It’s worth noting, I think, that yesterday, a little before before the new Weiner “news” broke, we had a post that explored online dating and hook-ups. For increasing numbers of people, this is their primary arena for sexual flirting, dirty-talk, “selfies”, fantasy, and – much more rarely – actual sex. As Ross Douthat noted, this … Continue reading Breaking: Man Gets Off Online
Late last week the trailer for Sharknado went crazy viral on Twitter: Thomas Vitale, SyFy’s executive vice president for programming and original movies, explains how much these films cost: We pay $750,000 or $800,00 for these movies. They cost about a million and a half to two million. The budgets are often helped by tax grants and incentives … Continue reading The Economics Of Terrible TV
Gina Tron was attacked by a serial rapist in 2010. She describes her enraging experience reporting the crime to the NYPD: I was interviewed by a detective who kept asking me about what I was wearing at the time and who told me that this case would probably never make it anywhere because I was intoxicated. Instead of focusing … Continue reading Victimized Twice
Amanda Hess doesn’t think the new app that gives women instructions on how to masturbate is going to close the gender gap: Female masturbation is a logistical challenge, particularly for women who share their bed with a partner every night of their lives. When a single woman fails to orgasm from a one-night-stand, she’s free to … Continue reading A Female Fap App, Ctd
Ann Friedman read Daniel Bergner’s new book, What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire. Among her takeaways: Women want sex, and in particular, they want sex with people who really want them. But socially, many straight men still find it a turnoff when women are sexual aggressors. Which means that, for women, aggressively … Continue reading What We Get Wrong About Female Sexuality
Yesterday, Angelina Jolie revealed that she had a preventive double mastectomy. A genetic test found that she carries a BRCA gene, which greatly increases the chances of breast cancer: I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy … Continue reading Her Breasts, Her Choice
Last Friday a judge ruled that the morning-after pill must be provided over the counter to women of all ages, a policy that the Obama administration’s FDA has fought. Scott Lemieux explains the case: The opinion by Reagan-appointed District Court judge Edward Korman … makes a compelling legal case that the override of the FDA was illegal. The … Continue reading A Win For Emergency Contraception
Julia Fierro contemplates a challenge of many novelists: When I asked literary writers about their experience writing sex, their responses ranged from, “I am terrified of sex scenes!” to “I fear the reader will think I’m a pervert, or terrifically immature, or both.” Why do so many literary writers fear writing about sex? Why do … Continue reading Sex On The Page
Today the parliament of the European Union will vote on a resolution to ban pornography, ostensibly to promote gender equality. Zack Beauchamp argues that such a ban would be counterproductive: [There is] empirical evidence that [pornography] reduces the incidence of sexual violence. One 2007 study by Todd Kendall compared the rates of crime between U.S. states with greater and … Continue reading The EU’s Porn Show
Jon Millward combed the archives of the Internet Adult Film Database – essentially the Wikipedia of porn – to “find out once and for all which stereotypes about porn stars are true, which are bogus, and what these men and women have been doing for the last forty years.” Among his findings: [T]he most common … Continue reading The Average Porn Star
