Sex Positive

Sex tech made the news again, this time it was MTV spouting off on the "evolution" of sex. I say "spouting off" because while columnist Tess Barker may be clever & know her tech, I'm not sure i...

Here is my workshop on Sex Positive Messages in 40 Years of Hip-Hop Culture. It's highly interactive and I had a really fun time. It was standing room only, which was pretty awesome.

I've been drawing graphs again. I'm finding it helpful, as a way to get deep inside an ocean of data. This time it's women's masturbation. See, the "master narrative" of women's masturbation has be...

Has sex-positive feminism, despite its victories, forgotten that sex work is actually work, and often quite brutal?

...Despite the acceptance of “sluts,” the “prostitute” remains a deeply embedded symbolic marker between decency and disrespect. The “ethical slut” engages in sex of her or his own “free” will, while the “dirty whore” insists on getting paid for sex. Sex-positive feminists and other “sluts” believe there is nothing morally wrong with consensual sex between two (or more) people in private, or for adults, in a semi-public setting such as a sex club, dungeon or swingers’ retreat. But money changes everything.

The existence of courtesans is a glaring refutation of neofeminist dogma about objectification, the eternal victimhood of whores, etc; the fact that the most celebrated, successful and highly-paid harlots of all time were often those who were educated and could match or surpass men in intellectual pursuits throws a huge spanner into the catechism that prostitution is a manifestation of male dominance over women, that our clients hate us, and so on.  Whenever possible, neofeminist historians deny that courtesans were prostitutes, pretend that accomplished women were not really courtesans, or describe them with circumlocutions like, “she chose to cohabit with several men who supported her financially.”  And when all else fails, they simply ignore them.  Fortunately neither male historians nor female ones with less parochial views feel the need to dissemble about such women, and among them Tullia d’Aragona is rightfully viewed as worthy of respect and study.

You mentioned having a feminist girlfriend which made porn a no-no. Most of us know the history of feminism and pornography — which most people prefer to describe in terms of “feminists say porn bad”. There were actually various distinctions (between porn and erotica, and between feminist thinkers as well), but in your case, you had a feminist girlfriend who actually said porn was a no-no?

"For too long these burlesque girls have been held down on the low rung of the entertainment ladder . . . but no more" declared Dixie Evans, the former Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque.

This is paper I wrote on lesbian visibility and eroticism for a class on Renaissance literature and history in 2011. It is very dense– but perhaps still enjoyable.

...What I argue is that this invisibility of female homosexuality is not merely a result of the historical distance from the period, but rather a consciously acknowledged component of the understanding of female same-sex erotic desire at the time. In “Sappho to Philaenis,” the secrecy and immaculateness of the title characters’ sexual activity operates as one of Donne’s central arguments for the superiority of a female-female sexual relationship.

A newly restored print of the 1967 documentary comes to Chicago for a screening Wednesday at the Portage Theater (co-presented by the Northwest Chicago Film Society, Reeling and Black Cinema House).

Filmmaker Shirley Clarke (who shot the footage over 12 consecutive hours in the living room of her penthouse apartment in New York's Chelsea Hotel) has only one subject: Holliday himself, an otherwise anonymous raconteur who cannily subverts his outsider status — that of black gay man in the '60s who made his living as a houseboy (his term) — with a mirthful ability to spin a tale.

If you thought the matter of who makes art exploring the issue of abortion difficult, perhaps the following antique erotic artworks will be too upsetting. That’s your warning to leave.

For these works go beyond the issue of basic nudity in art, beyond even the matter of erotic art, to  explore sexuality along with religion and what appears to be the opulence of wealth.

Clark’s lecture focused on “Sex: Why is Europe Different?” She discussed the popular idea that Europeans are more open with their sexuality than Americans.

“Europeans tend to regard sex in a matter of fact way,” Clark said.

Many European couples live together, have children and only marry years later or “out of order” compared to Americans. The teenage birthrate is 15 to 19 percent compared to the United States’ 40.2 percent. Abortion rates are also lower in Europe than in America, Clark said.

Sex education must be taught in European schools and parents cannot pull their students out of the class. Schools provide condoms and birth control for students.

...Clark credited the welfare state and sexual liberation movements of Europe for the openness.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Europe saw a backlash against the church and its strict rules regarding homosexuality and pre-marital sex. After World War II, consumer societies replaced the church’s role. Women and teenagers began working, giving them a new-found independence and the birth control pill was introduced in 1961. The church could no longer respond to the changing society and church attendance fell.

Better welfare was also introduced. The government gave allowances to families, childcare for single women and universal healthcare.

“I always wondered why Europe was more liberal with sex, but the welfare state explains that,” said senior history major Kyle Mathers.

I believe in the empowerment of aesthetic response. I believe it’s just as important — perhaps even more so –to do with porn and erotic materials than it is with Art.

Understanding your reactions, positive and negative, makes you a more self-aware human being. A wiser human being. To me, this is the intellectual version of an opposable thumb because it separates us from the simple wankers. And when it comes to our relationships, it is just as important to be able to articulate our reactions so that we can share them with our partners. Having struggled to do this for ourselves, we become aware just how difficult the process is and therefore we have greater understanding when our partners share their struggled-to-arrive-at reactions. Simply put, talking about turn-ons, turn-offs, and why we have them means not only increased intimacy, becoming better lovers, but we can then select erotica materials for mutual enjoyment.

In the case of this photo, and those like them, my negative feelings are deeper than the words “tacky” and “silly”. Deeper and more painful.