Sunday Sex Reads: Best of the Week

Cybercrime and passion: Wetware: Cyberpunk Erotica (ebook, $3.89)

sex reads Rosie Rivette

Image: Rosie Rivette, via Sticks and Stones Agency.

  • “Some people (particularly those behind the recent conservative campaign, “Porn Kills Love“) see watching porn and being in love as total contradictions — that explicit content compromises our ability to connect meaningfully with other people. In reality, though, there’s no lack of love in the community of adult performers, producers, and directors.”
    Four Porn Stars Talk About How They Fell in Love (Cosmopolitan)
  • “All this to say, though, that technology can be used for intimate endeavours without the layperson user ever realising (perhaps until it is too late) that their intimacy is built on a fragile, untrustworthy structure. The argument that I hear too often is that a user chose to do a certain thing, and so should face the consequences no matter what they are – but this seems like an unuseful and un-nuanced way of approaching what is clearly a growing problem.”
    Tech, design and intimacy; first thoughts (Zara Rahman)
  • “[Sex and depression] Survey respondents often listed embarrassment and awkwardness as reasons for not bringing up the issue of sex with their doctors. There was something else though too: the idea that doctors would not be willing to help. “They didn’t care and it wouldn’t matter,” wrote one respondent. “My psychiatrist gives no shits,” wrote another.”
    Let’s Talk About Sex and Depression (Bitch Media)

Thanks to our sponsor in Spain, women-run Lust Cinema.

  • “If I never get a job in mainstream [onscreen entertainment] I will be OK. I have a whole other job in a completely different entertaining field,” [James Deen] laughed. “Porn’s like really honest and respectful and very professional, as opposed to mainstream where it’s all really manipulative and messed up.”
    Inside the Secret Behind Porn Superstar James Deen’s Big Hollywood Crossover (The Wrap)
  • “When Dr. Rachel Rubin, a professor of American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, set out to write a book about the history of the Renaissance Faire, one of the things she found was that even early on the festival was a hub where people gathered to celebrate certain sexual behaviors, and to discover new ones. Visitors and staff at the faire dabbled in costumes and role play, which often carried straight from the medieval fairgrounds to the bedroom after dark.”
    The Secret Sexual World Of America’s Renaissance Faires (Vocativ)
  • “To test whether or not any sacrifice was made in satisfying press curiosity, I put on the Oculus Rift headset just before filming, and realize that 180 degrees offers more than enough immersion. It’s about the sex in front of the users, not about the wall behind them.”
    Behind the Scenes of a Virtual Reality Porn Shoot (Vice)

Much gratitude to our thoughtful sponsor, Nubile Films.

  • ​Mr. Pam has been filming and directing gay male porn for over a decade. Here, she talks about HIV, condom use in porn, and the trend of straight women watching and loving gay male porn. “I ended up getting a job at CNET and I was an interactive designer with them for six years. I was getting a little bored and meanwhile, one of my friends was with Naked Sword and they wanted to do this online talk show where they would go to the porn sets and interview people. …”
    What It’s Like to Be a Gay Porn Director (Cosmopolitan)
  • “I became concerned that I might be the one to have the heart attack, and I wasn’t going to die without one last cigarette. I lit up, inhaled and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled again. Finally, I couldn’t take the extended silence any longer. “Gramma?” “I was just thinking. I hope none of the men at the nursing home get us confused and try to put my feet behind my head. I don’t bend that way anymore.”
    The Time I Told My Grandmother I’ve Been Using Her Name to Make Porno (Vice)
  • On Coming Out Like A Porn Star: To date, Jiz Lee has starred in over 200 porn films and websites, earning respect as a queer porn legend. “Porn is one of the best things I’ve ever done, but there were so many stigmas I didn’t know how to tell my family about it,” Lee said in an email. “That’s how I began asking others their stories.”
    How to Tell Your Parents You’re a Porn Star (Vice)
  • Great resource: “Listed below are links to ongoing studies of human sexuality by researchers around the world. You are eligible to participate in as many as you would like, depending upon whether you meet the selection criteria.”
    Want to participate in a sex study? (Sex and Psychology)

Thank you to our sponsor and friends, Pink Label TV.

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