for two performers.
  Porn Actor With HIV Pins Blame on Kink.com (Courthouse News)

• “Sadly, the decline in free speech at American universities, and the proliferation of ludicrous “trigger warning” mandates for books and courses, are topics covered largely by the right-wing media, so often I must hold my nose as I examine their sources.”
  Life Is “Triggering.” The Best Literature Should Be, Too. (New Republic)

• Warning for survivors of sexual assault, trauma, abuse. For psychological reasons, Angel Perez does not call what happened to him rape. But he vividly recalls being taken to Homan Square, a warehouse used by the Chicago police for incommunicado detentions, where police inserted something into his rectum.
  Homan Square detainee: I was sexually abused by police at Chicago ‘black site’ (Guardian)

• “Ek Paheli Leela” has sparked all kinds of conversations, jokes and a small skirmish involving at least two prominent Indian politicians on Twitter. That’s because it stars Sunny Leone, a.k.a. Karenjit Kaur Vohra, the Indian heroine and reality-show personality who is also a popular American porn star.
  The Porn Star Sunny Leone’s Bollywood Makeover (NYT)

• The November 1972 issue of Playboy is the magazine’s best selling issue of all time. This is due to the proliferation of one iconic image from the magazine: that of centerfold model Lena Söderberg. The original image was digitized by researches at the University of Southern California Signal and Image Processing Institute (SIPI) in 1973.
  The Playboy Centerfold At The Center Of Computer Science (Digg)

• When entrepreneurs Alexandra Fine and Janet Lieberman of Dame Products launched a crowdfunding campaign via California-based Indiegogo to bankroll a high-tech sex toy last year, they knew investors might be squeamish. Fine and Lieberman’s effort became the most highly funded adult product in the history of online crowdfunding, surpassing even their “stretch” goal of $200,000 by 375 percent (they raised nearly $750,000). Indiegogo recently named Eva the most successful campaign ever run by an all-female team.
  How A Sex Toy Set Crowdfunding Records On Indiegogo (Forbes)

• This is both funny, and really, really bad. It’s time to call shenanigans on what is, without a doubt, the biggest failed social experiment of our time: Wikipedia.
  Gland Slams (Adult Mag)

• Along the murky border of China and Myanmar, the stringent morals of both countries give way to a no-man’s-land where prostitution is unchecked, gambling is rampant, and the tiger bone wine flows freely.
  A Border Town Built for Vice (Narratively)

• Porn stars are supposed to be the epitome of sexiness, which to most people means young and tight-bodied. But to be a porn star takes more than just good looks—sex appeal is more than just an impulsive physical attraction. “People’s desires start out as a dream, desire starts in the brain,” says Norma Stitz. “And that’s why I am still sought out at the age of 57.”
  The Plight of the Over 50 Porn Star: Why Age Is Just a Number (Daily Beast)

• Have you wondered what it’s like to get fucked by the Apple Watch? Canadian erotic author Leonard Delaney did. This article is fun, though keep in mind the writer is clueless about erotica, and is unfortunately so titillated that they miss observing some of the really cool, pointed, and freakish things in Delaney’s writing.
  The Writer Behind the Weirdest Tech Erotica You’ve Ever Read (Gizmodo)

• We can still count on Vice for the deeper investigative stuff. “(…) when I was made aware of Private Gym, a program that claims to be ‘simply the world’s best personal trainer for your pelvic muscle system,’ and ‘as good as Viagra,’ I was intrigued.”
  I Tried a Four-Week Workout Regimen to Strengthen My Dick (Vice)

• North Las Vegas police got the case after the mayor asked the department for help removing what he believed to be child pornography from his personal iPad. A detective helped out but didn’t check any of the mayor’s other electronic devices or press Lee on why his story didn’t make sense in light of evidence found, a police report filed last year shows.
  Police Chief: North Las Vegas mayor got special treatment in child porn investigation (Las Vegas Review Journal)

• Near the end of the latest “Clueless Gamer” segment on Conan there’s a glimpse of one of The Witcher 3’s sex scenes: It takes place on a stuffed unicorn, because apparently that’s something that happens in the actual books the games are based on.
  The Witcher 3 Lets You Have Sex On A Unicorn (Kotaku)

• A 33-year-old South Africa man says three women forced him into a car at gunpoint Tuesday, then made him drink an unknown, erection-inducing drug and raped him. According to the Star’s South Africa correspondent, Stephanie Findlay, “local news organizations have reported women at the Zimbabwe border selling semen to sangomas, traditional healers who then use the substance in their popular rituals.”
  Man Claims Three Women Drugged and Raped Him, Then Bagged up His Semen (Gawker)

• I have long awaited the day I have an excuse to finally send the wonderful Mr. Bruce Schneier traffic from this blog. “This scam is particularly interesting, because there are good chances that the victim will never realize that he’s been scammed — in fact, he probably had a good time.”
  Online Dating Scams (Schneier on Security)

• Dr. Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College, London has found that menopause may not decrease a woman’s sex drive as we once thought, giving hope for sexual satisfaction and activity into old age. Time has the original report, but I found Bustle’s overview to be the best of the lot.
  Menopause May Not Lead To Lower Sex Drives, Says New Study (Bustle)

• Adult erotic drama “Marriage 2.0” is a legitimate cinematic achievement with a dialog-driven plot, moving performances and stunning cinematography of our beautiful Bay Area — as well as some attractive people boning. Marriage 2.0 (sound alert) had its official premiere at the Victoria Theatre (San Francisco) at a gala event with all the film’s stars on hand in what producer Magnus Sullivan called an attempt to “reestablish adult as a relevant cinematic medium”. < Interesting footnote: The Victoria Theatre's owner was a vocal opponent of Kink.com moving into The Armory, itself only a few blocks away from the theatre.
  Porn Stars And Fans Glam It Up At ‘Marriage 2.0′ Premiere At The Victoria (SFist)

• Using a script that crawled 4,814,732 clips on Clips4Sale, Guardian writer Martin Robbins crunched numbers and did some data visualization on categories and costs, with interesting results. It turns out that porn prices have almost exactly tracked inflation.
  Porn data: visualising fetish space (Guardian UK)

• The queer Austrian men’s magazine Vangardist, which is distributed exclusively in Germany, Austria, has printed an entire issue in ink that was infused with HIV-positive infused blood. This was more than a stunt, though: it’s meant to bring awareness to the increasingly prevalent stigma associated with HIV.
  Austrian Magazine ‘Vangardist’ Prints Issue in HIV-Positive Blood-Infused Ink (Flavorwire)

• Astroglide has debuted a new lubricant, Astroglide TTC (Trying to Conceive), which is specially formulated to provide a better environment for conception. According to the company, lab-tested Astroglide TTC has been clinically proven to allow sperm to move freely and unhindered.
  Astroglide Debuts Sperm-Friendly Lube (XBIZ)

• UK web filters have made it harder to access pornography online and recent changes to the law banned everything from spanking to facesitting in a bid to protect children from “harmful material”. Now the Conservative party wants to go one step further and hide all pornographic websites behind an 18+ verification check. Critics argue the move sets a dangerous precedent.
  Pornography is under attack (Wired UK)

• A recent news story about plans to open a “halal” sex shop in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca – in Saudi Arabia, one of the Arab world’s most conservative countries – went viral among Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But a physical store remains only a wish – some critics called it wishful thinking – expressed by Abdelaziz Aouragh, the Moroccan-Dutch entrepreneur behind El Asira , an erotic e-shop described as halal – meaning sanctioned by Islamic law, similar to the concept of kosher.
  Sex and sharia: Islamic erotica is fine – if it’s sold virtually (Haaretz)

• Porn star Bonnie Rotten was walking around NYC topless last week in various parts of the city, including Washington Square Park and Times Square, shooting a spread for Inked Magazine.
  Video: Topless Porn Star Attracts Most Shameless Men In Manhattan (Gothamist)

• A porn actress has upset authorities in Egypt after posting a picture of her bare backside while riding a camel in front of the Pyramids. Carmen De Luz put the cheeky photo of herself at the Giza Pyramids on her Instagram page with the message ‘welcome to Egypt.’
  Egyptian authorities have been left fuming by one tourist’s holiday snaps (Mirror UK)

• Amid a national push to punish those who distribute sexual photos without consent, NFL linebacker Jermaine Cunningham will be the most recognizable defendant yet to face “revenge porn” charges when he appears in court Wednesday.
  NFL Linebacker’s Case Highlights Rise of Revenge Porn Laws (AP/ABC News)

• Abstinence education in action: Earlier this year, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 8 of the 11 states with the highest rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were in the South.
  Texas High Schools See Spike In STDs (CBS Local)

• “There are many for whom dealing with the boner-wielding heirs apparent of Beavis and Butthead is too much and have cast Tinder into the fire for good. Tinder for them is too littered with single word bios, out-of-focus selfies revealing bad tattoos, and messages inquiring about nudes before inquiring about your day. But I’ve found enough value on Tinder to keep going, swiping and unmatching bad profiles out of my life at the first sign of unreasonable expectations. Their corner of Tinder is a dark place, dense with hapless souls who didn’t realize that the centuries-long period of dick overvaluation is over.”
  The Dickonomics of Tinder (Medium)

• Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. withdrew a job advertisement seeking candidates who resemble a popular Japanese porn actress (Sora Aoi) to motivate computer programmers after drawing criticism.
  Alibaba is Pulling Its Ad for Job Candidates With Pornstar Qualities (Bloomberg)

• “…he’s not wearing his sexytime suit. Nor is he probing her with his sweet sweet mating arm. A male octopus does have a penis – but it’s a relatively small organ that’s tucked up near his head, and it doesn’t actually come into contact with his mate. For that, he has a special arm called a hectycotylus.”
  Famous Cephalopod-On-Woman Sex Scene Reveals Octopus Isn’t That Into Her (Gizmodo)

• Shortly after the Get To Work expansion went live, some Sims players started to notice something was up. There were a lot of alien abductions. These were an intentional feature, in part. But they weren’t meant to start happening all the time. Even stranger was the fact that male Sims were suddenly ending up, how do I say this… with child.
  The Sims Bug Abducts Men, Makes Them Pregnant (Kotaku)

• Researchers with Malwarebytes Labs identified a malvertising campaign impacting popular adult website xHamster. The malicious advertisement – served up by ad provider TrafficHaus – was spotted on Friday and taken down by the end of Saturday.
  Angler Exploit Kit pushed in xHamster malvertising campaign (SC Magazine)

• Dutch artist and designer Mark Sturkenboom’s 21 Grams (a reference to Dr. Duncan MacDougall’s belief circa 1907 that the human soul weighs 21 grams) is a “memory box” containing a dildo with a compartment for storing the ashes of a deceased partner, complete with a wearable gold-plated brass key. Inside the box is a scent diffuser and an amp, that connects to an iPhone to play music through floral-shaped speaker holes.
  21 Grams is a sex toy that contains the ashes of a dead partner (Dezeen)

• Recently, sex toy manufacturer Tantus Inc. heard claims of “silicone allergies” from sex toy consumers. Wondering if the industry as a whole was seeing this as well, Tantus reached out to a PhD in Toxicology as well as being a DABT (Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology), whose job includes biocompatibility testing and working with the FDA on 510K (medical device) submissions.
  SILICONE ALLERGY: Is that a thing? (Tantus Inc.)

• According to new research from Indiana University, as many as one in five sexters are coerced into sending sexual texts by threats or manipulation from their partner. The practice is so widespread among young people — and so deeply traumatic — that the developmental psychologist Michelle Drouin thinks it constitutes a new form of intimate partner violence.
  The sexting scandal no one sees (Washington Post)

• A new e-book, Invaded by the iWatch: An Erotic Short Story, hit the Kindle store recently. As its title suggests, the book is erotica centered around Apple’s iWatch. The author of Invaded by the iWatch, a Canadian consultant who writes under the pen name “Leonard Delaney,” told Fusion that writing erotica about the Apple Watch was the logical next step after the success of his first two tech-themed erotica e-books, Taken by the Tetris Blocks and Conquered by Clippy (and ZOMG there’s a ‘Boxed Set‘!) “Discover how a forbidden sexual romance between a woman and a watch is possible. This 4000 word short story contains sexual encounters with technology, blow-jobs, and group sex. It’s only for super mature people who can handle it.”
  There’s Apple Watch erotica, and it’s as awkward as it sounds (Fusion)

• Sixty-one concrete bungalows on twenty-four acres, with 120 resident offenders at any given time. The sex offenders arrived six and a half years ago when Pat Powers, an offender himself, came and claimed the place in the name of Jesus Christ. They live in this exile, of course, because there is nothing lower than their kind. Many of the younger residents had 15- or 16-year-old girlfriends when they themselves were 18 or 19, so ended up doing fifteen years in prison and then were put on the registry as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.
  The American City Where Sex Offenders Live (GQ)

• In China [and Taiwan], friends and family of the deceased may have to do without a special form of funereal entertainment: strippers. According to a statement from the Ministry of Culture on Thursday, the government plans to work closely with the police to eliminate such performances, which are held with the goal of drawing more mourners.
  China Says Please Stop Hiring Funeral Strippers (WSJ)

• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final decision rejecting a challenge to the validity of all claims of LELO’s patent covering inductive charging of personal massagers, which directly relates to the sale of the We-Vibe 2, We-Vibe 3, We-Vibe 4 and We-Vibe 4 Plus products. The final decision has cleared the path for LELO to seek monetary compensation from Standard Innovation Corp., as well as all distributors and retailers that sell infringing items.
  U.S. Patent Office Rejects Challenge to Validity of LELO Patent (XBIZ)

• I’m sure this isn’t all we’ll find out about the AHF. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation on Friday filed suit against the three former executives who alleged earlier this month that the organization defrauded public programs in California and Florida of at least $20 million a year in false claims. The former executives’ whistleblower suit alleged that the AHF defrauded federal healthcare programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Health and Human Services HIV/AIDS grant programs by unlawfully paying referral incentives to employees and patients in violation of an anti-kickback statute.
  AHF Sues Former Execs Who Filed Whistleblower Suit (XBIZ)

• The arrival of Meerkat and Periscope led to a rash of stories in the mainstream press about the impending flood of filth on the new live streaming platforms. But for now, cam performers have mainly stayed away from Periscope and Meerkat, leaving the nudity to unpaid exhibitionists. Snapchat has been popular though, despite the service’s attempts to shut cam girls down.
  No Porn on Periscope? Cam Girl Sites are Delighted (The Next Web)

• Charlie Evens, one of the two men behind the now-defunct revenge porn site IsAnyoneUp.com, has expressed some remorse in an interview with CNN for his work on the site — he says he has “disgust for myself.” However, “How much those women were worth, it was like $500 a week, $1,000 a week.”
  Man who stole pics for revenge porn site now remorseful as trial nears (Ars Technica)

• Two Transportation Security Administration screeners have been fired after conspiring to grope attractive men at Denver International Airport, Denver police said. During the patdown, the male TSA officer used the palms of his hands to touch the passenger’s front groin area and buttocks, which violates TSA policy. All this came to light after an anonymous tip from a TSA employee in November.
  TSA officers fired for plotting to grope men (CNN)

• Wanksy is an anonymous street art vigilante who draws pictures of dicks around potholes in Manchester, England, with the intention of attracting attention to the holes so they get fixed.
  ‘Road Artist’ Wanksy Uses Drawings of Dicks For Social Good (Animal NY)

• Boo! Hiss! By the end of July, Abercombie & Fitch, along with its sister brand Hollister, will no longer use sexualized marketing tactics, including its famed shirtless in-store models.
  Shirts on, Boys. Abercrombie Says It’s Done With Sexualized Marketing (AdWeek)

• According to a new study, comprehensive sex education is exactly what adolescents and young adults need. The Population Council suggests that one of the ways in which we can make sex ed more effective is by addressing the issues of gender inequality. It’s those sex ed programs that include gender inequality and power issues that are the most successful.
  Addressing Gender And Power In Sex Education Makes It More Effective, Says New Study, So Let’s Step It Up (Bustle)

• CNN discovers the use of DCMA takedown requests to remove revenge porn, but should really consult a lawyer (and read revenge porn help sites) about their entire reporting of the practice. They could also read the section in my new book about it, which has actual legally useful advice (I had consultants). But no, the specious “women are copyrighting their breasts” theme takes precedence over accuracy…
  To fight revenge porn, I had to copyright my breasts (CNN)

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its guidelines on Ebola transmission on Sunday night, urging survivors to abstain from all forms of sex or use condoms every time “until more information becomes available,” rather than three months as previously recommended.
  Signs Ebola spreads through sex prompt a CDC warning (Seattle Times)

• Laverne Cox, star of Netflix comedy series Orange is the New Black, continues to break new ground for trans awareness this week with a historic nude photoshoot captured by photographer Norman Jean Roy in Allure’s annual “Nudes Issue”.
  Laverne Cox Shatters Stereotypes in Nude Photoshoot (Unicorn Booty; image above via)

• Great short interview with Mona Eltahawy about her new book, “Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.”
  Mona Eltahawy Doesn’t Need to Be Rescued (NYT)

• Thanks for putting this together, Ms. Naughty! Here are the winners of the 2015 Feminist Porn Awards…
  Feminist Porn Awards 2015 – The Winners (Ms. Naughty)

• The SmartBod team, which includes engineers from Google X and Amazon, has been working with sex researchers to develop its product. They’ve constructed approximately 50 prototypes which have been 3D printed at UC Berkeley’s startup labs and accelerators, then tested on a rotating group of about 10 people.
  SmartBod: Former Google and Amazon Engineers Reimagine the Technology of Vibrators (Paste Magazine)

• SexShop3D.com has announced its partnership with Authentise, a leading licensing platform for the 3D printing industry. SexShop3D.com is a 3D sex toy marketplace that launched in July, 2014, where designers can register to become sex toy creators and sell their creations to customers who print their sex toys at home using a 3D printer.
  SexShop3D Securely Streams 3D Sex Toy Designs (XBIZ)

• Uproxx asked a cross-section of adult performers about the worst reaction they’ve ever gotten from people finding out they did porn. The responses this time out really ran the gamut, from “No one’s every been an assh*le about it” (April O’Neil) and “I’ve never gotten any bad reactions” (Jade Nile), to “A guy threw a rack of napkins on my and called me a whore” (Violet Monroe) and the succinct but effective “I was disowned.” (Rain DeGray).
  Porn Stars Describe The Worst Reaction They’ve Ever Gotten From Someone Finding Out They Work In Porn (Uproxx)

• Adult performer Samantha Bentley is back on Game of Thrones. The British adult star, who has amassed more than 75 adult movie credits in the past four years, enjoyed a modest part in the fourth season of the HBO hit series, playing a prostitute in a Bravos bath scene opposite Liam Cunningham’s Davos Seaworth.
  Samantha Bentley Discusses Return to ‘Game of Thrones’ (XBIZ)

• Middle school health classes usually have a segment on sex education. Wiseguyz, a nonprofit based in Calgary, Alberta, is working to broaden what “sex ed” can teach youth — specifically, boys between the ages of 13 and 15. Their participants instead talk about weighty issues like masculinity and the hyper-sexualized portrayal of women in media.
  Sex Ed That Turns Boys into Men (Medium)

• A currently-crowdfunding vibrator and app called Little Bird can be connected with digitized erotic short stories to heighten the experience of reading hot writing and sex. The app, called B.Sensory, will be able to be installed on a smartphone, connected with the Little Bird vibe via Bluetooth, and synched with erotic short stories.
  New App B.Sensory Connects Your Vibrator With Erotic Literature, Because Sex Toys Just Keep Getting Better (Bustle)

• While sexuality is a taboo subject in Islam, a halal sex shop that caters to Muslims will open soon in Mecca, Saudia Arabia.
  Halal Sex Shop Opening For Muslims In Mecca, Saudi Arabia (IB Times)

• The evolutionary significance of penis size has been a topic for abundant speculation, often packaged with the myth that the human phallus is far bigger than in other primates. (Article title is misleading; article does not answer its own question but has an interesting discussion of clitoral and vaginal measurements.)
  Does Size Matter for Women? (Psychology Today)

• Denmark passed legislation Tuesday banning bestiality, toughening a law that animal rights activists feared was encouraging animal-sex tourism.
  Denmark: Bestiality Is Banned Amid Concerns of Sex Tourism (Reuters/NYT)

• Who’s having the loudest sex in NYC? In all 311 received 133 complaints between Jan. 1, 2014 and Feb. 12, 2015, from people moaning and groaning about their neighbors’ clamorous coitus, records show. (This article includes a fun “loud sex” map of NYC.)
  The Most Loud Sex Complaints in New York City Come From This Building: Data (DNA Info)

• It started when Alice Dreger’s 9th-grade son came home from school and told her that his sex education class was going to be focusing on abstinence. Dreger took a seat in the corner and brought out her laptop. And then she began to tweet.
  What happened when a medical professor live-tweeted her son’s sex-ed class on abstinence (Washington Post)

• A sad day for slutwear: Frederick’s of Hollywood Group Inc., a Los Angeles lingerie brand, has closed all of its stores and will do business only online. Born out of the World War II pinup craze, the company was the brainchild of Frederick Mellinger. He initially opened a lingerie business in New York before moving the shop, renamed Frederick’s of Hollywood, to Los Angeles in 1947. Despite Mellinger’s famous quote that “sex never goes out of fashion,” the company fell behind competitors.
  Frederick’s of Hollywood closes all stores, strips down to Web (LA Times, thank you Cyrus!)

• “I had seen in the flesh what a simple ‘I have herpes‘ could do when said fearlessly, without shame,” Ella Dawson wrote. “Because when a real person — a woman you know and respect — casually mentions having herpes, it stops being a punchline and starts being someone’s reality.”
  Meet the woman who tells everyone, ‘I have genital herpes’ (Washington Post)

• Instagram has clarified its community guidelines to better explain its policies around pornography and harassment. The social network has specifically banned “close-ups of fully-nude buttocks” — but said it would continue to allow photographs of post-mastectomy scarring and women breastfeeding.
  Instagram bans ‘fully-nude’ buttocks (Wired UK)

• The war on sex work is a war on women: In May 2013, Monica Jones, a student and LGBT activist at Arizona State University, was arrested for “manifesting prostitution.” According to the FBI, police arrested over 57,000 people on such charges in 2011. The vast majority were women.
  Molly Crabapple: How police profile and shame sex workers (Fusion)

• A Japanese artist currently on trial for obscenity over vulva sculptures says her arrest shows how far behind her country is in terms of sexual equality. She was arrested last year after building a kayak shaped like her vulva and for emailing plans of the boat, which included pictures of her scanned genitalia, to others. If convicted of distributing or holding obscene images for the purposes of selling, Igarashi could face up to two years in prison and a fine of up to £13,400 (2.5m Yen).
  This woman faces two years in jail for making a vulva canoe (Independent UK)

• Opponents of revenge porn laws warn that the spate of new legislation endangers free-speech laws. The ACLU has raised concerns about First Amendment rights and has cautioned against making revenge porn a felony, instead suggesting civil remedies.
  Could All These New Revenge-Porn Laws Actually Be a Bad Thing? (NY Mag: The Cut)

• According to the company, Ashley Madison is the second most profitable dating enterprise on the internet, second only to Match. That’s why it’s reportedly preparing to go public in the hope of raising $200 million to fund international expansion.
  Ashley Madison IPO proves Adultery is big business (Engadget)

• “Sing What Happens” is a show in which a male singer performs karaoke while a ladyfriend performs… an accompanied instrumental on the skin flute (she jacks him off).
  The Japanese Game Show Where Guys Sing While Getting Jerked Off (Amped Asia)

• Veteran adult performer Justine Joli’s move into manufacturing and distributing pot-infused edible products, namely marijuana jerky, is (bizarrely) seeing porn and marijuana hailed as “the new business bedfellows” by CNBC.com. Three years ago, Joli, who has performed in about 250 adult films, started up Green Fairy Edibles; today, the star plans on moving away from porn, dissolve her adult website and invest hardily into Green Fairy Edibles. “I’m doing what most entrepreneurs do,” she told CNBC.com. “I’m selling off my life and going all in. … One day of making jerky [makes me] the exact same amount I would make on set.”
  CNBC: Porn, Pot Are the New Business Bedfellows (XBIZ)

• A chiropractor in the small town of Lamoni, Iowa, has had his license pulled after being accused of trading services for sex with clients and for performing exorcisms, reports KCCI. The board also stated that Manuel had instructed some of his patients to stop taking their prescribed medications.
  Iowa chiropractor gets license yanked for performing exorcisms and trading services for sex (Raw Story, via Mistress January)

• Free The Nipple (the film) follows a group of young women who take to the streets of New York City topless, to protest the archaic censorship laws in the United States. Activist Liv and With set out to start a movement and change the system through publicity stunts and graffiti installations while armed with First Amendment lawyers. The film explores the contradictions in our media-dominated society, where acts of violence and killing are glorified, while images of a woman’s nude body are censored by the FCC and the MPAA (as well as social media websites).
  Free The Nipple (Unscathed Corpse)

• In 1978, the CIA was caught up in a BDSM Cold War affair. A potential Soviet asset had fallen for a professional dominatrix who made decent money peeing on entertainment lawyers. Also in play was Mary Tyler Moore’s landscaper, merely because he was sweet on the dominatrix and her record collection.
  How a pro-domme, a Russian diplomat, U.S. intelligence and Mary Tyler Moore’s landscaper conspired to create a dance classic (JWZ)

• Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner, who has appeared in all seasons of the popular show, said she stopped her mother in her tracks when she attempted to have a conversation with her about sex when she was 16. “I said, ‘This isn’t necessary, I know everything. I know every single thing that a person can do – and more’. The show is very inventive.”
  Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner ‘didn’t need sex education talk’ because of ‘inventive’ script (Independent UK)

• Orphan Black erotic fanfic?! Of course! I’m a huge fan of the show, and not surprisingly, so is Autostraddle… To get you in the mood to make crazy (nasty) science, or just for the premiere of the new season this weekend, Autostraddle rounded up 15 different Cosima/Delphine erotic fantasies.
  Fan Fiction Friday: Get In the Mood to Make Crazy Science With 15 “Orphan Black” Fics (Autostraddle)

Main post image via: GIRLSGETAHEAD: DOCUMENT JOURNAL (premiermodelstyle.com)

• “Always dreamed of a dildo-operated, flame-thrower? With the MBK, you can make one!” Future of Sex writes, “Today Orgasmatronics launched the Master Beta Kit, which includes everything a newbie needs in order to learn how to program almost any vibrator. Along with a step-by-step tutorial, it comes with a circuit board, an Arduino UNO board, a USB cable, a bullet vibe, and a AA battery pack. Early birds can snag the kit for $69 at the product’s Indiegogo crowdfunding page before it retails for $89.”
  Erotic Engineering: An Open-Source Sex Toy Hacking Kit for Beginners (Future of Sex)

• A German federal court has issued a default judgment against a law firm that sent out 20,000 copyright infringement shakedown letters to RedTube users who were notified that they had been streaming porn online illegally. RedTube’s owner, MindGeek, at the time said that it had nothing to do with the law firm’s shakedown of its users, which reportedly netted €600,000 for Urmann and Colleagues.
  German Law Firm Must Pay Damages After Sending Porn Infringement Letters (XBIZ)

• Warning for graphic descriptions of abuse and assault. This is an excellent article, though it is very difficult to read. In it, Jane McManus of ESPN discusses her interview with Christy Mack, who is recovering from severe injuries caused by MMA fighter Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver. (We love you, Ms. Mack.)
  The Tragic Love Story Of Christy Mack and MMA Fighter War Machine (NAME)

• But do they have ‘Save the Beards’ bumper stickers? Prepare to feel very confused. There are a lot of terrible arguments against same-sex marriage, but this may be the worst: The Supreme Court must not protect gay couples’ marriages, because doing so would demean marriages between gay men and their wives.
  Same-sex attracted men and their wives asks SCOTUS to rule against marriage equality. (Slate)

• Revenge porn has officially become a criminal offense in the UK, with those found guilty facing up to two years in jail. The amendment to the law was proposed last October and came into affect this week. It specifically targets “the distribution of a private sexual image of someone without their consent and with the intention of causing them distress,” and includes both physical and digital images, whether they’re shared in person or over the internet.
  Sharing revenge porn in the UK now carries a two year jail sentence (Verge)

• Please consider helping, and raising awareness for, the family member of a friend who founded a trans community drop-in support group and was targeted by a hostile parent of one of her clients. After finding out his kid went to the support group, he called the police on the clinic’s founder – and she has been held by police but is yet to be charged. The founder was also forced to endure a strip-search “exposing myself and my breasts before four male deputies.”
  Click here to support Julianna’s Legal Fees by Julianna Tourmaline Fialkowski (GoFundMe)

• Grindr the Opera may not be playing at Lincoln Center yet, but the team behind this new show believe this is more than just a gimmick: it’s an idea with legs, and a topic worth parsing.
  Grindr the Opera to open in New York – and it’s more than just a gimmick (Guardian UK)

• Want tips on making indie porn? For the last 12 years, Dan Savage and his team at Seattle’s The Stranger newspaper have been curating Hump!, an indie film festival showcasing sexy and quirky short porn films. Queerty spoke to Savage and got him to dish out a few tips on how we can make our best Hump!-worthy porn debuts.
  Dan Savage On How To Make A Crowd-Pleasing NSFW Video (Queerty)

• This is such a blatant scam, I don’t even know how they’re still getting away with it. Celebrities and brands are defensively buying up Internet gTLDs .porn, .adult and .sucks to make sure they don’t end up in the hands of someone who could besmirch their names and reputations.
  Celebs play defense as they buy up new .porn Web addresses (LA Times)

• Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Kinsey Institute, and the chief scientific advisor to Match.com, welcomed the opportunity to debate her findings about the chemistry of love – and casual sex.
  More Sex Talk from the Love Scientist – Facts So Romantic (Nautilus)

• Vladimir Putin once said half the Internet is nothing but “porno materials,” even though a major academic study in 2010 found that, in reality, just 4 percent of websites were porn. If the Russian court system gets its way, however, the number of legal pornographic websites on the RuNet could drop to zero. That’s right: a district court in Tatarstan has banned 136 porn sites, and the language of its ruling implies that all Internet porn is hereby against the law.
  Tsarist Russia Bans Internet Porn (Global Voices)

• In the latest installment of Hopes&Fears anonymous interview series, they spoke with a couple who ran a BDSM business out of their apartment (and considering their inexperience, it’s amazing they didn’t experience a fatality).
  We made bank running an indie BDSM dungeon (Hopes&Fears)

• Last week, the UK’s NSPCC and ChildLine released the results of a survey suggesting that a tenth of 12- to 13-year-olds fear they are “addicted” to pornography. Within days, the government had announced a new policy on internet restriction, justified in part by these statistics – and just after that, came an open letter signed by dozens of doctors and academics calling out the fraudulent survey, which came from a sleazy marketing firm.
  Children addicted to porn? Don’t believe everything the surveys say (Guardian UK)

• Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme is a visual novel video game in which several young men are permanently transformed into petite, large-breasted teenage girls through a laboratory accident. Death wishes and even death threats are being levelled at the game’s developers.
  Why Is This Gender Swap Video Game Inspiring Outrage and Death Threats? (Vice)

• California urologist Dr. Paul Turk says a working artificial testicle could let men who struggle with infertility due to cancer treatments or other conditions or injuries make babies with the aid of in vitro fertilization. It could also be used in the safety testing of pharmaceuticals in place of animals.
  The Science of Artificial Testicles (Vice)

• Rocco Siffredi, the superstar performer/director and multi-decade, multi-award winner, has released an official statement about his recent decision to retire from performing. He said, “This is the only truth. I really love my wife, and at one point, it does not matter how much money you make or what kind of work you do. You need to make decisions, the right ones, for the people who love you and deserve love from you.”
  Rocco Siffredi Confirms Retirement From Performing (XBIZ)

• New findings by HIV specialists and network security experts at the University College London, UK suggest that the method that HIV spreads through the body mimics that of how computer worms spread to infect multiple computers. “The way HIV spreads is similar to how computer worms spread through both the Internet and local networks to infect as many computers as possible.”
  HIV progression ‘like Internet malware’ (Medical News Daily)

• As we mark the 40th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fox is prepping a remake of the cult classic. The two-hour Fox event special, which is in development with a cast-contingent order, is tentatively titled The Rocky Horror Picture Show Event. “The TV remake is expected to stick faithfully to the text and the score of the original but greatly reimagine the story visually.”
  ‘Rocky Horror’ TV Remake In Works At Fox (Deadline Hollywood)

• In a closely-watched case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard from both sides in a civil suit alleging liability of ModelMayhem.com after two of its users drugged and raped a woman by luring her to a bogus casting call. Both attackers were given consecutive life sentences in prison for their assaults. The woman, known as Jane Doe No. 12, sued the site’s operators for negligent failure to warn, claiming the company knew but failed to warn users.
  9th Circuit Hears Duty-to-Warn Case Involving ModelMayhem.com (XBIZ)

• Bianca Laureano, 37, is a sex educator and the co-founder of the Women of Color Sexual Health Network (WOCSHN). A self-identified black Puerto Rican, she is working to increase the visibility of women of color in the small and somewhat insular world of sex education in the U.S.
  Why We Need More Non-White Sex Ed Teachers (Cosmopolitan)

• Ukip candidate John Langley, who is running to represent the party in the ward of Stockwood in Bristol (UK), does not include details of his other job as adult actor Johnny Rockard in any of his campaign material. But speaking to BBC News in Bristol, he said he was “happy to confirm” reports he had appeared in, produced and promoted a range of porn films.
  Ukip ‘proud’ of Bristol candidate – who also happens to be a porn star (Independent UK)

• Kink.com performer and director Maitresse Madeline is attempting to redefine the traditional gangbang so that it’s about female empowerment rather than subjugation. When Madeline was first approached to take over Kink.com’s “Hardcore Gangbangs” line last month, she wasn’t sure it was for her. But in conversation about the decision, “Lorelei [Lee] showed me that just because a woman is the center of a gangbang, doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be in total control,” she said. ”I want my women to be in control of the scene. I want them to own their sexuality.”
  Maitresse Madeline Redefines Gangbang as Female Empowerment (XBIZ)

• A newly published study analysed data from 21,566 men convicted of sex offences in Sweden between 1973 and 2009. Genetic factors had a “substantial influence” on the risk of being convicted of a sex offence, it found. The study – by researchers from Oxford University and the Karolinska Institute, in Sweden – looked at the proportion of sexual offences carried out by sons and brothers of convicted male sex offenders.
  Study into gene link in sex attackers (BBC)

• A former school principal who allegedly paid for sex with 12,000 women while in the Philippines has been arrested in Japan, over claims at least one of them was as young as 13. Yuhei Takashima had reportedly meticulously catalogued nearly 150,000 photographs of his exploits over a 27-year period in around 400 separate albums because he wanted “to keep the memories”, Jiji Press and other media said.
  Ex-principal Yuhei Takashima ‘paid for sex with 12,000 women’ while in the Philippines (News AU)

• One of the most common – and offensive – questions that porn performers get from viewers is, “what are you going to do this?” But even if porn performers don’t ever retire (some just keep going and going and look great doing it), most will eventually take a hiatus. Conner Habib has a great article about exactly this.
  How To Be an Ex-Porn Star: 10 Tips on Taking a Break (Conner Habib)

• I’m repulsed that this article included a picture of a child to accompany the porn item, but what an item. A professor at Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University in Philadelphia didn’t pay close enough attention to her clipboard contents, and accidentally pasted in a link for students that went to a PornHub anal beads video…
  Law Professor Who Sent Anal-Bead Porn To Her Students Now Under Investigation (Above the Law)

• Allegations that a 17-year-old was forced to have sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew, which prompted a crisis at Buckingham Palace earlier this year, have been removed from a federal court case by a judge in the US. Judge Kenneth Marra ordered Virginia Roberts’s accusations about Andrew, the Duke of York, to be struck from the record and denied her attempt to join a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of the prince and a convicted sex offender. “At this juncture in the proceedings, these lurid details are unnecessary,” Marra wrote in his order, issued at the US district court in southern Florida this week.
  Judge orders Prince Andrew sex allegations struck from court record (Guardian UK)

• Several hundred sex workers took to the streets of Amsterdam on 9 April, over plans to revamp the city’s famous red light district by shutting down some of the windows where sex workers sit and attract clients.
  Amsterdam prostitutes protest closure of ‘window’ brothels (IB Times UK)

• According to a survey of its members by the social networking/dating site Skout, if and how you like your grilled cheese says something about your sex life. The company surveyed 4,600 people and found that 73% of grilled cheese lovers have sex at least once a month, compared with 63% of those who don’t love grilled cheese. And 32% of grilled cheese lovers have sex at least six times a month, compared with 27% of non-grilled cheese lovers.
  Survey suggests grilled cheese lovers have more sex, are more generous (LAT)

• Most people fundamentally misunderstand sexual desire, Emily Nagoski writes in her new book, Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, mistakenly thinking that spontaneous desire — an urge for sex that comes seemingly out of nowhere — is the default mode of arousal.
  The Way You Understand Your Sex Drive Is Wrong (NY Mag)

• Vanity Fair discovered RealDolls. They do what everyone else has done when covering the 20-year-old sex product, namely asking “whether the people who populate the sex-doll universe are fringe fetishists or pioneers at the sexual frontier of building some body to love.”
  Is This the Dawn of the Sexbots? (NSFW) (Vanity Fair)

• It’s pretty difficult to find a game that actually nails the way breasts move. Curiously, though, it seems like the people making virtual reality porn are making some good strides in the realm of breast physics.
  VR Porn Has Made Some Progress With Breasts, At Least (Kotaku)

• The Internet — and the tech industry as a whole — has essentially polarized into two separate, independent fiefdoms: porn, and non-sexual content. There is little-to-no room for anything in between. Anything remotely sexual is (generally) considered porn, and treated as tainted, by “respectable” businesses.
  Porn, Sex, Tech, And Cindy Gallop (TechCrunch)

• The operator of a revenge porn website has been sentenced to 18 years in jail in the US. Kevin Bollaert of San Diego created the UGotPosted.com website that let people post explicit pictures of their former partners. Pictures were posted without victims’ consent and Bollaert charged up to $350 (£235) to get photos removed. Bollaert was convicted in February on 21 counts of ID theft and six of extortion.
  ‘Revenge porn’ site owner faces lengthy jail term (BBC)

• Life as a Rent A Gent: “The drinks keep flowing. Before long I feel, under the table, Cathy’s hand on my thigh, and I discover that my own hand has started the journey along her black stockings from her knee to her thigh and beyond, high up under her skirt.”
  My Life as a Rent A Gent (GQ)

• “If you are watching porn online in 2015, even in incognito mode, you should expect that at some point your porn viewing history will be publicly released and attached to your name (…)”
  ​Your Porn Is Watching You (VICE)

• Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma. Last November, Rolling Stone published a story, ‘A Rape on Campus’ [RS 1223], that centered around a University of Virginia student’s horrifying account of her alleged gang rape at a campus fraternity house. RS has since officially retracted the story, and the episode is a lesson in lapses in reporting, editing and fact-checking that all online writers should pay very close attention to.
  Rolling Stone and UVA: The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Report (Rolling Stone)

• Michael Stable, a documentary filmmaker, is in the process of making a documentary about Chuck Homes, titled Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story. As the acknowledged king of a pivotal era in gay porn, Holmes is an important subject for historical assessment. But the film also takes a look at his financial role in some of his era’s defining political causes — in particular, he provided the seed money for the HRC (Human Rights Campaign).
  Seed Money: Capturing a Pivotal Era of Gay Porn (Film International)

• Why hasn’t anyone asked Edward Snowden these questions before? I’m serious. And, yes, there’s sex in this story…
  John Oliver Makes Edward Snowden Squirm on ‘Last Week Tonight’ (Daily Beast)

• This means TinyNibbles.com will be blocked in the UK: The UK culture secretary has promised a Conservative Government will take action to protect the UK from online pornography, saying a regulator will have the power to force internet services to block certain websites, if without a proper age verification system.
  Porn sites without age checks could be blocked after the general election (Independent UK)

• If you own or operate an adult website and have access to its visitor statistics, you may have noticed a prolonged decline in traffic volume due to Google’s Panda, Penguin and other algorithm updates. Even if obtaining Google traffic was not a top priority for some sites, the websites (and affiliates) that are linking to those sites were likely hit by the ongoing re-ranking of Google’s search results, causing a trickle-down effect that affected the bottom line of many websites.
  Google Causes Algorithm Anxiety (XBIZ)

• Mistress Morgana caught up with Shawna Virago over tea in the dungeon recently to talk about her video, songwriting, her trajectory as an artist, the new album, and what it’s like to be top Google hit for “San Francisco dominatrix.”
  The Rumpus Interview with Shawna Virago (Rumpus)

• Renowned sex ed author Paul Joannides made an educational video titled Porn and Anal Sex, posted it to YouTube last week, and within an hour, YouTube had banned it.
  Banned by YouTube! (Psychology Today)

• An interview with Dennis Hof (Moonlite Bunny Ranch), who has a book coming out.
  Inside Dennis Hof’s Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the World’s Most Famous Brothel (Details)

• If public displays of affection make you uncomfortable, don’t come to Latin America. From Mexico City to Medellin and Buenos Aires to Belize, making out in public is a virtual rite of passage for high schoolers and young adults. It’s so widespread that when the city of Guanajuato passed an ordinance in 2009 banning certain forms of PDA, it was met with such furor that the law had to be suspended days later.
  Why Do So Many Young People in Latin America Hook Up in Parks? (PS Mag)

• While sex toy recycling still hasn’t caught on in any meaningful large-scale sense, there are a handful of purveyors that are taking steps to address the issue for both practical business concerns and environmental considerations.
  What’s the Best Way to Recycle Your Vibrator? (Vice)

• Fast Company manages to squeeze ‘sex toys‘ into the headline, and again in a sentence later, but can’t be bothered to talk about the sex-themed boxes or link to them. It’s an interesting idea (and if anyone wants Privacy Stickers for a box, let me know!)
  From Socks To Sex Toys: Inside America’s Subscription-Box Obsession (Fast Company)

• The executive producer of the hilarious FX animated spy series Archer dishes on that Season 6 finale, bouncing boobs, the Krieger reveal, and a candidate for Archer’s father. He told Daily Beast, “Us getting away with the amount of sex we got away with in that episode where Archer is having sex with Lana from behind, and Lana’s breasts are jiggling all over, was great.”
  ‘Archer’ EP Matt Thompson: ‘Yeah, It’s Cartoon Porn! Fuck Off!’ (Daily Beast)

• What kind of people are sex workers? In Australia, hundreds of them are telling the world about themselves using social media. “College student. Aspiring lawyer. Activist. Daughter, sister, sex worker. I don’t need rescuing”. These are the kinds of statements that hundreds of Australian sex workers are making about themselves using the #facesofprostitution hashtag.
  The faces of prostitution in Australia (BBC)

• This is an April 1st post, but it’s so cute! “Seeing no benefit in ruining workdays with morale-busting clothes, The Bold Italic decided to try working naked for the entire month of March.”
  What Our Office Learned Working Naked for One Month (Ironically NSFW) (Bold Italic)

• The recent “revelation” by Playboy that its famous mansion was underlaid by tunnels to celebrity homes, has proven to be a hoax. The sketchiest thing about this is that the false info (PR?) was in the news media before April 1st (it was – and still is – a straight feature on Playboy.com on March 30). We have to ask: When is a brand’s April Fools’ Day prank just a lie?
  Playboy Mansion ‘Tunnels’ Hoax Fools News Media (XBIZ)

• Rutgers neuroscientist Barry Komisaruk, working with legendary retired sex researcher Beverly Whipple, has spent decades asking men and women to lie down in an fMRI machine and bring themselves to orgasm. By the time you actually experience an orgasm, “more than 30 major brain systems are activated,” Komisaruk says. “It’s not a local, discrete event. There’s no ‘orgasm center.’ It’s everywhere.”
  This is what your brain looks like during an orgasm (Vox)

• Director Sam Taylor-Johnson obviously decided that, despite the huge box office take, dignity is dignity. The Fifty Shades of Grey director has opted out of directing the next two installments of the the BDSM for Boring People franchise.
  Sam Taylor-Johnson Won’t Be Returning For “Fifty Shades: Even More Missed Opportunities To Show Penis” (Dlisted)

• Charlie Chaplin’s teenage wife Lita Grey described in divorce papers from 1927 how the movie icon seduced her while she was underage, got her pregnant and made “degrading” sexual demands. Among the “degrading” demands were the requests for a threesome.
  Chaplin’s ‘degrading’ sex demands with teen wife (Page Six)

• Autostraddle’s “Lesbian Sex Survey” solicited 8,566 complete responses from women who have sex with women (89% of whom were between ages 18 and 36), and the results are striking.
  Here’s How Often Lesbians Are Really Having Sex (Refinery 29)

• Many “Scandal” fans wonder if President Fitzgerald Grant and Olivia Pope will rekindle their affair this season. “Fitz has not had sex for a long time,” he said on today’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show, laughing. “That’s all I’m saying. It’s a problem.”
  Tony Goldwyn Complains About His ‘Scandal’ Character’s Sex Life (ABC News)

• The creator of the 1999 BBC series Queer As Folk has made three new TV series about gay men and women — and two of them are coming to the U.S. later this month. They have the conspicuous names of Cucumber, Banana and Tofu. Russell T. Davies says the titles came from a study he read from a scientific institute in Switzerland that investigated men’s sexuality.
  From ‘Banana’ To ‘Cucumber,’ New Series Spans The Spectrum Of Sex (New Hampshire Public Radio)

• A student expelled from George Mason University for violating its sexual misconduct policy is suing in federal court to clear his name, arguing that an encounter with a girlfriend was sadomasochistic role playing, not sexual assault.
  Expelled George Mason University student: Sex was sadomasochistic role playing, not rape (CBS News)

• If you’ve been driving around Los Angeles lately, you may have noticed a billboard showing a cartoon cucumber imploring you to #stopvegetableabuse by buying real sex toys at Hustler Hollywood. It’s all part of a multi-platform ad campaign for the adult entertainment publisher.
  Hustler Asks People to ‘Stop Abusing Vegetables’ in Safe-For-Work Campaign (Adweek)

• My friend and colleague Alison Tyler is doing Free Smut Fridays on her blog — and they’re a highly recommended stop. Alison does more than anyone I know to a) fill the world with terrific erotica, and b) promote and support other writers nonstop. She’s my inspiration.
  Free Smut Friday—The Poetry Edition (Alison Tyler | Trollop With A laptop)

• Four Joliet teenagers were charged with child pornography after a group sex video was posted to Twitter. The three males – ages 14, 15 and 16 – and one female, 15, all attend Joliet Central High School. They were arrested after the girl’s mother saw the video and called police. The sex was consensual, according to the Joliet police chief, but distributing it online is considered child pornography.
  4 Joliet Central High School students charged with child pornography after video posted to Twitter (ABC7 Chicago)

• “By far the most frequently reported downside of using a condom was diminished physiological sensation.” It’s this connection that inspired the Gates Foundation to get involved.
  We’ve Been Cheated Out of Condoms That Actually Feel Good During Sex (Slate)

• The first program announcement for Sydney Film Festival just landed, and it includes The Duke Of Burgundy, a decadent UK indie flick about a BDSM relationship.
  Sydney Film Festival’s First Program Announcement Features David Stratton, Scientology And BDSM (Junkee)

• Catherine Robbe-Grillet, an 83-year-old widow, is France’s most famous dominatrix. Visiting the 17th-century château where Robbe-Grillet conducts some of her rituals, Toni Bentley delves into the world of a modern-day Marquise de Sade, her relationship with the much younger Beverly Charpentier, and her journey from submission to dominance.
  Inside the Life of France’s Most Famous Dominatrix (Vanity Fair)

• The act of posting sexually graphic images or video of former lovers to the Internet continues to rise in Japan, according to the results of a new survey that was released Thursday. Cases of so-called “revenge porn” were reported 110 times in the last month of 2014, Japan Times reported, and the majority of the victims were female.
  Revenge Porn In Japan: 110 Reports In 1 Month Despite Countrywide Ban, Survey Finds (IBTimes)

• With Ryan Reynolds now announced as starring in Deadpool, the promo is under way and the “Merc With A Mouth” is doing his very best Burt Reynolds impression in the first released image from the set.
  DEADPOOL Bears It All In First Still (TwitchFilm, image above via)

• The Playboy staff found old photos and blueprints that showed a series of underground tunnels that went from surrounding celebrity homes directly to the Playboy Mansion. The plans reference the homes of “Mr. J. Nicholson,” “Mr. W. Beatty,” “Mr. K. Douglas” and “Mr. J. Caan,” where the secret passage ways led to and from Hugh Hefner’s iconic home.
  Jack Nicholson and Other Celebs Had Tunnels From Their Homes to the Playboy Mansion (Complex)

• Having trouble conceiving? The Semenette, a strap-on dildo designed to eject donor semen into your partner, may be for you. There are a plethora of sex toys designed to bring you to orgasm, but precious few devised to get you pregnant. Until now.
  The Sex Toy That Knocks You Up (Daily Beast)

• For a mere $1,000 you can have a foreskin sculpture made by Italian anti-circumcision activist Vincenzo Aiello. Sadly(?), it’s not made of real foreskin; it’s just a replica made of silicon resin.
  For $1,000 You Can Get Your Own Sculpture Made Of ‘Foreskin’ (Unicorn Booty)

• As public health concerns mount, the porn industry sector based in California has been under assault by a variety of opponents in recent years. Mindgeek (the industry’s biggest conglomerate) now has a studio In Las Vegas for its Brazzers division. Other companies with a presence in Vegas include Bait & Tackle, Corbin Fisher, VCX Ltd. and Bluebird Films.
  Porn industry flirts with new shelter: Las Vegas (CNBC)

• The Liberian government recommended on Saturday that survivors of Ebola practice safe sex indefinitely, until more information can be collected on the length of time the virus might remain present in body fluids including semen.
  Liberia Recommends Ebola Survivors Practice Safe Sex Indefinitely (NY Times)

• Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a sex coach? Or, have you thought about going to a sex coach? Slutty Girl Problems interviewed sex coach Charlie Glickman to answer 10 of your biggest questions. Whether you want to learn more about sexuality or are considering working in the sex industry yourself, this is a must read!
  Interview with Sex Coach Charlie Glickman (Slutty Girl Problems)

• Bunny Ranch brothel owner Dennis Hof is hiring a team of “brothel testers” to oversee “quality” control at each of his seven Nevada legal brothels. “The job is exactly what it sounds like,” Hof said. “You get paid a full-time salary to have sex with beautiful girls — and then evaluate their performance.”
  Bunny Ranch Hiring Official ‘Brothel Testers’(XBIZ)

• [UK] Labour MP Simon Danczuk admitted his phone had tagged a porn site as a “favourite” on Twitter. However, the 48 year-old was unembarrassed about the gaffe and said the images had been tagged by a mistake by his iPhone. He said he did not use porn regularly, but insisted: “I am a man of the world and it is part of life, many people do.”
  I watch porn, says Labour MP Simon Danczuk (Telegraph UK)

• The MetArt Network, which earlier this month fingered 10 websites for stealing and streaming its content on 17 adult tube sites, has future litigation plans. The mathematics will prove [the tube sites] wrong in many of the cases,” a spokesperson for MetArt said, referring to one actual user who posted 27,000 movies in one month to one site. “That person’s either an employee of the site, an affiliate to the site, or the world’s biggest porn fan.”
  MetArt Plans Infringement Litigation Blitz (XBIZ)

• Ever wondered how many cock rings it takes to encircle the base of the Eiffel Tower? My friends at Lovehoney did, and they also wondered how many water-coolers full of lube their customers used each year. They found out and compiled five of their most interesting sex toy stats in the video above. Fun!
  5 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Sex Toys! (Lovehoney)

• A total of 10 bodypainted couples in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province [China], took part in an eye-catching wedding ceremony at the Hangzhou Paradise Amusement Park on Sunday.
  Hangzhou couples take ‘Naked Wedding’ concept literally (Shanghaiist)

• Game of Thrones star Carice van Houten has a simple explanation as to why she copes so well with the levels of nudity on the HBO fantasy drama. And she believes viewers who complain about the risque sex scenes might have their priorities wrong.
  ‘There is a lot of power in sex’ (Stuff NZ)

• Trans artist Juliana Huxtable’s naked body is triumphantly on display in Frank Benson’s new 3-D-scanned plastic sculpture, which is simply titled Juliana.
  Trans Artist ​Juliana Huxtable’s Fight for Acceptance (VICE, image above via)

• “When it’s my turn, and I slip on the [Oculus Rift] headset and wait a moment for my eyes to adjust, for the image to clarify, while the headphones are placed over my ears… I’m not quite sure about the space because roughly human renderings of supine creatures to either side of me are fucking loudly. The depictions of the men’s penises are geometric and strange, almost tribal, and I catch myself staring at one of them. …Then a gentle tug, and the headset is off, and the time is up.”
  The Overhyped, Unsexy Reality of Virtual Porn (Medium)

• One in 20 students in the UK have worked in the sex industry while studying at the university to make ends meet, according to a new survey that shows more number of them are secretly turning to the profession. Men were more likely to be involved than women, and the sex work ranged from prostitution and escorting to stripping and internet work, the Student Sex Work Project report said.
  1 in 20 students in UK worked in sex trade to fund living cost (Times of India, via Mistress January)

• “Enter Monica Lewinsky (…) at last week’s annual TED conference for her talk, “The Price of Shame,” at which she received a standing ovation. She said, “I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and, of course, that woman … And I get it: It was easy to forget that that woman was dimensional, had a soul, and was once unbroken.”
  Why Do We Feel So Ashamed About Sex? (Dame Magazine)

• ETH biotechnologists are developing a biotech solution for erectile dysfunction that consists of a gene construct and a blue light. A gene construct that reacts to blue light is injected into the erectile tissue of the penis. As soon as it is exposed to the light(…) the penis becomes stiff.
  From blue pill to blue light (Logo of ETH Zurich)

• This week’s Ms. Magazine conversation profiles Mireille Miller-Young, author of A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography. Her new book examines the marginal histories of black sex workers in pornographic industries but in connecting this to contemporary black porn actors, black feminist politics and the larger sphere of sexual politics.
  Black Women’s Histories: A Conversation with Mireille Miller-Young (Ms. Magazine)

• Penile plethysmographs measure penis circumference in response to sexual images; measuring how hard a man gets in response to porn. Women’s sexual arousal is measured by a vaginal plethysmograph; a sensor within a small cylinder inserted into the vagina like a tampon, which measures sexual arousal. Perhaps some people are turned on knowing their sexual activities are being monitored by experts. If this is the case, can we generalise from the findings of laboratory-based sex studies?
  Health Check: why some people have sex for science (The Conversation)

• MindGeek (formerly Manwin) has settled with a patent holder that charged the adult entertainment conglomerate’s entire lineup of website properties infringed on its intellectual property. Preservation Technologies’ suit against MindGeek named all of the company’s websites as infringing. MindGeek’s sites include PornHub.com, YouPorn.com, Tube8.com, XTube.com, ExtremeTube.com, RedTube.com, SpankWire.com, KeezMovies.com, YouPornGay.com, PornMD.com, Brazzers.com, Digital Playground.com Twistys.com, RealityKings.com, SexTube.com, Beeg.com, Mofos.com, MyDirtyHobby.com and GayTube.com.
  MindGeek Settles Data Management Patent Claim (XBIZ)

• It Follows, the indie horror flick graduating to a 1,200-theater release today, inspires all varieties of metaphorical interpretations: sexually transmitted infection, pregnancy, guilt, aging. But It Follows never makes clear that any of these adult teens have heard of the internet, or any modern technology: a deliberate choice writer/director David Robert Mitchell, one that flies into the face of virtually every horror movie made this century.
  Sex Before the Internet Was Scary Enough to Be a Horror Film (New Republic)

• (Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma.) Its life was brief but influential, at a particularly volatile time for public perception of the industry. $pread ran stories like Plato’s that highlighted injustices, but it also told stories of the day-to-day, with an eye to building community in an industry where workers are notoriously isolated, misunderstood, and unrepresented in politics and media.
  Inside the Magazine for Sex Workers (The Atlantic)

• Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly had “sex parties” with prostitutes hired by drug cartels in Colombia, according to a new inspector general report released by the Justice Department on Thursday.
  DEA agents had ‘sex parties’ with prostitutes, watchdog says (Politico)

• What do camels, anti-SLAPP motions, and porn awards show red carpet brawls have in common? They’re all part of a legal saga between two of porn’s biggest names, Lisa Ann and Nikki Benz. And despite the titillation value of a court battle involving two porn stars, the case also sets an interesting—and potentially dangerous—legal precedent when it comes to cyber harassment.
  A porn star Twitter war might set a precedent for future cyberbullying victims (Daily Dot)

• Planet Romeo is one of the largest gay male social networks used outside of North America, has announced its plans for a mobile application designed specifically to work with the upcoming Apple Watch.
  Gay Hook-Up App Planned for the Apple Watch Will Notify You When the Right Guys are Nearby (Towleroad)

• Diane Duke worked at Planned Parenthood for 12 years before taking a position as CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, the trade association for the adult entertainment and pleasure products industry. In an op-ed for Cosmo, she explains what led her to becoming a porn industry advocate.
  How — and Why — I Became a Porn Industry Advocate (Cosmopolitan)

• So Bad So Good filmed the reactions of American women to various dick pics — you can tell our country isn’t really hip to uncircumcised cock. Reminds me of this hilarious video, #DICKPIC (“Selfie” parody).
  Women React to Dick Pics (So Bad So Good)

• SXSW held a panel titled “The Future of Porn Is 3D Virtual Reality” that hinged entirely on the idea that touching another human being, or paying attention to anything a woman does, is boring and horrible. Le what!!??
  SXSW’s creepy virtual sex talk is everything wrong with VR hype (The Verge)

• Taylor Swift recently snatched up domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. ICANN, which is fully aware of the negative repercussions of adding these domains, is allowing certain trademarked brands and public figures to take advantage of the so-called “sunrise period” and register the domains before they become open to public purchase on June 1.
  Taylor Swift one-ups haters by buying .porn and .adult domains (Mashable)

• Republicans are insisting on tacking anti-abortion language onto an anti-sex-trafficking bill — and it’s just their latest effort to exploit the issue to fight “sexual immorality.”
  The GOP’s Sex Trafficking Shell Game: How Laws Against ‘Sex Trafficking’ End Up Hurting Women (Daily Beast)

• A Porirua man is facing two rare charges of failing to use a condom during sex with a prostitute. The safe-sex law is thought to have been applied only about seven times since the Prostitution Reform Act was passed in 2003, and is punishable by a maximum fine of $2000. Before prostitution was decriminalised, sex workers were not able to complain about clients not wanting to use condoms, Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy said.
  Man charged with failing to use condom with prostitute (Stuff NZ)

• Sources say at least two talents in the adult film industry will be on ‘True Detective’ — Amia Miley and Peta Jensen, both 24, were hired for a deliriously vast, Eyes Wide Shut-caliber orgy sequence involving dozens of naked bodies. Funny twist: The adult actresses apparently are among the few people who actually don’t get totally naked.
  ‘True Detective’ Casts Porn Stars for Colossal Orgy Sequence (Hollywood Reporter)

• All women who have “intimate piercings” will be classified as having suffered female genital mutilation (FGM), the Department of Health says. Even if an adult consents to having it done, she will still be said to have undergone a “harmful procedure”. But the Tattoo and Piercing Industry Union (TPIU) has told Newsbeat body piercing is “in no way related” to FGM.
  Counting genital piercings as FGM ‘undermines’ abuse says union (BBC)

• My friends at Go Deeper Press are now acquiring erotic novels and novellas by new and established authors. Queer owned and operated, they have published rebel erotica and literary pornography since 2012. Their books are distributed by Ingram via IngramSpark.
  Go Deeper Press » Submissions (Go Deeper Press)

• With the catchphrase “design is our pornography,” Red Roxy Studios, a new adult branding and marketing firm has debuted. According to a spokesperson the studio is hoping to help establish the notion that there are dedicated teams in the U.K. that are working towards the change of public perception of porn and want to give the market a much needed “rebrand.”
  U.K. Adult Design Studio: Red Roxy Studios (XBIZ)

• The birth control pill was tested on women, specifically women of color — many of whom were forced to undergo sterilization — before later being marketed predominately to white women in America as a symbol of independence.
  The Dark History of Birth Control That You Haven’t Heard (Mic)

• CNN just discovered that porn performers and sex workers use social media for work just like everyone else. Someone give CNN a cookie and a little pat on the head.
  Pornstar entrepreneurs find new homes on messaging apps (CNN Money)

• The Free Speech Coalition lifted the porn production moratorium Saturday, confirming the HIV test result in question was a “false positive.” FSC said in a press release, “Confirmatory results from yesterday’s possible positive test for HIV by an adult performer have come back negative indicating a false positive. Production can resume immediately.
  FSC Lifts Production Moratorium, Confirms ‘False Positive’ (XBIZ)

• The doctors who announced the first successful penis transplant procedure last week had a particularly difficult time finding willing organ donors.
  The Trickiest Part of a Penis Transplant? Finding a Donor (Smithsonian)

• “Looking for a new French toile pattern blanket for your couch? Something that is nice, flowery and with mildly offensive genitalia to your mother once she stares at it too long? This subtle floral penis pattern is for you!”
  Floral Penis Pattern: Teal (Look Human, via JWZ)

• Smartbod, created by two entrepreneurs from UC Berkley, is a vibrator that uses sensors to monitor your arousals – basically a fitbit for orgasms. The vibrator then sends feedback to an app synched up on your phone.
  There’s Now A Fitness Tracker For Your Orgasms (Marie Claire)

• Ci3, a University of Chicago initiative, was awarded $1M from the MacArthur Foundation to develop new game-based learning experiences that promote sexual and reproductive health.
  A Chicago Lab Just Received $1M from the MacArthur Foundation to Gamify Sex Ed (Chicago Inno)

• Woodrocket’s Lee Roy Myers, the man who gave us The Humper Games, Doctor Whore, The Knobbit, and Game of Bones, is making a Guardians of the Galaxy porn spoof. io9 has the first painful look.
  First Exclusive Look At The Guardians Of The Galaxy Porn Movie! (io9)

• Good news: Twitter said that the limited “Top tweets” search results on adult content “were the result of a bug that occurred during some algorithmic tweaks” to Twitter’s search function, and they “are working to correct the issue.” (Fingers crossed over here.) Twitter’s statement was an update to Buzzfeed’s article about the news, a piece that annoyed everyone else who broke the news and wrote about it, and were not credited.
  Twitter #Pornocalypse? “A Bug” — Says Twitter (ErosBlog: The Sex Blog)

• Bad news: Meanwhile, free expression took the midnight train to hell for Facebook users. Its revamped community standards now include a separate section on “dangerous organisations” and give more details about what types of nudity and sexual expression it doesn’t allow to be posted or written about. Forget Kinsey, and Sandro Botticelli would have been booted and banned in ten seconds flat.
  Facebook revamps removal rules (BBC)

• Facebook is under fire from a former employee who claims the social network’s work environment was a hotbed of harassment and discrimination. Chia Hong, who worked at Facebook from June 2010 to October 2013, filed 11 claims, including sexual harassment and national origin discrimination.
  Facebook facing litany of gender, racial complaints (CNET)

• Researchers at UCLA and Montreal’s Concordia University show that an oft-repeated claim among activists and clinicians that a man’s habitual porn viewing can lead to erectile dysfunction and other problems is a myth. In a Journal of Sexual Medicine paper, researchers found that more hours spent viewing pornographic stimuli was “unrelated to erectile functioning with a partner, and was related to stronger desire for sex with a partner.”
  Study finds no link between viewing porn and erectile dysfunction (LA Times)

• A pair of Norwegian scientists are hoping to spur on further studies of the evolutionary, molecular development of the anus with their paper, aptly titled “Getting to the Bottom of Anal Evolution,” recently published in the journal Zoologischer Anzeiger.
  Science Is Still Unclear About the Evolutionary Origin of the Anus (Smithsonian)

• A Manhattan lawyer who liked to dress as a TSA airport security screener during BDSM sessions with his girlfriend wound up choking and threatening her with a knife, prosecutors said Monday. During pretrial hearings, prosecutors said the couple made a sex tape where he pretended to be a “TSA agent, searching her body cavities,” papers state.
  Man who dressed as TSA agent during S&M choked girlfriend: prosecutors (NY Post)

• Bisexual Husbands, indeed: It is not often that you see an “Escort Couple.” Eros Guide started to wonder how it works for all parties involved., so they reached out to a couple for Q and A — Bianca and Rob (B&R), who have been very successful on Eros Guide.
  Q&A with Escort Couple Bianca and Rob (Eros Guide Blog)

• This isn’t news, but the terrific title of this post — How to Tell If You Are With a Dominant or Just a Bossy Dick — wins it a spot in the roundup.
  How to Tell If You Are With a Dominant or Just a Bossy Dick (Submissive Guide)

• A recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine has found that women who get one more hour of sleep increase their sex drive by around 14 percent.
  Why An Extra Hour Of Sleep Could Improve Your Sex Drive (Medical Daily)

• The goal of the game Ladykiller in a Bind, then, is to present sex for what it really is: not a trophy or the logical “end” of a relationship, but a building block. A constantly transforming piece in a wildly complex human puzzle.
  A Better Take On Video Game Sex (Kotaku)

• Several state legislatures are debating bans on so-called “ex-gay” therapy. Some are actually even passing.
  Several States Moving To Ban Harmful ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy (The News Civil Rights Movement)

• Thailand’s military government warned women on Monday against posting ‘selfie’ photos of the lower half of their breasts — underboob selfies, a social media trend that has gone viral — saying their actions could violate the country’s computer crime laws.
  Thais warned against taking ‘underboob selfies’ (Reuters, via JWZ)

• Japanese love hotels are a place to go strictly for having sex in private. They have been around in Japan for decades and have created quite a booming, and fascinating, industry.
  Japanese Love Hotels: The Dirty Details (Amped Asia)

• While debating whether to change the collective bargaining rights of public school teachers, some members of the Iowa legislature had other things to do. The Des Moines Register reported that Rep. Ross Paustian (R-Walcott) opened the book “Sex After Sixty” when Democratic lawmakers were introducing amendments to the bill.
  Lawmaker reads ‘Sex After Sixty’ during education debate in Iowa legislature (Washington Post)

• Photographer Roger Kisby was at the porn awards on assignment for BuzzFeed this January (terrific photos), and did a couple of separate sets as well. The images above are from his series “Head,” photos of porn performers’ faces, and his other set AVN Bits is a wonderful NSFW series you won’t want to miss.
  Porn Stars From the Neck Up (Slate; image above via)

• MP candidate, activist and UK sex worker Charlotte Rose provides a remedy that can’t be found in
  a hospital: she works through the TLC Trust, a UK-based organization which hosts a site for British sex workers to post profiles for disabled clientele.
  Life. Sex for all: A sex worker’s campaign for the disabled (Hopes and Fears)

• A Wisconsin state appeals court has rejected a man’s claim that a prostitute engaging in commercial sex acts does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in nude photographs or videos.
  Customers Can’t Tape Prostitutes Nude Without Consent, Appeals Court Rules (XBIZ)

• Ettore told The Huffington Post’s Italian outpost, “I was full of resentment for the expectations I’d built around them, and that simple sentence (“We’re gay”) tore me apart. Marriage, the chance of having grandkids… I started to feel afraid of touching my son, afraid of AIDS. I took them to see a psychotherapist for seven years, trying to ‘cure’ them. (…)”
  This Father Put His Two Gay Kids In Therapy When They Came Out. But Now… (Huffington Post)

• Dell Williams, who in 1974, after being humiliated by a department-store clerk when she tried to buy a vibrator, was moved to start Eve’s Garden, the New York boutique widely described as the nation’s first sex shop catering specifically to women, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 92.
  Dell Williams, Founder of Sex Boutique, Dies at 92 (NYT)

• A genital shot being touted as a cure for flagging sex drive in women has made its way from Hollywood to New Zealand, but would-be users are being warned to do their research before rushing for treatment. The Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) shot has made its way to New Zealand after featuring in celebrity goody bags at the Academy Awards and after years of being administered in Europe and the United States.
  Sex shot: godsend or gimmick? (Stuff NZ)

I interviewed @RachelKenley on the re-release of her femdom BDSM Cinderella tale THE GLASS STILETTO http://t.co/lnH5BU8cwk @RiverdaleAvenue

— Cecilia Tan (@ceciliatan) March 14, 2015

• TF discovered that several porn producers have teamed up in an effort to force ISP Virgin Media to hand over the names and addresses of an estimated 1,500 subscribers said to have downloaded and shared adult content without permission. The companies – Sunlust Pictures (founded in 2009 by former porn actress Sunny Leone and very active in US porn trolling), Combat Zone Corporation and Pink Bonnet, Consultores de Imagem LDA – none of which appear to be based in the UK, worked with Wagner & Co, a London lawfirm previously known for working with another troll, GoldenEye International.
  Virgin Customers Targeted in New Porn Piracy Shakedown (TorrentFreak)

• Surgeons from Stellenbosch University and Cape Town’s Tygerberg Hospital have performed the world’s first successful penis transplant. The nine-hour operation was performed Dec. 11 on the 21-year-old recipient, who made a full recovery and regained all functions in the transplanted organ, the South African university said in a statement Friday.
  Doctors Perform the World’s First Successful Penis Transplant (Bloomberg)

• Earlier this week, a trans woman from Canada began posting photos of herself in men’s toilets in order to demonstrate what will happen if lawmakers in Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Canada pass their proposed, anti-transgender “bathroom bills” (felony charges). A few days later, trans men joined the game, producing striking images of men taking their ‘proper’ place in the womens’ restrooms.
  Trans selfies have caught bathroom bans and lawmakers with their pants down (Gay Star News)

• What’s a “weird” scene for a porn performer? In an industry whose function is creating fantasies, its no surprise that occasionally things go from turns-ons to bizarre in the world of adult entertainment. There have been hide-and-seek with pots of noodles, overly amorous clowns, girl scouts with Satan and more.
  Porn Stars Discuss The Weirdest Scenes They’ve Ever Starred In (So Bad, So Good)

• Twitter is stepping up its battle against user abuse and harassment with new rules that prohibit the posting of revenge porn — images of nudity or sexual acts posted without the subject’s permission.
  Twitter rule changes clamp down on revenge porn (CNET)

• A guy who writes two semen cookbooks — you figure he haunts the thirstier rings of obsession, beyond the arid, salty porn fields of mere compulsion and fetish. “I don’t mind if people think it’s weird,” Paul Photenhauer says with a giggle. “I know it’s taboo. I just love the idea of opening up and bringing it up on the agenda.”
  Seed Saver (Lucky Peach)

• Forty pages into her new memoir, The Wild Oats Project, Robin Rinaldi has mined every modern female [sexual] anxiety: fear of being alone; boredom in monogamy; a ticking biological clock; a husband who doesn’t want children; a marriage devoid of passion. What follows is occasionally as hackneyed as the book’s subtitle, “One woman’s midlife quest for passion at any cost.”
  How My Wild Sex Drive Killed My Marriage (Daily Beast)

• The mystery sex drug: Did you read last week’s “Modern Love” column in the NYT? It’s a lovely portrait of a heteronormative marriage. But there’s something missing. What was the name of this mysterious wonder drug that turns a wife who always has a headache into Mrs. Roper? The answer is Requip (generic name ropinirole)…
  Mystery Solved: The Super Sex Drug Not Mentioned in the Times’ Modern Love column (Observer)

• Gizmodo features the amazing honey-dripped photography of Blake Little. This outstanding series (above) is from his new book, Preservation.
  Amazing photos of naked people completely covered in honey (NSFW) (Gizmodo)

• At noon local time last Wednesday, the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education, and Research Project (ESPLERP) filed a lawsuit against the attorney general of the state of California, as well as several district attorneys, in a case they say has the potential to decriminalize prostitution in a handful of Western states. Last Friday, however, GoFundMe abruptly canceled the campaign without warning, deleting ESPLERP’s account on the website and changing its terms of service. (GoFundMe didn’t initially object to ESPLER using the site for fundraising.) GoFundMe’s flagrantly dishonest, redlining actions are reprehensible — I’ll never ever do business with them and my future freelance reporting will reflect what they’ve done.
  A New Lawsuit Aims to Decriminalize Prostitution in California + GoFundMe cancels sex workers’ legal fundraising efforts (Vice, DailyDot)

• YAY!!! Bisexual Husbands is now available for pre-order!!!! Alison Tyler writes, “I promised you another cover reveal, and here’s the beauty right now. Violet Blue keeps raising the bar with her ever-so-classy covers. These little collections are extremely important to me because they prove that indie presses can succeed. From the font to the layout to the covers to the smoking hot interiors, Violet is taking erotica to the future.” (Psst: we need Amazon reviewers!)
  Bisexual Husbands… (Alison Tyler | Trollop With A Laptop)

• According to the author of Barbie and Ruth, the Barbie doll all began with a German comic-strip character named Lilli. A wise-cracking, high-end call girl, Lilli was such a popular staple for the Hamburg newspaper Bild-Zeitung that they made an adult novelty doll out of her.
  The adult-themed beginnings of the Barbie doll (Hopes and Fears)

• We don’t demand that waitresses feel “empowered” in their jobs for us to recognise their agency in choosing the work, and we don’t tell other workers who serve male customers that they can’t be feminist.
  Don’t ask if porn “empowers” women – instead, ask if your feminism does (New Statesman)

• In a Flemish village outside of Turnhout, Belgium, Laura and Maurice live together with their daughter Eva. They have all the trappings of a normal family, but when 9-year-old Eva is at school, Maurice and Laura start their day jobs as porn producers.
  Making Porn, Raising A Family (Roads and Kingdoms)

• Organizers of the 12th annual CineKink Film Festival in New York announced the recipients of its 2015 awards in a range of categories during the show’s closing celebrations on Sunday.
  CineKink Announces 2015 Award Winners (XBIZ)

• Out of 50 states and one district, only nine states have any form of positive LGBT-inclusive sexual education, a number that is very disheartening for the overall well-being of many youth in the United States.
  Why Is LGBT-Inclusive Sex Education Still So Taboo? (Huffington Post)

• Britain’s biggest collection of vintage fetish mags are up for sale. The 700 magazines, some dating back to 1953, show amateurish, black and white, shots which are about as candid as today’s catalogue underwear section.
  Collector puts Britain’s biggest collection of vintage ‘fetish mags’ up for sale (Mirror)

• While Google backed down on its NSFW (Not Safe For Work) edict after “a landslide of feedback,” the unexpected backlash reopened old wounds. It’s not just the pornographers who are concerned about violations of free speech and free expression on social media. It’s bloggers who talk about everything from living a clothing-free lifestyle to adult circumcision.
  Internet porn restrictions rile First Amendment watchdogs, bloggers (UPI)

• I’m not sure why reporting like this is interesting anymore, and I don’t mean that as an insult, but here it is. “It’s my first time at AVN. I’ve wanted to go forever.”
  Porntopia: A trip to the Adult Video News Awards (Grantland)

• YouTube has closed a loophole by which porn videos were apparently left unmoderated if they had Irish language titles. The Google-owned video giant has a tough stance on ‘adult’ videos, and actively moderates content that violates its policies.
  Porn Uploaded With Irish Titles Made It Onto YouTube Unscathed (Huffington Post UK)

• The Atlantic opines, “Just as the rest of society has more openly confronted the ugly reality of rape, the BDSM scene has had to acknowledge that ‘Safe, Sane, Consensual’ is often more of an ideal than reality.”
  How Kink’s Largest Social-Networking Site Fails Its Users (Atlantic)

• The (awesome!) website Hump the Bundle offers a ‘pay what you want’ system where users can name their own price to download adult content. The site’s “suggested split” gives a large chunk to the content providers, while the rest goes to charity. But while Hump the Bundle managed to raise nearly $15,000 for a couple of months of donations, they don’t seem to be able to find charities who will take the money.
  Charity Porn Site Can’t Find Anyone To Take Its Money (Badoink)

• At 35, Shimiken is the king of Japanese porn, a $20 billion industry that produces more than double the number of adult films that America does. In 18 years and more than 7,000 films, Shimiken has refused only one scenario: having sex with an actress after she had sex with a dog.
  Meet the Hardest Working Man in Porn (Details)

• Porn star Tory Lane was arrested after allegedly becoming ‘belligerent’ on a plane and assaulting airline staff and police at Los Angeles International Airport.
  Porn star Tory Lane arrested at LAX for battery on police officer and public intoxication after she ‘drunkenly attacked flight crew’ (Daily Mail, sound alert)

Update to add:

• When the early gay movement began in the early 1950s, the U.S. government didn’t differentiate between homosexual rights manifestos, gay erotica or dirty pictures. All were considered illegal, and using the postal service to distribute any of them could and did result in long prison sentences.
  How Gay Porn Helped Build the Gay Rights Movement (Huffington Post)

• I love this post so much. “It seems a lot of people really, REALLY don’t get what ‘consent’ means. (…) If you’re still struggling, just imagine instead of initiating sex, you’re making them a cup of tea. (…) If they are unconscious, don’t make them tea. Unconscious people don’t want tea and can’t answer the question ‘do you want tea’ because they are unconscious.”
  Consent: Not actually that complicated (Rockstar Dinosaur Pirate Princess)

• Health organizations and sex educators are routinely punished and lose their accounts due to the policies of sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter, which typically classify their messages of safer sex and sex-positive sex education as inappropriate content. Petition: Facebook: Stop Censoring Sexual Health Information.
  When Social-Media Companies Censor Sex Education (The Atlantic)

• “I find people here to be pretty accepting and open,” said Li Yinhe, a popular and outspoken Chinese sexologist who recently announced that her partner is a transgender man.
  Sex Expert’s Secret Is Out, and China’s Open to It (NYT)

• The former MyFreeCams.com model who allegedly streamed more than 50 live shows from two branches of the Windsor Public Library has turned herself in to Canadian police.
  ‘Library Girl’ Lilsecrett Arrested on Indecency Charge (XBIZ)

• While living in Florida, Jennifer had Google searched “How to make money” and landed on a page about BDSM dungeons. She began reading about the business and started operating one part-time. Without a house to call her own, though, her dungeon struggled to turn a profit.
  How to Afford Park Slope? Run a BDSM Dungeon (Brooklyn Based)

• “The FDA actually started seizing our shipments of their lubricant, so we can’t even get it in the store anymore,” said Sarah Mueller, senior sex educator and resident lube expert at the Smitten Kitten, a sex boutique in Minneapolis.
  The FDA’s Crusade Against Lube (VICE)

• According to a new Dutch BDSM survey, one in seven people who participate in BDSM, a variety of erotic practices involving roleplaying, bondage, dominance and submission and other interpersonal dynamics, have had to visit the doctor afterwards for injuries sustained.
  One in seven BDSM’ers need doctors to treat injuries See also: Doctors should pay more attention to their kinky patients. Here’s why. (NL Times, kevinmd.com)

• Mile High Media and director Nica Noelle announced the launch of a new trans-erotica studio, TransSensual. Written and directed by Noelle, TransSensual will feature her signature style of filmmaking — exploring social taboos and starring TS performers.
  Mile High Media, Nica Noelle Launch Trans-Erotic Studio (XBIZ)

• Condom kingpin Durex has revealed its Durexlabs division will soon be launching a new tech product in partnership with Siren Mobile that will help couples achieve orgasms. Would-be guinea pigs (ahem, beta testers) are encouraged to register their interest here.
  Durex Teases Mystery New ‘Sex Tech’ Product to Help Couples Achieve Orgasm (Lifehacker UK)

• A new analysis provides insights on what’s considered “normal” for penis length and circumference in men.
  Am I normal? Review analyzes data on flaccid and erect penis lengths in men (EurekAlert)

• Video game Senran Kagura has teamed up with several well-known ramen restaurants for what’s being called, and I quote, “An Enormous Breast Ramen Festival” (爆乳ラーメン祭り or “Bakunyuu Raamen Matsuri”). Until April 5, five noodle restaurants in Tokyo are serving their own Senran Kagura noodle dishes that you would not exactly call subtle.
  Ramen Has Never Been This Lewd or Perverted (Kotaku)

• Joy St. James writes, “Into a tiny, drawstring handbag I crammed some emergency cash, lipstick, mascara, and (just in case) condoms. Just walking from my car was an experience in itself. Like most women, I was taught from an early age to adopt what is called in Switzerland (where I’ve also lived) the Geradeaus Gait. … “Hey, baby! Looking good! Wiggle that ass for me!” The catcalls and leers, instead of offensive and annoying, I found reaffirming.”
  I Was A Streetwalker For A Night (Nerve)

• Pandora Blake writes, “When someone talks about ‘porn’ they probably have a specific vision in mind, and that vision may not match someone else’s. Here is a fact: you cannot possibly imagine all porn.”
  Can porn empower women? (Medium)

• Human trafficking – and sex trafficking in particular – has become something of a Christian cause célèbre. One of the most persistent criticisms of the movement is that it’s not opposed only to explicitly forced prostitution and child prostitution, but to prostitution as a whole, even when it’s engaged in by adult women who say they are sex workers by choice. That’s one point that some activists have no problem acknowledging. “FAAST and all of our partners are very intentional in that we say that all prostitution is inherently harmful,” said Mandy Porter, coordinator at the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking, a Baltimore-based Christian coalition whose members include World Relief and the Salvation Army.
  How Evangelicals Took Sex Trafficking From Feminists and Made It a Christian Cause Célèbre (Slate, via Ms Naughty)

• Warning for survivors of sexual abuse, trauma, assault: Now that most of the major figures are dead, the truth is emerging about the systematic sexual abuse of children by members of the British government.
  How Thatcher’s Government Covered Up a VIP Pedophile Ring (Daily Beast)

• Massive warning for survivors of sexual trauma, assault, abuse: The Indian government has remained defiant over its ban on a BBC documentary about the 2012 fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi despite a groundswell of acclaim for the film. India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, has threatened to take action against the BBC, though did not elaborate on what form this may take, save that “all options are open”.
  Indian government remains defiant over ban on BBC rape documentary (Guardian UK)

• Pornhub is developing a wearable meant for… shaking. And beating. It’s called the Wankband, and it supposedly will help you charge your gadgets by jacking off.
  Finally: A Wearable That Lets You Charge Your Gadgets by Jerking Off (Gizmodo)

• Boston University is teaching students about safe sex and sexual health with a little bit of help from none other than wizard extraordinaire Harry Potter. “At this event, half-bloods, house-elves, and muggles alike will learn the proper way to get consent to enter one’s chamber of secrets and how to snog without getting hogwarts,” said the event’s Facebook page. “We’ll be casting some sensual spells in CAS room 313. Hope you can apparate there.”
  University Offers ‘Harry Potter’-Themed Sex-Ed Class (HuffPo)

• Oh, Google. Do your self-driving cars run entirely on wholesome thoughts? Just three days after announcing it was banning sexually explicit material on Blogger, Google said it had changed its mind after an outcry from many longtime users of the blogging platform.
  Google reverses porn ban on Blogger after backlash (Venturebeat)

• Apparently Russell Brand has gone off (like old milk) saying that porn is bad. I’d like to debate him, live – but only if he did his homework. Anna Arrowsmith writes, “So now Russell Brand wants us to stop watching porn as part of his campaign against all things Capitalist. And like his previous forays into politics, he is quite proud of his lack of experience and knowledge about the subject…”
  Why Russell Brand is so Wrong About Pornography (Anna Arrowsmith)

• Tale of a bondage virgin: “It’s Friday night and I’m sweating my skin off at Torture Garden, the world’s largest fetish club. My date and I are prepped for one of the most bizarre nights of our lives.”
  Here’s what happens when a bondage virgin goes to a fetish club (Metro UK)

• My Titties are Sisters Not Twins is a zine created by curator Antonia Marsh and artist Kelsey Bennett. Presented like a children’s workbook the zine celebrates imperfection and reminds us that no two titties are the same.
  My Titties Are Sisters Not Twins (Nerve)

• Eric Chanson and Kevin Bollaert, two of the most infamous website operators in the field of “revenge porn,” must each pay $450,000 in damages to a woman whose nude photos of her taken when she was a minor were published on UGotPosted.com.
  ‘Revenge Porn’ Operators Must Pay $900,000 in Damages (XBIZ)

• The owner of a revenge porn website has been labelled a hypocrite after asking Google to remove links to stories about his unsavoury business, over their use of “unauthorised photos”. Craig Brittain, whose website posted nude photos of women without their knowledge or permission, is seeking the removal of the articles on the grounds that they feature pictures of him that were used without his consent.
  Owner of revenge porn site asks Google to remove links to his own photos (Telegraph)

• Men have been circumcised for thousands of years, yet our thinking about the foreskin seems as muddled as ever. And a close examination of this muddle raises disturbing questions. Is this American exceptionalism justified? Should we really be funding mass circumcision in Africa? Or by removing the foreskins of men, boys and newborns, are we actually committing a violation of human rights?
  The Troubled History Of The Foreskin (io9)

• ICM Registry continues its use of ICANN to scare people (by fear of x-rated domain squatters) out of their money. ICM Registry, the operator of the .xxx top-level domain, Monday opened up new .porn and .adult registrations to trademark holders who are registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH).
  Trademark Holders Now Can Register .porn, .adult Names (XBIZ)

• Wow, I wonder if the BBC Woman’s Hour hosts of this show were biased against their subjects in any way. “Radio Presenter Jane Garvey has revealed she was left ‘upset’ after watching hardcore pornography in preparation for the Radio 4 show’s latest debate.”
  The Woman’s Hour Debate: Porn + Porn is not sexy, says Radio 4′s Garvey: Woman’s Hour host says viewing films in preparation for discussion left her shocked and upset (southbankcentre.co.uk, Daily Mail)

• A yoga guru who founded a rigorous routine of exercises (Bikram’s Yoga College of India) practiced in steamy rooms around the world is facing lawsuits by six women who claim he sexually assaulted them.
  6 Women Accuse Hot Yoga Founder of Sex Assaults, Groping (ABC News)

• Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn aren’t the only queer ladies prowling the streets of Gotham anymore, folks. After decades of flirtation and fervent fan speculation, Catwoman is now a canon bisexual according to current Catwoman head writer Genevieve Valentine.
  Selina Kyle, DC’s Original Catwoman, Comes Out As Bisexual (Towleroad)

• In 2012, teledildonics darling RealTouch was on the rise, getting featured in HBO’s Sex/Now documentary series and Amazon’s original comedy series Betas. But despite the positive press, the company’s fortunes took a nosedive. RealTouch found itself unable to sell its hardware and, what’s more, it is now catering to a dwindling group of existing customers. It wasn’t the moral majority, however, that pushed the sex-tech outfit to the brink of collapse. It was patent licensing.
  Adult Themes: The rise and fall of America’s first digital brothel (Engadget)

• “Plenty of people theorize about why games often feature bad breast physics, but there is little hard information about the actual breast-creation process. After looking into it a bit, I found that many amateur developers seemed to genuinely have a problem figuring out how to tackle breast physics in their games.”
  How Video Game Breasts Are Made (And Why They Can Go Wrong) (Kotaku)

• The gaming-themed strip club flyer images above and below are via @52stations, who was sharing them to express their displeasure at the flyers being handed out near GDC 2015 (a big gaming developers convention in San Francisco this week) and the message they believe it sends to female attendees. It’s okay to have that boundary, but I happen to feel very differently about it; I’m also a female developer, and I like the flyers. Making them cause for a moral panic is just silly. I find them cheeky, sex-positive, and I’m guessing my pals who are performers at two of those clubs had a hand in putting these handouts together. As for the assumptions people are making about what they represent, the women in them, who they’re meant to attract, and how they might scare women away from being developers… I’m inclined to think that sex work negative attitudes and all these accompanying assumptions about a local strip club’s flyers would make female sex performers (who are also developers) consider that GDC isn’t really a welcoming place for them. When you consider we’re talking about female workers, condemning their advertising just ends up reading as outsider hostility. (Here’s my opinion on sexism in dev culture.) Not to mention the fact that if there’s anywhere your assumptions about women and sex will be turned upside down in the most surprising and sex positive of ways, it’s going to be San Francisco. Ask a sex worker: exploitation is in the eye of the beholder.

• It seems safe to say that Bitte Andersson’s Dyke Hard is not what we’ve come to expect from the normally rather staid Swedish film scene. Not unless you’re expecting a queer, John Waters inspired, rock and roll road movie with prison sex and cyborgs. If I don’t see this film, I don’t think I can go on.
  DYKE HARD Trailer Delivers Cult Weirdness (TwitchFilm)

• “How to Come Out Like a Porn Star” is an anthology of essays exploring exactly that, to be released in November by ThreeL Media. The book is not a how-to manual, but in more than 50 essays, readers will find various approaches to coming out that, while specific to porn, will likely be appreciated by those struggling to reveal other kinds of sex-related secrets to loved ones. It is also, in its way, a manifesto, a reclamation by Lee of the role of porn as a positive artistic form.
  “How to Come Out Like a Porn Star”: A sex-industry veteran shares advice on the risks and rewards (Salon)

• The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that. These discoveries do not sit well in a world in which sex is still defined in binary terms.
  Sex redefined (Nature)

• For Wired’s 2015 Sex Issue (which I wish I’d known about in advance to pitch to), one article takes on asexuality, and does a thoughtful job of it, though I do wish the author would have mentioned The Invisible Orientation sooner in the piece. Read it.
  Young, Attractive, and Totally Not Into Having Sex (Wired)

• Hunter Moore (isanyoneup.com) has agreed to plead guilty to federal computer hacking and identity theft charges and faces two to seven years in prison at sentencing, according to the plea deal filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
  Revenge porn operator agrees to plea to criminal charges in Los Angeles (Reuters)

• Sasha Grey has had to publicly state that she’s got no involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In recent propaganda, former American porn star Grey ditched her acting career and worked as a nurse for pro-Russian rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine until she was brutally murdered by Ukrainian government forces. Er, nope.
  Ex-Porn Star Sasha Gray Is Dragged Into Russia-Ukraine Propaganda War (NBC News)

• Did you run out to see 50 Shades Of Grey with your sweetie this weekend? If you have had more than enough (or had your fill) of the kinky (or emotionally abusive) Twilight spin-off this weekend, why not try writing some smutty fanfiction of your own?
  Internet. A guide to writing erotic fanfiction (Hopes and Fears)

• “I was ready to rip [50 Shades] to shreds in the name of BDSM communities and consent culture everywhere. We all know that the main ingredients for kink are a dash of safe, a sprinkling sane, and a heap of consent. But after watching the entire film, I didn’t have any desire to defend or protect the sacred institution of BDSM from this story of Christian and Anna.”
  Fifty Shades basically got it right (Eros Media)

• “A few years ago, someone broke into my email and then used it to get into all sorts of other things. Among the very many things I panicked about was: Will they see my nude pictures?”
  Your Dick Pics Are About to Be All Over the Internet (Wired)

• “My roommate and I are both escorts. We’ve talked about the importance of maintaining a proper ratio of sex that we enjoy to work—it’s a mental health issue. My dance card stays full enough to make paying for it questionable, but I will do absurd things in the name of female solidarity, which is why I’m scheduled with Tom for seven tonight.”
  A Female Sex Worker Compares Notes with a Gigolo (Vice)

• Women who see their decreasing sex drive as a problem are at the center of an intense, emotional debate that’s been raging for years over whether the Food and Drug Administration should approve the first drug that claims to boost a woman’s libido.
  Female Libido Pill Fires Up Debate About Women And Sex (NPR)

• A company called Fore​gen purports to soon be able to help circumcised men who want their foreskins back by using regenerative medicine to regrow their foreskins—much like a salamander can regrow a severed appendage.
  How One Company Aims to Help Circumcised Men Grow Their Foreskin Back (Vice)

• Helena Bonham Carter posed naked with a big fish for PETA. I don’t really know what else to say about this.
  Helena Bonham Carter Gets Naked With A Giant Tuna (AdRants)

• “Professional phone sex was almost exactly what I expected. Most of the men who called wanted someone to moan along to their fantasies, and I was ready and willing to help out. For the more hardcore customers, I made sure to keep a belt on hand that I could use to smack my couch cushions…”
  The Year I Spent As A Phone-Sex Operator (Nerve)

• RedTube announced this week via Twitter that it fixed an exploit hole on its adult tube site. The highly trafficked MindGeek-owned property’s front page was modified in order to redirect the user to malicious URLs hosting the Angler Exploit Kit, according to security blog MalwareBytes, which first discovered and reported the breach.
  RedTube Fixes Malware Security Breach (XBIZ)

• The smaller male spider placates his mate to avoid becoming her after-sex snack — by going down on her. See, they’re just like us!
  Zoologger: Oral sex may be a life saver for spider (New Scientist)

• Wicked Pictures on Friday announced that Axel Braun, winner of the 2015 XBIZ Parody of the Year award for “Cinderella XXX: An Axel Braun Parody,” has released the first trailer for “Barbarella XXX: An Axel Braun Parody.”
  Video: Axel Braun, Wicked Unveil ‘Barbarella XXX’ Trailer (XBIZ)

• Porn’s HR isn’t a brave new world in personnel management; it is unexceptional to the core. And so here, for your viewing pleasure, are some highlights from the porn boss playbook of business management.
  Business as Usual (Jacobin)

• “Part of Ariel Schrag’s job in writing what Stephen Burt aptly calls “Trans Literature for the Masses” is to give a narrative gloss on the intricacies of a particular subculture—the focus on pronouns, preoccupation with bodily modification, particular lingo, what opinions are considered acceptable and unacceptable to voice regarding hot-button issues like gay marriage, sex parties with dildo blowjob contests, people named Riverrun, Le Tigre.”
  In His Own Image (The New Inquiry)

• “Tongue Tied,” a bondage-themed video starring Miley Cyrus (now removed from YouTube under copyright claim), will not screen at the NYC Porn Festival. “Miley was proud to make a film with acclaimed filmmaker Quentin Jones,” a representative for Cyrus said in a statement to HuffPost Entertainment. “Neither she nor Quentin are participating in this ‘festival’ in any way.”
  Bondage-Themed Video Featuring Miley Cyrus Pulled From Porn Festival (HuffPo)

• One of the lesser-known side effects of Viagra is blue-tinted vision. How does a pill that’s supposed to help men maintain an erection cause them to see the world as too blue?
  Why Viagra Tints Your Vision Blue (io9)

• On Thursday, the Toronto Star, one of the largest newspapers in North America and the most-read in Canada, published a story that is everything wrong with vaccine reporting in one dangerous package. The story was, at its core, a collection of unproven anecdotes that suggested, among other things, that dozens of women north of the border had been harmed or worse by the Gardasil HPV vaccine.
  How the Toronto Star massively botched a story about the HPV vaccine (Vox; I feel terrible because I forgot who sent me this – but thank you!)

• In order to prevent a repeat of the venereal disease (VD) epidemic of World War I, the U.S. government teamed up with artists, designers, and ad-men to set the story straight, plastering public-health warnings on walls at bases and training facilities just as military ranks were growing exponentially.
  How the Military Waged a Graphic-Design War on Venereal Disease (Collector’s Weekly)

• Pembroke Pines (South Florida) police arrested two boys, ages 12 and 13, and a girl, 13, on Thursday, following a 10-week investigation. They face charges of electronic transmission of child pornography.
  Juveniles Accused of Running Child Porn Instagram Account (ABC News)

• He explains that the structure of every sex party DJ set is the same, complete with a ramp-up, climax (pun intended) and a finish that creates a crescendo that will hopefully jive with the room’s overall sexual rhythm. The components of a successful “play”-list depends on a multitude of factors, from what time of night it is to how many people are on the dance floor to what the décor is like.
  This Is What It’s Like to DJ a Sex Party (Vice)

• A 26-year-old homeless man is accused of breaking into a Columbus, Georgia funeral home and sexually assaulting a dead woman’s body.
  Georgia man accused of breaking into funeral home and having sex with corpse (Raw Story)

• The leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses – one of the world’s most insular religions – for 25 years has instructed its elders to keep cases of child sexual abuse secret from law enforcement and members of their own congregations, according to an examination of thousands of pages of documents in recent cases.
  Jehovah’s Witnesses use 1st Amendment to hide child sex abuse claims (Reveal News)

• In November, male chastity device manufacturer CB-X Male Chastity sponsored Alastair Galpin’s 100th World Record Attempt: “Furthest Surface Journey in a Male Chastity Device.” The world record breaker was able to reach his goal on a journey that took him 5,000 miles spread out over 37 days.
  CB-X-Sponsored World Record Attempt Completed (XBIZ)

• NOFX bassist Fat Mike, noted adult director/writer/performer Soma Snakeoil and Tony Award-winner Jeff Marx (of “Avenue Q” fame) pent years figuring out just that with their latest collaborative project, “Home Street Home,” slated for an 11-show run between Feb. 20 and March 7 at San Francisco’s Z Space, centers on Sue, a 16-year old runaway who plunges headfirst into the deviant subculture and alternative lifestyle of the streets.
  NOFX’s Fat Mike, Soma Snakeoil’s Punk Rock Musical Depicts ‘Real’ BDSM (XBIZ)

• With more than 60 works of art, Seduction: Japan’s Floating World | The John C. Weber Collection examines the decadent lifestyle associated with Edo’s (present-day Tokyo) entertainment districts and the enticing, though complicated, world of the Yoshiwara. On Thurs, Feb 19, the art of “Seduction” comes to life.
  Courtesans, Cooks, Samurai and Servants: Seduction Opening Party (Asian Art Museum, San Francisco)

• Posting “revenge porn” images and videos on the internet is becoming a criminal offence in England and Wales. The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, which has a specific amendment dealing with such actions, will receive Royal Assent and become law later. Offenders face up to two years in jail.
  ‘Revenge porn’ illegal under new law (BBC)

• What does the Talmud say about pleasure and power? How does Orthodox Judaism affect a person’s sex life?
  The Sex Practices Orthodox Jews Deem Kosher (HuffPo)

• “Looking for men and women for no-strings attached sex, preferably no condoms?” reads the enticingly explicit message seemingly posted by a young Brazilian woman on popular meet-up mobile site Tinder. In reality, though, the poster is not a sultry Brazilian redhead.
  Brazil entices Tinder users in covert safe-sex campaign (Medical Express)

• “Oh my God, please buy the coke so I can write that Thought Catalog bought coke from pornstars,” said Jezebel, recorder in hand.
  Getting Screwed At The AVN Awards: A Journey Into The American Porno Dream (Thought Catalog)

• “Fifty Shades of Grey,” capitalizing on the fall of Valentine’s Day on a Saturday, will take in about $90.7 million between Thursday night and Monday, according to Rentrak, which compiles ticketing data. The movie, which cost $40 million, attracted an audience that was 68 percent female, Universal said.
  ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Leads Weekend Box Office, Stirring Reflection on Sex Films (NYT)

• “The plan seemed simple enough. My colleague Stephanie Merry was assigned to review “Fifty Shades of Grey.” When she found out I was also going to the press screening, she asked if I could bring a stopwatch to help count how many minutes of the two-hour film actually consist of the reason anyone really wants to see it — the sex scenes.”
  I brought a stopwatch to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ to time the sex scenes. It was surprisingly challenging. (Washington Post)

• The number of Americans requiring emergency room care for injuries involving sex toys has approximately doubled since 2007, according to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Much of that increase happened in 2012 and 2013, following the release of the wildly popular erotic novels in the Fifty Shades of Grey series. And the overwhelming majority of these injuries — 83 percent — require ”foreign body removals.”
  Sex toy injuries surged after ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ was published (Washington Post)

• Christian Grey is sexy. Christian Grey is a billionaire. Christian Grey is a sexy billionaire. Christian Grey is also, of course, a fictional character – a fantasy. The source of his fortune is left utterly vague: all that we’re told is that he owns something named Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc. But here’s the weird thing: the fictional Christian Grey can teach us a lot about how today’s real-world wealth works, and what the word “billionaire” actually means.
  Christian Grey and the allure of fake billionaires (Fusion)

• The last time I was quoted in an SFist piece, a commenter was stalkery and fucked up to me, and the then-editor’s reaction to my dismay was, oh, he’s actually a great guy. This time, it was for a different writer and under a new editor, and I was quoted along with some really incredible people — but the sensationalist title casts us as “porn stars and professional fetishists,” whatever the fuck that means. I am neither. I was told it would be quotes from “50 sex-positive models, authors and luminaries.” The quotes are great, but this will be the very last time I help out, or get anywhere near, SFist.
  50 Adult Stars And Professional Fetishists On Why They Hate Fifty Shades Of Grey (SFist)

• After purchasing the Fifty Shades of Grey Come Alive Pleasure Gel For Her, “on at least two occasions” from Lovehoney’s Official Pleasure Collection, approved by E.L. James, Warchol was a less than satisfied customer. By Thursday, Warchol filed for a lawsuit saying the product’s claim to have customers “experience enhanced orgasms and stimulation as every tingle, touch, and vibration intensifies” was anything but.
  Woman Sues E.L. James When Sex Lube Is Less Than 50 Shades Of Great (Medical Daily)

• Do a quick Google search for “50 Shades tampon scene”, and you’ll get almost 20,000 results – a number that suggests that even if the film’s makers didn’t want to discuss it, lots of other people do.
  Blood lust: why period sex shouldn’t be taboo in Hollywood or anywhere else (Guardian UK)

• Kevin Bollaert (the fucktard behind revenge porn site ugotposted.com and changemyreputation.com), 28, was found guilty Monday of 27 counts, including identity theft and extortion, and faces up to 20 years in prison. The San Diego County Superior Court jury was unable to reach verdicts on two charges of identity theft and conspiracy.
  Revenge-Porn Website Owner Convicted, Faces Up To 20 Years (HuffPo)

• I guess they only expect straight men to win Employee of the Year? A Chinese tech security firm has come out with a quirky idea to make their employees happy as they are offering a night with a porn star for their Employee of the Year bonus.
  Tech firm offering Employee of Year night with porn star as bonus! (Yahoo! News)

• iDollators link together through groups around the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe. They share ideas, visions, fears, and, above all, their love for life-sized, realistic silicone dolls, made by specialized companies for as much as $6,000 a piece. Some iDollators save up for years in order to acquire the perfect life-size companion.
  Guys and Plastic Dolls (Narratively)

• Sounds like predecided propaganda to me… Maybe ‘documentary’ should be in quotes? “The film’s central mission is to highlight the impact working in porn has on the women who participate in it. Instead, [the documentary] “Hot Girls Wanted” offers unexamined statements and vague intimations about how doing porn harms women and watching it warps men.”
  The Netflix Porn Doc ‘Hot Girls Wanted’ Reinforces Tired Sexual Stereotypes (VICE)

• “In the mid-1960s, Dad purchased several porn novels through the mail. (…) At the time, pornography was still a taboo business. Paperbacks were sold in the back rooms of adult theaters, on hidden racks at newsstands and at adult bookstores in cities.”
  My Dad, the Pornographer (NYT)

• Allie is betting her future as a contestant on a new reality show called “The Sex Factor.” On the show, which is currently in production, eight women and eight men compete for “porn stardom” and a $1 million prize.
  Inside the Reality Show Where Aspiring Porn Stars Compete for Stardom (ABC News)

• Apply critical thinking skills to the generalizations, dear readers. “Mating strategies are as varied as the creatures that make up the animal kingdom, but most fall into one of two broad categories: monogamous or polygamous.”
  Use Finger Length—Not Genetics—to Predict Promiscuity (PS Mag)

• A group of seniors were recently introduced to the raunchy world of virtual reality porn. Their reactions were recorded for posterity.
  Seniors Watch Virtual Reality Porn For The First Time, React Accordingly (HuffPo)

• Despite its explicit language (not to mention catchy ditties about things like “Waiting for Wood”), the musical “Pretty Filthy” is winningly guileless — almost downright innocent. It’s also frequently hilarious.
  ‘Pretty Filthy’ is a surprisingly wholesome musical about the porn industry (NY Post)

• Rome’s mayor and officials are considering a “red light” district to shield sex workers from exploitation and families from embarrassment.
  Rome Officials Mull ‘Red Light’ Prostitution Zone (NYT)

• You have imagined the press tour for the upcoming film 50 Shades of Grey—by now firmly established as among the most disastrous of the past decade, if not so far this century.
  50 Shades of [Sigh]: The Disastrous 50 Shades of Grey Press Tour (Defamer)

• A jump in the Swiss franc against the euro, which threatens to push the country’s economy into recession, is boosting trade in brothels across the border in Germany.
  Strong Swiss franc boosts trade at German brothels (Reuters)

• “I directed four ultra-low budget features for Roger Corman, and I thought we worked fast and cheap, but once you start digging around behind the scenes, you realize no one — absolutely no one — works harder, faster or cheaper than porn crews.”
  How the Porn Industry Set the Stage for Micro-Budget Filmmaking (Indiewire)

• Trojan is linking a new marketing effort to the “50 Shades of Grey” film, which debuts on Feb. 13, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The effort includes a 2-minute video on YouTube and a 15-second trailer.
  Trojan Pegs Video To ’50 Shades Of Grey’ (Mediapost)

• A UK helpline for victims of revenge porn has been launched as part of a concerted push to tackle the growing problem of explicit photographs being shared online without the victim’s consent. Also, we just launched our new redesign at Without My Consent — go check it out!
  Revenge porn victims’ helpline launched in UK (Guardian UK)

• Some BDSM practices, practitioners argue, can enhance the psychological well-being of their participants. And recent science has started to support these claims, suggesting that certain forms of BDSM may have anti-anxiety effects, as well as other mental health benefits. (Highly recommended: Dr. Morgana Maye’s Love Your Kink.)
  Can Bondage Play Reduce Anxiety? (NY Mag)

• Brian Watson is a historian with a Masters of Arts focused on the history of pornography and obscenity, so he answers questions on sexuality, privacy and obscenity in the AskHistorians subreddit page as well.
  Reddit moderator has MA in history of porn (News AU)