Carry on sauciness

Veruschka and pet

Veruschka (aka Vera Gottliebe Anna Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort), whose father Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, was killed in 1944 due to his participation in the July 20 Plot to take Hitler’s life.

Iwan Bloch, “father of sexology”

“In 1776 and 1777 five living electric eels exhibited in London became a sensational spectacle that appealed to anatomists, electricians and connoisseurs of erotica. … Some participants even grasped the eels firmly in their hands and felt the ‘electric stroke’ of the eel in addition to observing the spark. In their observation of the electric eel some of these spectators transposed the vivid electric spark from the sphere of electricians and anatomists into that of satirical and erotic literature. Here the erotic electric eel proliferated in the literature …. The story of the electric eel in Georgian culture charts the creation of the electric spark and stroke as objects of observation and encounter, their exhibitionary context, and finally their divergent meanings as the electric eel became erotically charged for a metropolitan masculine elite.“

“The second part of the book, and chapter 3 specifically, deals more intimately with the importance of Venetian writer Pietro Aretino and the relationship between Elizabethan England and Italy. The fourth chapter examines “the anxieties about effeminacy and the italiante that surface in the highly charged polemic between Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey.” Focusing on Nashe’s erotic narrative poem, “Choice of Valentines” (c. 1592), Moulton discusses Nashe’s respect for Aretino as a model for his own writing practices.“

The bawdy politic in Stuart England, 1660-1714: Political Pornography and Prostitution by Melissa Mowry — “Mowry widely consults and deftly engages with literary and historical scholarship on her subject, and her original research encompasses previously overlooked satires, including such broadsides as The Prentices Answer to the Poor-Whores Petition and The Poor Whores Complaint to the Apprentices of London, as well as archival legal documents related to the Bawdy House Riots and to prostitution in London.“

Veruschka

“Sarah Toulalan’s Imagining Sex rewrites a variety of current scholarly assumptions concerning seventeenth-century pornography literature in England. These varied assumptions include: the beliefs that seventeenth-century “pornography” did not exist, that it contained little aesthetic value compared to “erotica” or “literature,” and that it did similar things as modern pornography.“

Reading sex in the eighteenth century: bodies and gender in English erotic culture

“The scientized movements for sexual control born of nineteenth century anxieties concerning changing conceptions of class, race and gender spiraled into dark applications …. Intentionally or not, pornographers in the United States helped undermine the paired movements of purist authoritarianism represented by Anthony Comstock and William J. Robinson before either reached its brutal apotheosis.“

“Saucy stories: Pornography, sexology and the marketing of sexual knowledge in Britain, c. 1918-70“

“The very first Carry On film – Sergeant – came out 50 years ago this August and its appearance spawned a series of 30 over the next two decades. I decided to put in an idea to make a documentary marking the golden anniversary – not the sort that had been made many times before, focusing on the saucy lines and, at times, the desperately sad story of the troupe of actors who became such familiar faces to us all.“

“It is commonplace to observe that pornography drives the development of media technologies. Examples abound, from the mania for capturing naked bodies that led Charles Baudelaire to complain in 1859 that photography had been coopted, to the story of how American pornographers in 1976 decided that JVCs VHS would dethrone Sonys Beta videotape format. [However,] of the hundreds of stag films made before 1965, only five were shot in sound, and only four were shot in color. Although the whole point of a hard-core genre would seem to be graphic realism, stags clung to primitive technology.“

Before the Green Door: “This is the first of a two-part article exploring how hard-core porn evolved through the efforts of Jim and Artie Mitchell and other pioneers, with some help from San Francisco s vibrant counterculture.“

“There is widespread concern that deviant sexual fantasies promote corresponding behaviors. The authors investigated whether that concern is valid in nonoffender samples. … The association between pornography use and deviant sexual behavior held only for participants high in psychopathy.“

“Increased use of an online educational archive of photographic dermatology case materials indicated unexpected pornography-seeking behavior and misuse. … Of all referrals, 14.3% originated from nonmedical (pornography/fetish) Web sites. … CONCLUSION: Online photographic dermatology archives are vulnerable to misuse. Monitoring and intervention are necessary to preserve their availability and integrity.“

“This article examines two internet websites — Nerve, a magazine devoted to `smart smut’, and SuicideGirls, an `altporn’ site where softcore sexual display is a major component of a participatory taste culture. … [T]he article investigates how some new forms of pornography are developing to construct sexual display as a form of recreation, self-presentation and community building.“

“Some scholars have suggested that new media technologies are opening up spaces for the sexual emancipation of … marginalized groups. These ‘DIY’ web cultures would facilitate … more authentic, representations of gender and sexuality than conventionally available in mainstream pornography. This study examines these propositions by analyzing a sample of 100 user-generated ‘amateur’ videos on YouPorn, an adult video-sharing website.“

Here’s a clip about Peter Beard’s great photos of Veruschka:

Sacred prostitutes, sexy books and why sex is worth it

Charlotte Rampling

Another excellent treasure trove of Veruschka pics. An older Veruschka: “My eyes carry more than happiness.“

Western Sexual Mysticism: “The vast range of possibilities for hidden, erotic mysticism demand a closer look.”

Sex in the Dionysian mysteries, and sex in the Orphic mysteries

From a journal on endocrinology and metabolism, “Baubo: a Case of Ambiguous Genitalia in the Eleusinian Mysteries“

Sacred prostitution in Sir James Frazer’s Golden Bough

“Sacred prostitution and Aphrodite“

More about sacred prostitution, and still more

Michael Coogan on “God and Sex”

“Sex and the Renaissance Nun: Why Venetian Nunneries Were Once Hotbeds of Passion“

Dr. Debby Herbenick’s research interests range “from examining attitudes toward vibrator use to investigating the relationship between sexual lubricant and pleasure.”

The Veruschka segment from Blowup:

Rhesus Macaques “pay” for monkey porn (pdf)

“Sex differences in relative foot length and perceived attractiveness of female feet“

“While outbreaks of koro (a culture-specific syndrome involving belief that the genitals are shrinking and retreating into the body) are most common in China and other parts of south-east Asia, sporadic cases have also been reported in other countries such as Thailand, India, and even western nations such as Canada.“

Hooters opens in Japan

Two kinds of Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder

“This mind trick – called the Belladonna effect – is helping the team’s research into attractiveness. Large pupils is [sic] a known signal of physiological arousal, say the authors, so they predicted that making the pupils seem dilated would make a face appear more attractive.“

From almost five years ago, Susie Bright on Playboy‘s list of the 25 sexiest books. Adam Ross recommends James Salter’s A Sport and a Pastime.

Laura Miller against the Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Charlotte Rampling (1974)

“In this review, we summarize neural regulation of sexual function and neurological causes of sexual dysfunction in women.“

“Dr Abecassis performs a “hymenoplasty” as it’s called, at least two to three times a week. Re-connecting the tissue of the hymen takes about 30 minutes under local anaesthetic. … With Chinese manufacturers leading the way, there are now non-surgical options on the market as well. One website sells artificial hymens for just £20 (23 euros). The Chinese hymen is made of elastic and filled with fake blood.“

“When it comes to the age at which boys and girls first have sex, boys are far more influenced by what their peers are doing and by the number of available sex partners than are girls.“

“Several standard sex differences replicated across cultures, including women’s greater valuation of social status and men’s greater valuation of physical attractiveness.“

Hypothesis: “Sexual frequency would moderate the association between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction.“

Sex costs much time and energy. Is it worth it?

Alla Nazimova

“Additionally, the mating dance is another cost of sex. Individuals expend time and energy seeking out mates, and may have to compete and display for the attention of all. Why bother?“

“Men, they’ve found, are less likely to continue a relationship with an unfaithful partner who’s had a heterosexual affair, as opposed to a homosexual affair. For women, it’s the other way around – they’re more troubled by their male partner going off with another man.“

“Some historians have proclaimed that America’s first gay president was really … the now-obscure James Buchanan. (He was the 15th president, serving from 1857 to 1861). Buchanan is the only bachelor to ever have held America’s top office, and his private life raised many eyebrows while he was alive.“

“In Search of Looks, Status, or Something Else? Partner Preferences Among Butch and Femme Lesbians and Heterosexual Men and Women“: “Previous research posited that butch lesbians are physiologically similar to heterosexual men, and by implication, femme lesbians physiologically resemble heterosexual women. The current study sought to compare partner preferences among butch and femme lesbians, as well as heterosexual women and men.”

Mostly about critters

Veruschka as some sort of bird

The best batch of Veruschka pics I’ve ever seen

From Blogfish, the top 5 underwater sex acts. On a related note, last year’s sex week in Deep Sea News.

This year’s sex week at the Loom (fungi, water striders, as well as electrically sensitive fish)

An older post highlighting weird sex acts in the animal kingdom, and another one.

A kiss before dying (or something near enough): with its dying gasp, a squid got an erection that was 67 cm long, “almost the same length as the whole body of the animal,” ejaculated, and expired.

“And while it may seem odd to pose nude in front of Spock, Nimoy explains that each sitter interacted with him as an artist—effectively splitting Nimoy’s identity as an actor from the person behind the camera.” Here are Nimoy’s nude photos.

In search of … the G-spot, using ultrasound during coitus

“The victim was a 60-year-old man who was possibly attempting to sexually approach the animal from behind when he was struck by it, sustaining fatal blunt injuries …. Fatal trauma associated with bovines is rare on the whole, and when it does occur it is usually caused by kicking.“

The reproductive system of the black swamp snake, Part 6: “The anterior testicular ducts of the North American natricine snake Seminatrix pygaea are described using light and electron microscopy.”

Mating preferences of the male praying mantis, the ‘poster boy of risky sex‘

“Here we use a newly developed molecular technique to directly quantify mixed sperm stores in multiple mating females of the black field cricket, Teleogryllus commodus. In this species, female postcopulatory choice is easily observed and manipulated as females delay the removal of the spermatophore in favour of preferred males.“

Gender bending among Alberta long dase minnows

“As for the male lemurs, they started spending less time with females after they’d been dosed [with a contraceptive]. ‘It could be they’re showing less interest because the females are not showing immediately fertility. Or maybe the females just smelled weird,’ Drea said.“

From 1913, the strange case of the growing bone within a human penis

Buster Keaton

The sheepdog that just couldn’t finish the job, not even with an ‘estrous teaser bitch’

It turns out that the prairie vole, once reputed to be monogamous, “will sleep with anyone.”

“One of the biggest misconceptions about furries [people who wear full-body fur suits] is that they are all just a bunch of people who get together in mascot costumes and have sex. I’m not saying some people don’t do that ….“

“I have mixed feelings on highlighting bonobo sex life. Yes, it’s incredibly creative, and has more than once left my jaw hanging on the ground.” A review of Vanessa Woods’ Bonobo Handshake

On Philip Carr-Gomm’s new book, A Brief History of Nakedness

“This article reviews research findings documenting the nature of nonverbal courtship behavior compiled through both observation and self-report methods.“

Sperm competition, stress and more

Adrienne Fidelin

Ady Fidelin

The best predictors of how sexual a woman is

The great sperm race

Insect sperm wars

Sperm competition, cooperation

Three posts on the male reproductive anatomy at Neurotopia

Gaze direction affects judgments of facial attractiveness

What kind of erotic film clips should be used in female sex research?

Six revelations about women and sex

Scientific American on the female orgasm

Thinking yourself to orgasm

Veruschka as Salomé

Cuba pays for sex-change operations

I prefer the purity of nudes, says cheeky Rankin

Erotic art at Flavorwire

The geek’s guide to getting girls (with an impressive scientific bibliography)

As the use of porn increases, the rate of sex crimes goes down

Stress makes men prefer dissimilar mates

Ady Fidelin & Nusch Eluard

The Marilyn Monroe Lounge

Elvis’ lady-friends

The 1954 obscenity trial over Stanley Kauffmann’s The Philanderer

Femme fatale makes men take risks (details)

Graphic novel based on The Story of O

A review of Whip Smart by former dominatrix, Melissa Febos

Belle, Veruschka, etc.

Veruschka

Belle de Jour is a scientist studying “developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology.”

“She was petite, slight yet buxom, casually dressed with a blonde ponytail, with a subtle voltage and air of complexity that would clearly make her attractive to men. Above all, she was very smart indeed – always the mark of the born courtesan – and a gifted, witty writer.” A UK blogger tipped her off to the fact that a tabloid was about to out her.

The Apprenticeship of Big Toe reviewed

Pre-modern sex was more slippery

Female sex orientation taken in at a glance

ht Queerest of Them All's tumblr

Masturbation experiments reveal the role of oxytocin

Veruschka (aka Countess Vera Gottliebe Anna von Lehndorff) was one hot model, the first super-model, with a fascinating family background