Benny Hill, Lisztomania, and the barmaid’s outfit

Benny Hill got his start at The Windmill Theatre, which “was infamous for its risqué dancing girls and nude tableaux but it was a tough crowd for comedians who would make up part of the show. Not too many patrons were there for the jokes. … Hill had a strange relationship with women. He was very confused about the accusations of sexism in the latter part of his career. … But society around him had moved on and an elderly man surrounded or chased by very scantily-clad women made for uncomfortable viewing.”

From the FAQ section at Science Cheerleader: “The Science Cheerleaders are professional cheerleaders pursuing science careers who playfully challenge stereotypes, turn everyone onto science by encouraging participation in citizen science activities, and inspire the 3-4 million U.S. cheerleaders to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and math.”

“Now, thanks to The Icelandic Phallological Museum, it is finally possible for individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion. The Icelandic Phallological Museum contains a collection of more than two hundred and fifteen penises and penile parts belonging to almost all the land and sea mammals that can be found in Iceland.”

On Ken Russell’s Lisztomania (1975): “The girls tear and claw at Liszt, who whips a harp from out of nowhere [and] … inspires them to summon out his trouser snake with a sweet siren’s song. Their lilting calls yield totally unexpected results as Liszt’s member expands and expands, finally ending up at a length of about ten feet.” Liszt is played by Roger Daltrey, the Pope is played by Ringo Starr. Somehow, Wagner and Hitler also get into this movie. Here’s a frame that I copied from the previously linked Cine-Miscreant:

The Rhine maidens in "Lisztomania"

“After outlining Marcuse’s theory of the role of Eros in social life, I discuss two pornographic Web sites that combine eroticism and social critique. I argue that Marcuse’s work is valuable for its emphasis on the intersection of sex, technology, and capitalist economy, but that it needs to be supplemented by a focus on masculinity and the male body in Internet pornography.”

“Jacobs describes an experiment in which she and a group of her students went to a Starbucks coffeehouse in Shenzhen to search for sexually explicit media on the Internet. The aim was to see what they could access through mainland China’s Great Firewall. “We were there for 30 minutes and we found all this porn using an Internet connection in a public space.” Pornography has been officially banned in China since the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949. …
Subcultures of user-generated or DIY pornography have evolved on the Internet as a result.”

From Dyan Elliott’s The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500: “The impact of Bernardine spirituality among the early Beguine mystics provides the impetus for a sensual, embodied, and ultimately eroticized bride of Christ. The tendency to express this spirituality somatically perhaps culminates in the matrimonial embellishments of later pious widows such as Bridget of Sweden and Dorothea of Montau.”

Karmen MacKendrick: “It is hard to see how one might have an obligation to others to feel the bite and burn of a well-wielded whip …. It is just as hard to see how it makes sense to say that one could have the right, just for oneself, to be broken out of that self, slammed against the sturdy boundaries of the ego until they break. … This shattering, exteriorizing intensity is an otherness that arises from within the focus on the body and its pleasures. … We, at least since Leopold von Sacher-Masoch first eyed the Lives of the Martyrs … have been inspired by images of the saints: Teresa, unspeakably joyous as the cherub’s arrow pierces her entrails; … Sebastian, serene with his multiple arrow-piercings; Catherine stretched and broken on the wheel.”

"Monna Vanna" by Franz von Stuck

According to Anne Dufourmantelle, “Philosophical ideas, like sexual enjoyment, exceed our control and can only come to us unbidden. Both offer the illusion that we can escape time and mortality into the timelessness of thought or the ecstatic moment of the sexual encounter. In sex we try to overcome our separateness and to connect with someone else. Likewise, philosophy tries to grasp a hidden world order in which everything is connected. Most importantly, in sex, one encounters another body, another world outside one’s own, and this unseats and transforms.”

“Although neither Severin nor his creator [Sacher-Masoch] appears in David Ives’s wildly intelligent and sometimes frightening new play, “Venus in Fur” (at the Classic Stage Company), it helps to have some knowledge of the novel and its author …. This sexual roundelay about power and powerlessness, about the imagination butting up against so-called “reality,” is played out by two contemporary characters.” That review’s a couple of years old.

Have you seen the article in the Atlantic about Jaroslav Flegr’s work, which links schizophrenia and car crashes to a brain parasite that we can get from cats? According to that article, male rats that have the parasite behave in more risky and even self-destructive ways and are more attractive to female rats than the more prudent males are. Well, now the folks at Improbable Research have linked to another of Flegr’s papers, which is called “Dominance, submissivity (and homosexuality) in general population. Testing of evolutionary hypothesis of sadomasochism by internet-trap-method,” (here’s the pdf of that paper).

“Subcutaneous Penile Insertion of Domino Fragments by Incarcerated Males in Southwest United States Prisons: A Report of Three Cases: … In each case, an incarcerated Hispanic male or fellow inmate filed a domino into a unique shape for placement under the penile skin. Utilizing the tip of a ballpoint pen or a sharpened shard of plastic to create a puncture wound, each man inserted the domino fragment into the subcutaneous tissue of the penis. … Conclusions: Incarcerated males put themselves at risk for injury and infection when attempting penile enhancement with improvised equipment.” (via Improbable Research)

“The editors, who are also contributors to this book, begin by identifying themselves as “part of a generation of women currently entering the workforce as professors, researchers, lawyers, and other professionals who also worked during some part of our lives in the sex industry” (xi). “Flesh for Fantasy is devoted to destigmatizing the sex industry, illuminating the labor conditions of strippers, and revising the cultural connotations of exotic dance” (xxxii). It challenges the patronizing attitudes about sex work that have characterized most, but not all, feminist discussions until very recently.”

“The distinction drew a line between sex and gender. Sex referred to the reproductive categories of male and female, and it was a useful biological concept, applicable to humans, nonhuman animals, and plants. Gender, on the other hand, indicates the socially constructed roles, behaviors, and traits of male and female. … The French philosopher Michel Foucault set the agenda when he lamented … that “the notion of sex made it possible to group together, in an artificial unity, anatomical elements, biological functions, conducts, sensations, and pleasures, and it enabled one to make use of this fictitious unity as a causal principle.”"

“On the evening of May 29 [1912] at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris the audience was scandalously titillated (or titillated scandalously) as they watched Nijinsky’s erotic pleasure dancing the lead to Claude Debussy’s Prélude à L’Après-Midi d’un Faune. The audience was captive to and captivated by the great exhibitionist in a dark brown and white costume designed by Léon Bakst and based on a Greek satyr … enthralled with his erection the size of a tree trunk.” Here’s Nijinsky about to scandalize Parisians by simulating masturbation with a nymph’s scarf:

Nijinsky as the Faun about to pounce on a nymph's scarf

“Barmaid’s risqué outfits cause gender divide in Italian town: … The female mayor of the town has called the 34-year-old barmaid a threat to public order, because her miniskirts, high heels and skimpy tops are drawing male customers from up to 70 miles away, who clog up the nearby streets with their cars and park illegally.”

“A how-to guide for better masturbation that hangs in Skidmore College bathrooms is steaming up the campus in more ways than one. The [guide], published by the college’s Center for Sex and Gender Relations, encourages masturbation as “a great way to relieve some of the stress that comes with classes, finals and the never ending homework.” The poster shows a map of the body’s erotic zones and offers suggestions for heightening self-pleasure.”

David Barash on “The Evolutionary Mystery of Female Orgasm” Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Uncanny photo erotica by a Russian artist.

Here’s a kinky scene from the 1963 film of Jean Genet’s The Balcony. The cast included Peter Falk, Leonard Nimoy, and Shelley Winters. The actors in this scene are Ruby Dee and  Peter Brocco.

Frisky elk, the iceman cometh, and sharia law on sex robots

“Since 1995, [75-year-old Professor Judith] Hanna, a University of Maryland [anthropology] researcher, has helped clubs repel efforts to tax, regulate or close them, arguing more than 100 times that striptease is just as much an art as ballet. Next year, her lap-dances-are-art argument will be part of an appeal before New York’s highest court. A stripper in heels is like a ballerina en pointe, she says.”

“Reframing sexual differentiation of the brain: … The dominant model of sexual differentiation stated that genetic sex (XX versus XY) causes differentiation of the gonads, which then secrete gonadal hormones that act directly on tissues to induce sex differences in function. This serial model of sexual differentiation was simple, unifying and seductive. Recent evidence, however, indicates that the linear model is incorrect and that sex differences arise in response to diverse sex-specific signals originating from inherent differences in the genome and involve cellular mechanisms that are specific to individual tissues or brain regions.”

“Disrobing Associated with Epileptic Seizures and Forensic Implications: … Two cases involving disrobing associated with seizures …. An additional case reveals the legal consequences endured by one patient who experienced a nocturnal seizure and began wandering in an unclothed state. Collectively, these cases illustrate the medical reality of seizure-related disrobing and the related adverse effects on patients’ quality of life.”

Pharyngula on an unfortunate woman with two vaginas: “In didelphys, the vagina is divided in two by an internal septum, nothing more.”

The 1st lesbian scifi novel: “Which makes Gregory Casparian’s The Anglo-American Alliance. A Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future (1906), the first lesbian science fiction novel, all the more notable.”

“Sex Differences in Sports Across 50 Societies: … In all 50 societies with documented sports, there were more male sports than female sports; hunting and combat sports were almost exclusively male activities; and the sex difference in sports was greater in patriarchal than in non-patriarchal societies. These results show that a robust sex difference in direct physical competition co-occurs with meaningful variation in its expression.”

“The origins of [circumcision] are lost in antiquity. It was performed since 3000 BC by the Egyptians for hygienic and religious reasons. … Nowadays, circumcision is performed as a routine procedure by the Jews and the Muslims for religious reasons. The world prevalence of men with circumcision is 12.5-33%, especially in USA, Canada, Islamic people and Africa; in Europe the prevalence rate is low (in Great Britain it is 1.5%).”

Dr. Petra on average penis size: “The other problem with this area is studies differ in how they operationalize their measuring of penises. Some relied on lab based studies where men were measured by researchers, others based their work on self-reports from men …. Some studies were based on erect penis measurements; others relied on stretching a flaccid penis as far as it could be pulled and measuring that as an approximation of a hard-on.”

“[Historian Ivan Crozier] explores how koro – the fear that the genitals are fatally shrinking into the body – has been central to the definition of the ‘culture-bound syndrome’.”

“Damage to parts of the penis vital for proper erections has been repaired for the first time with the help of stem cells. In rats, the treatment restored full erections, improved blood flow and accelerated healing.”

“Ethical and Legal Implications of Sex Robot: An Islamic Perspective: … This study first review the state of the art in sex robot and its associated ethical and legal issues. Secondly the issue is evaluated from Islamic perspective together with position of Islamic law (Shariah) towards the deployment of robot in sexual activities. The social effect of robot sex to the institution of marriage in particular is examined.”

“‘Imagining Cihuacoatl’ examines the conundrum of the multiple identities of the ‘serpent woman’, a Mexican goddess, analysing her relationship with other goddesses in the Nahua pantheon. She and the others were marked in a particular sexualised and gendered manner in the Nahua world. This article argues that Cihuacoatl and the fertility goddesses cannot be conceptualised in a symbolic universe that has binary divisions between male and female, nor can they be analysed by the methods currently employed in the social and cultural history of sexuality.”

“Jonas and Wyatt Maines were born identical twins, but from the start each had a distinct personality.” “The twin boys were identical in every way but one. Wyatt was a girl to the core, and now lives as one, with the help of a brave, loving family and a path-breaking doctor’s care.”

“Airborne molecules that elicit a reaction in a member of the same species are called pheromones, and the most famous ones are potent aphrodisiacs, like androstenone and androstenol in the saliva of male boars. If a fertile female gets a whiff of these molecules, she’ll present her rear to the male, a universal gesture in wild pig patois that means, “Let’s start a family.””

“Swede shocked by backyard elk ‘threesome’: … While he’s used to seeing elk get tipsy from eating fermented apples, Lundgren said he was wholly unprepared to have a front row seat at an elk sex show taking place in his backyard. “I’d never seen anything like it. Not with elk, at least,” he said. … “An older bull would never try to mount a cow in a wide-open residential backyard at this time of year,” [said Pär Grängstedt, researcher at the Grimsö research station].”

British banker leaves Goldman Sachs to start a custom-fit condom company.

Bollywood actors and filmmakers interviewed about shooting sex scenes.

Typewrite erotica c. 1920′s, inc. some nudes.

Weimar to postwar links

“Reexamining Weimar Germany via the Politics of Prostitution” — a review of Julia Roos’s Weimar through the Lens of Gender.

On Magnus Hirschfeld: “This article considers the two major biographies of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, MD (1868—1935), an early campaigner for ‘gay rights’ avant la lettre. Like him, his first biographer Charlotte Wolff (1897—1986) was a Jewish doctor who lived and worked in Weimar Republic Berlin and fled Germany when the Nazi regime came to power.”

A German lesbian film from 1931: “I’m going to be talking about Mädchen in Uniform (1931). It’s not the first girl-on-girl kiss of cinema (Marlene Dietrich snagged that one in Morocco in 1930) and it’s not the first time the idea of a real life lesbian had been portrayed (see aforementioned Pandora’s Box, 1929) But it WAS the first time something this lesbian graced the silver screen. … It’s nearly impossible to get a good print of the film anyway  because when the Nazis came to power, they banned the film and attempted to burn all existing copies.”

Berlin’s Lesbische frauen — on a 1920′s guide to Berlin’s lesbian clubs: “Equally chic, but definitely more late-night was Le Garconne on Kalkreuthstrasse, owned by Susi Wanowski, the former wife of a Berlin Chief of Police but now the lover and manager of Wiemar-era wild-child, Anita Berber.”

Some info about Berber in a clip from Berlin — Metropolis of Vice:

“Fascism and the Female Form: Performance Art in the Third Reich” by Terri J. Gordon, from a collection called Sexuality and German Fascism.

“The Man Who Started the Sexual Revolution”: “Twenty years later, his curia-like Vienna Psychoanalytical Society was attracting a new generation of followers after the war, among them an impecunious student from the provinces, Wilhelm Reich.”

“Sixty Years of Beate Uhse”: “In the early days of her company, the target groups of this entrepreneurial woman celebrated as the “orgasm muse,” “sexpert” and “love slave of the nation” were not hedonists or the sexually adventurous, but women rebuilding Germany from the rubble of the war.”

“Sexual science and self-narrative: epistemology and narrative technologies of the self between Krafft-Ebing and Freud” : “Starting from the psychiatric problematization … of the concept and the object called ‘sexuality’ in the second half of the 19th century, it attempts to show a series of continuities and discontinuities between this kind of reasoning and the birth of psychoanalysis in the first years of the 20th century.”

"Procuress" by Otto Dix (1923)

A note about the Freud-Spielrein-Jung film, A Dangerous Method: “In many ways, the film is a well-made hybrid of ideas movie, masterly costume drama, and, frankly with Knightley onboard and some spanking sex, a touch of S&M soap.”

“Verfolgt takes place in present-day Hamburg and tells a story about fairly ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances. It shows their discovery of sadomasochism – gritty, awkward, human, unpretentious, and ardent.”

“Nothing in theatre elevates the identity of actor over character more completely than nudity. Yet as a performance or spectacle, nudity remains a form of masking, insofar as it amplifies the desire to discover, to expose something hidden by clothing.”

The Museum of Sex posted some old erotic art by Franz von Bayros, and here are some amazing erotic bookplates by the same artist.