I’ve written about the intersections of folklore and sexuality in the past. Now, with the upcoming holiday season, I’d like to focus on two aspects of folklore – celebrations and rites of passage – that are both relevant and interesting to discuss, especially in light of gender and sexuality. If we define folklore as expressive culture, then most holiday celebrations are informed by and can be categorized as folklore. Whether the holidays or festivals celebrated today are sacred or secular or some mix of both, when people gather in groups they display important aspects of their identities. To be sure, holidays in America are also influenced by pop culture and the mass media, not to mention capitalism and commercialism. Continue Reading →
Art & Culture
Recent posts
Wedding Season Reflection Part II: Giving Wedding Night Advice
After the fabulous affirmation of the power vested in us to support same-sex marriage, I went to the wedding of a good friend of mine who was doing an unusual thing for my particular friend group to do: she was waiting until she was married to do anything sexual with her partner. I thought this was unusual for most of my friends but apropos for her hip Christian outlook on life. I found her decision so fascinating that I asked her to come into the sex ed class that I teach during our session on “Abstinence” and talk about why she was choosing to wait until she was married. Of course, I also brought in another one of my friends who had consciously chosen NOT to wait until marriage, and had them each present their points why they were choosing abstinence or not and then had the students ask questions. It was one of the best classes I ever observed, and my abstinent friend was a big part of that. Continue Reading →
MSP interviews Jason Ball, Activist and Gay Football Player
Australians will often tell overseas visitors that Aussie Rules Football, or simply ‘footy,’ is like a religion. It’s rare to find an Aussie who doesn’t passionately support an AFL (Australian Football League) team and team rivalries are deeply entrenched in family and footy culture alike. As with most sports, the professional teams are all male and reflect and reinforce traditional male gender roles. When I read that an Aussie Rules Football player – Jason Ball – had come out publicly as gay (the first ever to do so), I was thrilled to see how it would affect change in this traditional institution. Not only has he come out, he’s also become a passionate spokesperson for eliminating homophobia in the AFL. Continue Reading →
Disclosing Relationship Status In The Classroom
I wonder, sometimes, whether my relationship status matters to my students. Right now, I’m teaching an introduction to folklore course, so I’m not a straight-up sex educator or researcher, though I do frequently bring gendered topics into the classroom. Still, Dr. Debby’s post on how being considered conventionally attractive influences her pull as a sex educator/researcher resonates for me. I know that dressing smartly in the classroom helps to hold students’ attention. I take pleasure in fashion to a degree, and I tend not to subscribe to the belief that beauty and brains cannot coexist. Continue Reading →
Wedding Season Reflection Part 1: The Power Vested in Us
This summer was an epic one for weddings. Many people I knew tied the knot this summer (including two of my favorite sex bloggers. Congrats, Jeana and Emily!). My partner and I attended six from May to September, and I thought I would share a few stories and lessons in the next few blog posts that I learned from the half-dozen ceremonies, receptions, and the one crazy carnival I experienced. Today I would like to contribute a story from one of my favorite wedding moments thus far. Continue Reading →
Vaginal Tightening Gel Makes You Feel “Like A Virgin”?
It seems that almost every day, I come across a new product that somehow offends me on several levels. “18 Again,” a vaginal tightening gel produced by an Indian pharmaceutical company Ultratech, is no exception. According to the article from the NY Daily News, Ultratech’s goal is to “empower the new age woman.” Now, while I understand that it could be considered empowering to take the status of your vagina into your own hands (literally), the fact that the company is essentially telling millions of women that they are only worthwhile if they have so-called virginal vaginas is far from empowering. Continue Reading →
New Research on “Promiscuous Cephalopods”
As regular MSP readers will know, I love learning about the fascinating (and sometimes hilarious) sex lives of Australian fauna. Multi-vaginated kangaroos and chlamydia-ridden koalas have a new companion in MSP’s catalog of interesting antipodean animals: the Australian dumpling squid. Dumpling squid rarely miss an opportunity to copulate, but their libidos and marathon mating sessions can compromise their safety. Zoologists at the University of Melbourne collected a sample of dumpling squid and observed their pre- and post-sex swimming endurance in a lab. Since these squid regularly mate for up to three hours, their ensuing post-coital fatigue can leave them vulnerable to predators. Continue Reading →
Genitals in the Wild: Man-made Nature
Earlier this year I found myself disc golfing on one of the most beautiful and popular courses in the nation. The Flip City disc golf course on the western coast of Michigan has rolling hills and beautifully trimmed fairways lined with cairns. For those not in the know, a cairn is a pile of rocks that is so stacked to be unnatural and artistic. While I was accustomed to surprise artistic structures on this course (there’s a mosaic made of beer bottlecaps, and a bottle-festooned tree), for some reason I was unprepared for the sight that awaited me on the 18th hole. It made for a fun last hole. Continue Reading →
Plants With Sexual Names
On a recent visit to my parents’ house, I was admiring a lovely tree in their yard. It had colorful blossoms, many of which had fallen to the ground below. Curious to know more about the local flora, I asked my dad about it. It went something like this:
“What kind of tree is that, Dad?” “It’s a rainbow showers tree.” Continue Reading →
Biology: Sometimes Hard To Ignore
Of the many interconnections of sex and nature, an obvious one is biology: the fact that we are living beings that interact with the natural world, ranging from the environment to other organisms. Some of those other organisms include viruses such as HIV. And sometimes people aren’t clear on how they work, as when Republican Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield claimed: ”My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex.” It turns out that the organisms inside our bodies don’t care what kind of sex we’re having: if infected fluids (such as semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk, or blood) are shared, then there is a risk of HIV transmission. Period. I’m starting to wonder how many people are conflating biology/nature with social norms and could use a refresher course! Continue Reading →