Sex Positive

What if being bad could do some good? That's the question asked by Come4.org, which describes itself as "the first user-generated, nonprofit pornography site devoted to funding charitable and ethically driven projects."

The site is being unveiled with help from the Paris office of TBWA agency Being, which crafted an explicit 90-second short film, "The Lover," introducing Come4's first charitable initiative—helping to fund the Asta Philpot Foundation, which is committed to raising public awareness about the sexual rights of disabled people. (Philpot, an American living in Britain, advocates the right to an active sexual life for people with disabilities, even if it means paying for sex.)

Guilt and jealousy over masturbating?!

Promoting or at least discussing pleasure has been shown to increase consistent condom use and other forms of safer sex, says Doortje Braeken

As a sex worker who has both mental illness(es) and a history of abuse Mia Freedman’s post perpetuates stereotypes and stigmas that harm me. Should my mental illness prevent me from having any agency? Didn’t we do away with locking the mentally ill up and throwing away the key (although this still does happen) because we (as a society) started to recognise the mentally ill as humans with rights? Or do we only have some rights? Like the right to work in a low paying, menial job or the right to exist (not live because let’s face it, it isn’t a living wage) on the disability support pension and that is if you even qualify for it, if you don’t you can always try and get by on unemployment “benefits” while you are made to apply for jobs you will never get. Surely I still have the right to have sex don’t I? I can’t see Mia Freedman advocating for enforced chastity belts for the mentally ill. So, if I have the right to work and the right to have sex, what is wrong with me having sex as my work?

Elizabeth Smart became a household name after she was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City, UT at the age of 14 and held in captivity for nine months.

Gonzalez-Navarro, working with researchers at Yale and the University of Ottawa, found that Colombian students in an 11-week online course in safer sex created by Profamilia, part of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, knew more about safer sex practices than students who took the conventional, state-mandated health class. And their knowledge was put into practice. For every 68 students who took the online course instead of the traditional course, researchers estimated by reviewing students’ medical records and comparing them to those of peers who didn’t take the course, up to two sexually transmitted infections were prevented. The students were also 10 percentage points more likely than their counterparts to redeem vouchers for free condoms offered six months later.

A very importantn distinction is missing from discussions about sexual violence.

As social workers, we were educated and trained to help our clients become comfortable enough with our working relationship and often urge them to discuss the taboo, sex included, yet it appears even in our professional education we avoid these topics. In this case, not only did my education not enlighten me about the works of Dr. Ellis in the taboo field of sexuality, but it also held little discussion of sex therapy outside of the normative discussions of couple’s therapy. How is this helpful to ourselves, our clients, and our profession? How can we help our clients reach this comfortable stage if we cannot even teach our students how to discuss this material in the class room, let alone with their clients or like minded professionals? This remains a hindrance to ourselves and our clients; helping to further the idea that these topics are taboo by ignoring them in our education.

A two-year budget bill advanced by Ohio's state House of Representatives on Tuesday would defund Planned Parenthood, redirect that state money to Christian-run "crisis pregnancy centers," and impose a fine of up to $5,000 on teachers who provide certain kinds of sex education instruction to their students.

A West Virginia high school student is filing an injunction against her principal, who she claims is threatening to punish her for speaking out against a factually inaccurate abstinence assembly at her school.

If television is a reflection of society, then a study of two programs on cable TV by a New Mexico State University researcher may help to expand how women's sexuality is viewed in the United States. Kassia Wosick, assistant professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently shared her findings at the Pacific Sociological Association annual conference in Reno, Nev.

At the heart of Wosick's research are two television series that depict women who pay for sex. Wosick, along with one graduate student and two undergraduates, are using content analysis and focus groups to study HBO's "Hung," a scripted production, and ShowTime's "Gigolos," a reality-based series.

..."People have a tendency to dismiss sex research," Wosick said. "They have a tendency to relegate it to biological or physiological, and the sociologist has so much to say about sexuality in general. And partly why my research is so timely and important is that it really brings together traditional discourses with more contemporary discourses in terms of sexuality, the body, pleasure and desire."

Wosick's research involves investigating women's sexual consumerism using the two TV shows. She is looking at how women consume sex-related materials and services in an industry that is traditionally targeted toward men. Wosick is gathering data about women as consumers of pornography, erotic materials, sexual experiences, and also male-focused services such as strip clubs.

In “Sex and the Citadel,” Shereen El Feki asks an array of highly personal questions about present-day sexual relations in Muslim societies.

“Men in Egypt, in the gulf, they always want to have sex in the wrong place,” one Egyptian woman whispered to the writer Shereen El Feki, while she conducted her research into sexual proclivities in a rapidly changing Arab world.

The comment was about anatomy, not geography. And it’s indicative of the frankness Ms. El Feki’s “Sex and the Citadel” sometimes achieves. Though she warns her readers that she is not writing an encyclopedia or staging a peep show, Ms. El Feki does ask an array of highly personal questions about present-day sexual relations in Muslim societies, with particular emphasis on Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. A number of people tell her that anal sex gains appeal when a culture places a high premium on virgin brides.

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.