Exhibitionism

Posted by lilech on April 3, 2012

“The nonverbal behavior of women toward men according to their menstrual cycle has not been previously explored. In this study, the gait of women walking ahead a male confederate was recorded with the help of a spy-camera. … Comparisons were performed according to the women’s ovulation phase measured with an LH salivary test. Near ovulation, it was found that women walked slower and their gait was subjectively rated as sexier.“

“Do women who like politics have more orgasms?“

“This article looks at the position of the drag king in Hungarian lesbian culture. It focuses on Bandage, Socks and Facial Hair (2006), a documentary about a drag king workshop. The film documents the historical moment when the Hungarian workshop participants encounter the drag king as a lesbian tool for parodying and repoliticizing mainstream masculinity.”

“According to early modern European medical theory, men could menstruate vicariously through various bodily orifices. Although some medical men thought that the flow was pathological, others believed it brought significant health benefits. However, as the ability to control one’s body and mind became central to eighteenth-century definitions of manhood, leaky male bodies became increasingly problematic.”

Tony Perrottet’s article, “Who was Casanova?”

Danny Sutton photographed by Bunny Yeager

Source.

“The Rule of Thumb: Vagina Types and Variability of Female Orgasm … What [Princess Marie Bonaparte] discovered was a direct correlation between the ability to orgasm through vaginal sex and the measurement of space between the vagina and the clitoris.”

“Traumatic penile amputation is a rare condition requiring urgent surgical consultation with almost immediate surgical intervention. … These injuries are penetrating in nature, usually occur with the organ flaccid and most are self-inflicted by mentally unstable patients. … This report describes penile replantation in a 24-year old mentally challenged patient using 4.5× loupe-magnification to restore a functional, fully erectile penis without tissue loss and a 20-year problem free follow-up.”

“Mediated exhibitionism is the phenomenon of amateur performers exposing their nude bodies on the Internet, and includes the exchange of nude images by email, text message, webcam, electronic bulletin board, and other means of digital communication. … A series of websites catering to mediated exhibitionism were investigated.”

“Research has shown men and women of all ages and sexual orientations to use the Internet for sexual purposes. For example, the Internet is used to access pornography, to find sex-related information, to purchase sexual merchandise, and to find partners for romance and sex. … The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an empirical and theoretical overview of the first 15 years of research in the field of Internet sexuality.”

Elizabeth Taylor:

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

Posted by lilech on February 25, 2012

“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.

More about Koro, prehistoric dicks, and fractures

Posted by lilech on November 28, 2011

"Syrinx" by Arthur Hacker

“Paleolithic phallic art suggests that many early European men scarred, pierced and tattooed their penises. The practice appears to have been most common in France and Spain around 12,000 years ago.”

““Penis enlargements are now in seventh place among aesthetic surgery procedures for men,” said Sven von Saldern, the president of the German Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. “That surprised even us.”“

“Extramarital Affairs May Increase Risk of ‘Broken Penis’” but if you have broken your penis, you can put off surgery for a week or so.

“Making Up Koro: Multiplicity, Psychiatry, Culture, and Penis-Shrinking Anxieties: This paper considers the formation and development of psychiatric conceptions of koro and related genital retraction syndromes from the 1890s to the present. … Cases under consideration, additional to the first Dutch descriptions of koro, include the ways in which koro was identified in white western cases, and the 1967 Singaporean koro epidemic. Following a number of psychiatrists and psychologists who have addressed the same material, attention is also paid to the recent genital-theft panics in sub-Saharan Africa, considering the implications of the differences between koro and other genital-theft panics.”

From last summer, Jesse Bering on autofellatio.

“The lap dance found its way into the pages of The New Yorker by 1993, and entered the even more rarefied air of the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. The definition—“an erotic dance or striptease performed close to, or sitting on the lap of, a paying customer”—only underscores the language’s sad inability to capture the reality of lived experience.”

“Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Justice: A Comparative Law Casebook is a collection of domestic court cases addressing legal issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. It presents more than one hundred judicial decisions from every region of the world and analyzes the role of international and comparative law in cases involving such topics as the criminalisation of sexual conduct, gender expression and cross-dressing, employment discrimination, freedom of religion and non-discrimination, and partnership benefits and recognition.”

“This article examines the ways in which female same-sex desires were represented across a range of nineteenth-century European medical writings.“

Heidi van Horne

“What Women Want” from porn — James Deen, apparently

“How the Joy of Sex was illustrated“

From 2009, David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton on the scientific mysteries in women’s sexuality: “It is sometimes claimed that we have reached the “end of science,” that we pretty much know all there is to be known, and as a result, from now on it is simply a question of mopping up. Not so. Some of the greatest, most challenging scientific conundrums are very close to home, among human beings: our species, our mysteries, ourselves. As it happens these enigmas are especially real when it comes to women’s sexuality.”

From Cracked, who invented porn movies, sex magazines, etc.

Celestial bodies, Rampling and Playboy’s influence

Posted by lilech on May 25, 2011

“Women in both countries [USA and New Zealand] rated mesomorphic (muscular) and average male somatotypes as most attractive, followed by ectomorphic (slim) and endomorphic (heavily built) figures. … In both countries, the image lacking any trunk hair was rated as the most attractive, with a steady decline in attractiveness as hirsutism became more pronounced.“

“An extensive experiment was conducted using high-quality photographic stimulus material, several systematically varied figure parameters (weight, hip width, waist width, bust size, and leg length), and a large sample of 34,000 participants. The results showed that women prefer slightly wider hips, a narrower waist, and longer legs than men (highly significant but small effects). A clear difference was found with regard to the ideal bust size: 40% of men but only 25% of women preferred a large bust.”

“Physical Attractiveness: the Influence of Selected Torso Parameters” — “Front-view line drawings of male and female physiques were rated for attractiveness. Both subject sexes rated female physiques with greater curvature as less attractive. Male subjects’ ratings were unaffected by breast size while female subjects showed slight negative evaluation of large breasts. Both subjects sexes rated broad shoulders as attractive in male physiques. Greater chest muscularity resulted in slightly higher attractiveness ratings; waist slimness was also judged attractive, particularly in female subjects.”

“Although in his later years Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) vehemently rejected astrology, he earlier used it in a variety of ways, but primarily to provide further evidence for positions to which he had arrived by other means. One such early use appears in his commentary on his friend Girolamo Benivieni’s love poetry, the Canzone d’amore, of 1486-1487. In the passages discussed here, Pico presents an intensive Platonic natural philosophical analysis based on a deep astrologically informed understanding of human nature as he attempts to explain a perennial question, namely, why one person is attracted to a certain person (or people), and another to others.“

“In 1441, Eleanor Cobham, duchess of Gloucester, was arrested, together with three associates …. They were accused of plotting to kill King Henry VI by necromancy, but contemporary chronicles differed on the precise nature of their crime: had they summoned demons or cast an astrological chart? This paper explores the relationship between astrology and demonic magic, focusing on feelings, rites and apparatus, and perceptions that the more the practitioner’s body was implicated in the divinatory procedure, the more likely it was to be illicit.“

In Bachelors and Bunnies, Carrie Pitzulo argues that Playboy has a “surprisingly strong record of support for women’s rights and the modernization of sexual and gender roles.” Scott McLemee discusses this book and other works on Playboy. And here’s a piece in Vanity Fair about the Playboy clubs: “Bunnies who worked in New York and London remember serving various Beatles. Tony Bennett was a regular in New York, as was Johnny Carson, who then became a “rabitué” of the Los Angeles club, as Playboy would style it, after The Tonight Show moved west in 1972.”

“A sexual diary seeks to hold on to experiences not only by recording—crystallizing them through obsessive inscription—and sharing them with others, but through the repetition of more or less the same experience again and again. Generally the pornographic project is to repeat a series of moments of supersaturated meaning.“

“This essay examines L’Alcibiade fanciullo a scola, a seventeenth-century text written in Venice. L’Alcibiade is a sort of Platonic dialogue between a sodomite teacher and his young and attractive pupil. The teacher tries to convince his student to let him penetrate him. … Maggi brings to the fore the intrinsic ambiguities of the sodomite discourse. … The sodomite teacher believes that women embody the religious/political power that oppresses sodomites.” A French translation of L’Alcibiade.

“While the film The Night Porter, which was originally released in 1974, ostensibly portrays a detailed account of the development of a sado-masochistic relationship, it may also be read as a political metaphor. The film’s director and writer, Liliana Cavani, explicitly links the two protagonists’ obsession with each other as originating in an earlier shared experience within a concentration camp. … This paper is a detailed psychoanalytic exposition of the development and nature of that relationship.“

Charlotte Rampling in "The Night Porter"

There are a couple of Rampling stories in this post

“In 1971, I made a film entitled Self Portrait of a Nude Model Turned Cinematographer in which I explore the objectifying ‘male’ gaze on my body in contrast to the subjective lived experience of my body. The film was a radical challenge to the gaze that objectifies woman – and thus imprisons her – which had hitherto dominated narrative cinema. Since the objectification of women has largely excluded us from the privileged phallogocentric discourses, in this paper I hope to bring into the psychoanalytic dialogue a woman’s lived experience.“

A sequel is rumored to be in the works for the 3-D Chinese porn film 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy

Here’s a good history of pelvic surgery, with gruesome attempts from the ancient world into the early 2oth Century.

One of the men mentioned in that history was James Marion Sims, an early gynecologist. He’s touted as a great man in Alabama, but there’s a less favorable view of him due to his experimental surgeries on slaves.

“Of the 55 transsexuals who participated in this study (52 male-to-female and 3 female to male), 7.5% showed a prolapse greater than or similar to ICS-POP stage 2, and 3.8% required surgical intervention. For bladder symptoms, 47% reported voiding difficulties, 24.6% urgency, 17% urge incontinence, and 23% stress incontinence. Fecal urgency and incomplete emptying of the bowel occurred in 9.4% and 7.6% of patients, respectively. In addition, 23% reported that they were never satisfied with their sexual function.“

A catch-all catch-up post

Posted by lilech on April 7, 2011

Gina Lolabrigida

“In the earliest records of human religion, castration was regarded as an act of devotion. Moreover, the ritual of circumcision is still followed by many modern religions. … CONCLUSION: The ritual of castration evolved into circumcision as a less-invasive and bloody procedure than castration.“

“Tally is short for Tallywacker, a British nickname for penis. It is also the nom de Internet of a 55-year-old, heterosexual, happily married attorney in Tennessee who is at the vanguard of the foreskin restoration movement. With evangelical zest, he shares his story, and a sequential series of photographs of his penis.“

“According to the original commitment–skepticism hypothesis, women err on the side of underestimating prospective mates’ commitment to avoid the high costs of pregnancy without support. … Confirming our predictions, … postmenopausal women did not show a bias toward underinferring men’s commitment intentions.“

“The current study demonstrates that exposure to a sexily dressed woman increases single men’s likelihood of noticing status products in a visual display.” (pdf)

“[We used] one of the most compelling visual cues of female sexual attractiveness (low waist-to-hip ratio) to test the influence of news anchor sexualization on audience evaluations of her as a professional and their memory for the news that she presents. Male participants saw the sexualized version of the anchor as less suited for war and political reporting. They also encoded less news information presented by the sexualized than her unsexualized version.“

Marisa Berenson

“Previous research had shown that a woman at the fertile stage of her menstrual cycle seems more attractive, and that same effect was observed here — but only when this woman was rated by a man who wasn’t already involved with someone else.“

“Resource control was associated with preferences for physical attractiveness over good financial prospects and greater maximum partner age tolerated. … The results implicate the role of constraints on female access to and control of resources in sex-differentiated mate preferences and highlight differences between resource control and wealth.“

“Although neuroticism was negatively associated with marital satisfaction on average, it was unrelated to marital satisfaction when couples had engaged in relatively frequent sex over the past 6 months.“

“So when news broke this week that the FDA had approved Viibryd, a so-called sexy-friendly antidepressant, it caused quite a stir. Far too often, people are forced to choose between their mental and sexual health — as though these were entirely separate categories.“

Damage to amygdala disinhibits two women: “For one to two hours after each seizure, she would engage in a wide variety of unusual sexual behaviors, such as masturbating in public and trying to seduce family members and neighbors.“

“There are at least 11 different sex-related sleep disorders, collectively referred to as “sexsomnia” or “sleepsex,” that affect people who are otherwise psychologically healthy—causing them to unknowingly engage in various sexual activities during the night.“

Photo by Rudolf Koppitz

“Now, we know that females of many nonhuman primates and maybe even some nonprimates experience orgasm. But we still don’t know why.” (pdf)

Spermatologist Tim Birkhead recommends five books, inc. some on sperm competition

“7 fascinating new findings” in sex science

“We summarize in this review recent results showing that both the main and accessory olfactory systems are able to process partially overlapping sets of sexual chemosignals and that both systems support complimentary aspects in mate recognition and in the control of sexual behavior.“

“Olfactory systems in mate recognition and sexual behavior“

“Semen allergy suspected in rare post-orgasm illness“

“The mice showed the same scent preferences for male and female mice and vocalized for male and female mice equally. When the serotonin in these animals was replaced, they preferred female mice over male mice.“

“During contests between males, full eunuchs that had lost both pedipalps were better fighters than half eunuchs and intact males …. The scientists think that, once a male has lost his means of procreating, he protects his investment further by becoming a superwarrior.“

“It was From who told her it was her “scientific duty” to study homosexuals and promised her access to all the subjects she needed. Initially she demurred but eventually, with the encouragement of From and her colleague Bruno Klopfer, [Evelyn] Hooker began an investigation that would ultimately result in the removal of homosexuality as a form of psychopathology from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III of the American Psychiatric Association.“

A review of New York Hustlers: Masculinity and Sex in Modern America

Dr. Petra on a lap-dancer study: “The problem with writings about lap dancing in the past have been either they’ve focused on entirely positive accounts, or been overtly negative and often hostile to/about dancers. … This research is different as it takes the experiences of dancers and discusses their lives in a way that doesn’t flinch from the problems they face when dancing, or the positive (and mundane) parts of their work.“

“Music for Wanking: Brian Eno discusses his porno collection with Chrissie Hynde, 1974“

“Drugs, drag queens, nude psychotherapy, tutorials on stripping, trepanation, women wreastling (sic), disco churches and a soundtrack by Piero Piccioni, a suspected murderer who himself would be a suitable subject for Naked England, is an irresistible mix that makes this flick a perfect candidate for restoration and a digital release.“

Flaccid in Flanders — Belgian senator calls for a sex strike until political deadlock is broken

American Nudie Classics — “Your Grandpa’s Porn”

Genital microflora, pessaries and mean oxytocin

Posted by lilech on January 26, 2011

Hung like a … bull: “This is a report on advances in the field of penile prosthesis surgery for the fibrotic penis through the years 2006 to 2008. In that time, bovine pericardium was added to the choices of graft materials used to expand the corpora to accommodate the implant alongside the fibrous tissue.“

From an article called “Management of Penile Implant Complications”: “Avoid the penile dorsal nerve complex at all costs …. A cut across the dorsal nerve with electrocautery cannot be reasonably repaired, and the patient will be left with distal penile numbness—a recipe for a tough-to-defend malpractice case.“

“The Malassezia yeasts are … reported as part of the microflora of male genital region, mostly in uncircumcised males. The prevalence of Malassezia yeast colonization on the glans penis of circumcised males is discussed in multiple studies. We report the case of a male patient with extensive pityriasis versicolor that does not involve the preputial space.“

“We present a comprehensive account of clitoral anatomy, including its component structures, neurovascular supply, relationship to adjacent structures (the urethra, vagina and vestibular glands, and connective tissue supports), histology and immunohistochemistry. We related recent anatomical findings to the historical literature to determine when data on accurate anatomy became available.“

Six experts review the evidence and disagree about whether the G-spot is real: “Although a huge amount of data (not always of good quality) have been accumulated in the last 60 years, we still need more research on one of the most challenging aspects of female sexuality.“

“Development of pelvic surgery finds its roots in the Ebers papyrus (1550 BC) and evolved from Hippocrates (400 BC) who used pessaries with pomegranate to reduce uterine prolapse. Other maneuvers were also used. Vesalius was the first to provide a detailed description of the entire female genital tract. Adolf Retzius defined the boundaries of the prevesical space in 1849. The current concepts regarding the etiology of cystocele were proposed in 1912.“

Dickless wonders: “Though male wasp spiders have testes that produce sperm, they lack penises. Instead, the arachnids ejaculate into a small web and then store this sperm in special forelegs called pedipalps, which “look like boxing gloves,” said Schneider.“

Female damselflies turn butch to dissuade pesky males

Whale threesome!

Women more aroused by monkey sex than men are

“Oxytocin turns out to be the hormone of the clan, not of universal brotherhood. Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism.“

Bless their hearts o’ gold: “Still other prostitutes, such as Klee herself, focus on providing sex for seniors in retirement homes or for the disabled – an area the BSD spokeswoman said she expects to grow swiftly as Germany’s population ages.“

Major League Whore (such a harsh word) trading cards

Oregon State has some odd values

Recovering from self-castration? Try using leeches

Posted by lilech on January 26, 2011

Do NOT click this link, since there are close-up pics of the injury both pre- and post-op: “Successful microsurgical penile replantation following self amputation in a schizophrenic patient” Remember — do NOT click that link

“Replantation included end-to-end anastomosis of the urethral mucosa over a catheter, approximation of the corpus cavernosum and tunica albuginea … The catheter was removed at day 11, …. The preliminary cosmetic appearance was satisfactory with frequent morning erection, reported night emission twice within the first month post-operatively.“

“We report a case of self-inflicted penile amputation and describe a nonmicrosurgical technique for replantation. To improve postoperative edema due to venous congestion, we applied medicinal leeches to the penis. The edema quickly resolved, but overlying skin loss occurred, which required superficial debridement. At follow-up the patient had glans re-epithelialization with normal voiding, sensation, and erections. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of nonmicrosurgical penile replantation with leech therapy.“

Lampreys are not used in medical care

Four excerpts from “The psychological effects of leech therapy after penile auto-amputation“:

“After penile replantation, leeches were applied to his penis for 3 weeks to help improve blood flow to the area with good physical results. We review the literature regarding the psychological effects of leech therapy and, based on the literature, we make some recommendations on how best to minimize the psychological impact associated with leech therapy.”

“After completion of leech therapy, the patient … stated that he could “definitely” feel the leeches sucking and moving around on his penis and this was “torture” for him. … He complained that he felt like a “guinea pig” because nursing staff would come into his room to monitor the leeches on his penis. He found it disturbing that he could see the leeches moving on his penis underneath the sheets.”

“Other side effects include … the loss of leeches into body cavities (such as the anus, vagina, esophagus, and urethra), and adverse psychological responses.”

“At the time of discharge, the patient … had gained some insight regarding his actions, stating that cutting off his penis was the “biggest mistake of my life.”"

This leech is far more exotic than the ones used in medical care

(Source of the leech pic with interesting blurb)

A study connecting sex to cardio health and more naked opera

Posted by lilech on January 5, 2011

Ludmila Tcherina

Wagner and the Erotic Impulse: “‘He was not a pornographer, in any sense,’ says Dreyfus. ‘He was always trying to imagine some ideal representations of desires.’”

Links to some naked opera from recent years

Vagina: a Cultural History by Naomi Wolf will soon be available

The Kinsey collection of films at Indiana University is in an old bowlling alley

Liberated sexuality wrecks the social order but “if liberated sexuality is world-destroying from the mythic, fundamentalist point of view, it is world-creating from a pluralistic one.“

An analysis of women-in-prison flicks: “This dynamic — of eroticized male exclusion from, and investment in, female relationships — was the defining feature of a handful of women-in-prison films from the 1970s. In these movies, female sisterhood, generally in the face of oppression, is itself fetishized — feminism is turned into a kind of masochistic male wet dream.”

About those 19th-Century free-love communes in upstate New York and the northwest: “This essay explores the politics of social and geographical location in several histories of the 19^th century American and Pacific Northwest free love movements.”

Ludmilla Tcherina in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann:

On the Flash Press — “racy” “libidinous” male weeklies in 1840s New York

“The high priestess of free love … Victoria Woodhull: spiritualist, blackmailer, wife, prostitute and the first female presidential candidate“. Woodhull’s bio

“Purity, Pornography and Eugenics in the 1930′s — Part I“

“Praising the mound of venus: … While there are great artists that have given the vulva praise in art such a Georgia O’Keefe – the vulva does not get’s it due compared to the male member when it comes to praise and adoration.”

“Erectile dysfunction (ED) is considered a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) …. Our results suggest that a low frequency of sexual activity predicts CVD independently of ED and that screening for sexual activity might be clinically useful.“

An amazing production of Tales of Hoffmann: