The queen of satire, with more of her signature genius. NSFW language!
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in Humour Etc.
Inflatable sex dolls' contributions to Science.
in Sex Toys
From The Guardian:
Improbable research: experiments with inflatable dolls
A rather exceptional experiment has shown that you can get gonorrhoea from an inflatable doll.
A generic life-size doll, with no modifications, was the key element in at least one unplanned experiment — the experiment documented in a 1993 monograph called Transmission of Gonorrhoea Through an Inflatable Doll, published in the journal Genitourinary Medicine. But generally, scientists who conduct planned experiments that rely on life-size dolls prefer to carefully optimise, or even create, their own doll.
That unplanned inflatable doll experiment centred on a ship's captain who "with some hesitation … told the story" while being treated at a sexual disease clinic in Greenland. The captain had without permission entered an absent crewman's cabin, borrowed a piece of equipment, and later suffered the consequences.
That inflatable doll was not purpose-built for scientific use. Only through delightful happenstance did it satisfy the scientists', as well as the captain's, needs. Most scientists hate to depend on serendipity, especially if they have to depend on a doll.
A new study called Convective Heat Transfer From a Nude Body Under Calm Conditions: Assessment of the Effects of Walking With a Thermal Manikin [mannequin] exhibits the forethought and niggling care that can go into acquiring a suitable nude doll.
Five mechanical engineers at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, wanted to study how, as a person strolls in the open air, heat flows both away from and into the skin.
They obtained "a Pernille type thermal mannequin named Maria", which "is articulated and divided into 16 parts independently controlled by a computer". Maria features "a fibreglass armed polyester shell covered with a thin nickel wire wound around all the body to ensure heating and temperature measurement".
Read about more sex doll science here.
Stay classy, Limbaugh.
US politics are notoriously nasty. Throw the media's talking heads (especially those from the far right) into the mix and things get even uglier. Currently, the US administration is discussing the option of making coverage for contraceptives, in particular the pill, a required part of medical insurance. The proposal has sparked outrage on the part of social conservatives.
A law student from Georgetown, Sandra Fluke, recently spoke before the House in support of the proposal. Rush Limbaugh, perhaps the most popular of the conservative talking heads, weighed in on her testimony and set off a furor. He suggested that by making contraceptives a required part of health insurance, women like Sandra were being paid to have sex (i.e., because her contraceptives would be paid for by her insurance, which in his head equates to paying her to be able to have sex).
From CNN:
[...]
On Wednesday, the radio host [Limbaugh] disparaged Fluke, saying the law student wants '"taxpayers to pay her to have sex."
"What does it say about the college co-ed [Sandra] Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says she must be paid to have sex?" Limbaugh asked. "What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex."
[...]
On her part, Fluke said in an interview with CNN that she felt "upset and outraged" when she first read online that Limbaugh had personally attacked her.
"I felt probably the way many women do when they are called those types of names," Fluke said. "Initially hurt and then very quickly upset and outraged because somebody is trying to silence you."
On Friday, President Barack Obama called Fluke to offer his support to the law student, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
[...]
Even all the Republicans are calling out Limbaugh. Read about their responses here.
Advert: Sinead's Hand.
Updated reading list for midterm 2 and midterm info, March 6.
I've deviated substantially from the course outline, as there's been much more discussion this term than in past (which is great!). EDIT: Here's the updated list of topics and readings for the second midterm, as of the final class in this section:
Sexual Behaviour Chapter 6 Chapter 7: 203-205 Chapter 5: 142-145
Sexual Orientation Chapter 12
Attraction, Relationships and Love
Chapter 5: 129-142
Chapter 7: 206-229
* We only made it through to slide 30 of the posted PowerPoints ('The Internet'). You do not need to know the rest of the slides for the purposes of the second midterm.
The midterm will be the same format as midterm 1. For more information, refer back to the midterm 1 info post here.
The midterm will run from 5:00-6:30. Class will start at 6:45.
Thursday mail - March 1.
Have any questions or comments related to class or otherwise? If so, fire away.
Fotoshop by Adobé.
in Attraction, Body Image
Documentary: I Love You And You And You - End of Monogamy
From the BBC:
A growing number of people are choosing a new way of life. They have rejected monogamy and turned their backs on conventional relationships. They believe their lifestyle is the future. They believe in polyamory.
Polyamory is the philosophy and practice of loving more than one. It means you no longer have to make do with one partner. You can have two or three, and so on without fear of jealousy or reprisal, and so can your partner.
With divorce rates almost up to one in two and 60% of couples having affairs, this fascinating film follows two ‘polyamorous’ families to see whether this growing subculture really could be a justifiable alternative to monogamy…?
Man has baby.
From The Mail Online:
Britain's first 'male mother': Man born a woman is first in UK to give birth despite having sex change
* The man had hormone treatment to reactivate his womb * He is one of only five 'male mums' in the world * The baby is thought to have been delivered by cesarean section
A British man is believed to have given birth, causing an ethical controversy.
The ‘male mother’ started life as a woman but underwent a sex change. He is thought to have had the baby last year, while living as a man.
Medical experts said that if the womb is not removed in sex change surgery, there is nothing to stop a woman who becomes a man from having a child.
Read the rest of the amazing story here.
The following photos are of another man, mentioned in the article, who also became pregnant. His name is Thomas Beatie. He decided to become pregnant after his wife had a hysterectomy.
The Piggyback Bandit.
From ESPN:
HELENA, Mont. -- The stocky man showed up in a basketball uniform for a game at Century High School in North Dakota. Players and coaches assumed he was a fan who had come with another team, so nobody objected when he began to pitch in around the bench.
"He helped lay out uniforms, got water. He even gave a couple of kids shoulder massages. Creepy stuff like that," said Jim Haussler, activities director for the Bismarck Public School District.
After the game was over, the man joined the winning team on the court and asked if he could get a piggyback ride. One bemused player gave it to him.
"He makes himself appear as if he's limited or handicapped. I think he plays an empathy card, so to speak," Haussler said. "We didn't realize what we were dealing with until several days later."
What they were dealing with the night of Feb. 4 was the Piggyback Bandit -- Sherwin Shayegan of Bothell, Wash., a 28-year-old man who ingratiates himself with high school sports teams, then hoists his 5-foot-8, 240-pound frame onto the backs of the student athletes.
I, and many others, suspect this is sexually motivated.
Read the rest of the article here.
Pray away the gay.
This is an excellent investigative piece, written by a gay man who went undercover to get conversion therapy. From The Independent:
The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion
Is homosexuality a form of mental illness? A small but evangelical band of psychotherapists believe that it is – and they're on a mission to 'heal' the afflicted. Patrick Strudwick enters the bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion
In Britain today therapists are trying to convert gay men and women to heterosexuality. I know this, because for several months I infiltrated this network of therapists and put myself – a happy, "out" gay man – through treatment.
According to a report by Professor Michael King of University College London, one in six UK psychiatrists and psychotherapists have sought to reduce or change a patient's sexual orientation. And with the help of the American conversion therapy movement, practitioners here, along with a clutch of international "conversion" organisations, are becoming co-ordinated and unified. They plan to gain credibility, university backing and government funding. In some cases, the NHS is even paying for the treatment.
This is despite the fact that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – psychiatry's glossary of conditions – 36 years ago. And despite much evidence that such practices are damaging and ineffective.
My investigation began last spring, shortly after King's report was published, when an evangelical group held a conference in a central London church for therapists wanting to learn how to "reorient" their patients. I wanted to know who these therapists were, what happened during the treatment, and what effect it would have on the recipient. I posed as a potential client wanting to be cured.
Read the rest of his account here.
As a follow-up, one of the therapists he met with got fully busted. Read about it at The Guardianhere.
Santorum art.
Rick Santorum is one of the frontrunners in the Republican primaries currently underway in the US. He's about as far right on social issues as one can be. He's anti-gay, anti-birth control, anti-abortion, and anti-just-about-everything-else. A few years ago, he drew the ire of Dan Savage when he compared homosexuality to bestiality and a bunch of other things. In return, Dan Savage held a competition to find a sex act which could be labelled with the name Santorum. Try searching Santorum and you'll find out what sex act won, or alternatively, click here to go to the Spreading Santorum webpage.
Ted Haggard.
As mentioned during last class.
There are many examples of men like this who've made it their life's work to fight against homosexuals' rights, only to turn out to have same-sex preferences themselves. I posted a link to a list of them last term (here). Their hypocritical behaviour can likely be explained by cognitive dissonance, as explained in class.
Ted Haggard is probably the best known case. He's had a tumultuous few years since it was discovered that he was having sex with a male sex worker. GQ recently published an article about where he's at now. Here are some excerpts:
[...]
Soon after Ted signed the separation agreement, the Haggards began their exile in Phoenix, where Ted took a job as a door-to-door insurance salesman. He attended therapy sessions in which a counselor used a technique called eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) to trace Ted's same-sex urges to having been molested by one of his father's employees at age 7. After just three weeks of EMDR, a member of Ted's advisory committee told The Denver Post that Pastor Ted was "completely heterosexual."
It was the sort of easily mocked, over-the-top statement that Ted might make, but he himself never actually put it in those terms. Ted has been vague about his sexuality since moving back to Colorado Springs in 2008. He says that he still believes the Bible is clear that "homosexuality is not God's best plan for people," but his stance on the issue has softened to the point of near incomprehensibility. After the camping trip, when I asked him about the wording he once used to describe his same-sex urges—in 2006 he wrote in a letter to New Life's congregation that he was warring with a "repulsive and dark" part of himself—he backtracked, saying he never meant it that way. "There's nothing repulsive to me about that world, but it's not a temptation anymore."
[...]
What bothers Jones most is that Ted is again serving as a pastor and an influencer, putting the people who trust him—especially young men—in danger. Two years ago, a New Life volunteer named Grant Haas revealed that Ted had masturbated in front of him and offered him drugs on a church trip in 2006, when he was 22, and that New Life subsequently paid him $179,000 to keep quiet. New Life later confirmed having paid Haas but insisted that it wasn't meant as hush money. (Ted denies the drug offer but admits that he masturbated in the room they shared. "I thought he was asleep," he says.)
New Life won't comment on the Haggard era, but Haas tells me over the phone that what happened with him and Mike Jones wasn't the end of it, that Ted's tenure at New Life was marked by an atmosphere of sexual impropriety. Haas has forgiven Ted, but he shares another incident, of being invited with a friend to skinny-dip in Ted's pool while Gayle was away. He also recalls Ted showing him a photo of a group of naked men from New Life's youth program standing in his office, covering themselves with books. "Everything at that church was sexualized," Haas says.
[...]
Ted may be telling the truth, but his peculiar brand of self-victimization and protestation—in which every "I messed up" is followed by a "but... "—makes it hard for people in Colorado Springs to believe that he's actually sorry for what he did. One former New Life member expressed what seems to be the general sentiment surrounding his resurgence: "I think Ted genuinely loves God, and I think he has a sincere interest in helping people, but I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth."
The rest of the article can be found here.
Sadly, it looks like Ted Haggard is still in denial about his preferences, and claims to be cured of same-sex sexual desires. It's hard not to feel bad for the guy, despite all the hate he's spread and the damage he's done.
A recent clip:
Gay-for-pay in Prague.
If you haven't read the previous post on gay-for-pay, scroll down and read it first.
GlobalPost has put together an excellent report on the gay porn industry in Prague. Prague has become an international powerhouse for porn production of all types. The article in long, as it goes into great detail describing the various stories of people working in the industry. highly recommended reading if you have the time. Here's the opening:
Editor’s note: In this GlobalPost investigative report, Prague correspondent Iva Skoch gained rare access to one of Eastern Europe’s most secretive industries, uncovering a world where shifting human sexuality meets rampant commercial demand. It is an industry where global economic crisis mixes with the latest web technologies, set amid the upheavals of Eastern Europe’s uneven transition from communism to a raw form of capitalism. In this multimedia report, we examine the complex and interlocking pieces of Prague’s booming gay porn business, from its roots in an American entrepreneur, to the cultural, moral and political foundations that make Prague a gay porn capital, as well as the economic necessities that drive many into the industry, and finally, the human toll it takes on workers. It is intended solely for mature audiences.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Martin Justel is 20, as old as the Czech democracy and, arguably, just as mature.
He is scrawny and too tall for his body mass. He has a baby face, short auburn hair, long eyelashes and a vacant expression. He looks hardly 18 but his eyes, blinking slowly, convey the gloom and servitude of somebody much older. In the terminology of the American gay sexual marketplace, he is a classic “twink,” a thin, young, pretty boy.
He whispers “hello” as he tiptoes into the Prague film studio of William Higgins, 67, an American producer and “dean of gay porn” who moved to Prague right after communism ended to corner the gay sex market, arriving around the same time two other bearded vanguards of capitalism — Santa Claus and Colonel Sanders — showed up to monopolize Christmas and fried chicken.
All three have found fertile ground here.
“You can take off your clothes,” says Rado Pauer, Higgins’ cameraman, stage artist and translator, as he walks over to Justel to hand him half of a blue pill, which he swallows without question.
Read the rest of article here.
Buddy and Pedro.
From the Toronto Star:
Same-sex penguin pair fascinates zookeepers
Are Buddy and Pedro, two African penguins at the Toronto Zoo, gay?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but their keepers have noticed the two are inseparable, and perhaps most telling, they’re showing signs of mating behaviours.
There are other cases of gay penguins — zoos in New York, Japan, Germany and Sea World Orlando have seen examples.
As part of an experiment a few years ago, Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York’s Central Park zoo, incubated an egg together and raised the chick, named Tango, after she hatched. A children’s book about them called And Tango Makes Three was a smash best seller.
But in Toronto, Buddy and Pedro’s relationship, however you describe it, is destined to come to an end soon because they have a duty. They have top-notch genes, so the zoo intends to separate them from each other and pair them with females for breeding.
Given that African penguins are endangered, the move falls within a species survival plan among zoos.
Buddy, 20, and Pedro, 10, are in Toronto as part of the popular African penguin exhibit that opened at the zoo in May. The two, bred in captivity, were part of a group of 12 penguins — six male, six female — that came to Toronto from zoos in the U.S.
Buddy and Pedro arrived from Toledo, Ohio, where they formed a connection as members of a bachelor flock.
Their relationship, referred to as “pair bonding’’ in zoo speak, continued after they arrived here, say their zoo keepers. Scientists don’t use the words gay or straight when it comes to sexual orientation in animals.
Read the rest of the article, and see a video clip of the pair, here.
2D:4D ratio predicts sumo wrestler wins.
in Hormones
This week in class I discussed the 2D:4D ratio and how it's indicative of prenatal exposure to testosterone. The ratio in homosexual men is closer to that of women than that of heterosexual men.
A recent study examined the 2D:4D in a sample of sumo wrestlers. Their findings were interesting:
Abstract
The second (index finger) to fourth (ring finger) digit length ratio (2D:4D) is known to be a putative marker of prenatal exposure to testosterone. It has been reported that fetal and adult testosterone may be critical for development of physical and mental traits such as cardiovascular system, reaction time, aggressiveness and masculinity. Testosterone-driven attributes are associated with success in male-to-male physical competition, which may be proxied by ability in sports. Many researchers have found that 2D:4D is sexually dimorphic and is a negative correlate of athletic performance. This study aims to investigate the associations of 2D:4D with measures of power as another possible testosterone-associated trait using ability in sumo wrestling as a proxy for male physical competitiveness. The measures of sumo performance comprised the sumo ranks and winning percentages of 142 Japanese professional sumo wrestlers. We found that sumo wrestlers with low 2D:4D had higher sumo ranks and better winning records. The significant negative associations between 2D:4D and the athletic prowess of sumo wrestlers provide further evidence of the possible link between high testosterone levels and muscle strength. The relatively small effect sizes found in this study, however, imply that 2D:4D may be a weaker predictor for sports requiring explosive power than for those requiring endurance.
Link to the study here.
Thursday mail - February 16.
Have any questions or comments related to class or otherwise? If so, fire away.
Pegging, at Christian Nymphos.
Organized religion gets a bit of a tough rap when it comes to sex positivity. I'm guilty of perpetuating this idea in class. Every once in a while, however, something comes along that flies in the face of religious sexual conservatism. Take, for example, Christian Nymphos, a website dedicated to sexual fulfilment within the confines of rules laid out in the bible. One post is related specifically to a behaviour described in class this week - pegging. The authour addresses pegging from a biblical point of view, and then takes down some common arguments:
I’ve heard the following arguments:
“Well it’s just not natural!” Well that toupee that your uncle wears isn’t natural either. And neither is your sister’s blonde hair that she got out of a box.
“Women weren’t meant to function like that!” Well, the mouth is meant to function as something we use to eat with. It chews our food up and aids in the digestion process. Yet many of us use that same mouth for oral sex, even though one could argue that the mouth wasn’t “meant” to function as a receptacle for a penis.
“That is like a complete role reversal and I can’t imagine God being pleased with that!” I would caution any of you who assume to know what God is thinking. Just because you aren’t comfortable with a particular act, does not mean that it’s inherently wrong or sinful.
“Any man who would want that would have to have some hidden homosexual tendencies!”This is just pure rubbish, and again just one big false assumption. I happen to love my own smell and taste, so much so that I would probably give myself oral sex if I were limber enough to do so. However, the thoughts of being with another woman and tasting her are repulsive and nauseating to me. Just because I am comfortable with my own body and within my own sexuality doesn’t mean that I have lesbian tendencies.
To read to the rest of the article, click here. The comments at the end are particularly interesting, and blow away some of the common stereotypes about Christians and sex.
It's time.
Repost from last term: