Welcome to International Clitoris Awareness Week! This is the first year that the clitoris has its own week, and is celebrated May 6-12, according to the Huffington Post. While I agree that the clitoris is an amazing body part and deserves more than a little celebration, I had no idea that it had its own week. Clitoraid, an organization that aids survivors of female genital mutilation, came up with the idea and is sponsoring the week. Clitoraid’s spokeswoman Nadine Gary noticed that often talking about clitoris makes people uncomfortable and “whenever something has an ‘awareness day’ it makes it more comfortable to talk about” and I absolutely agree. Continue Reading →
Wedding Season Reflections Part III: A Healthy Balance of Hard Work and Fun
For my final reflection, after celebrating the fact that there’s power vested in us and giving a few awesome sexual newbies wedding night advice, I wanted to talk about one of my favorite weddings of the summer. While I loved being present for all of these amazing nuptials (just like when I go see a play – it’s nice in the audience), but I really prefer being onstage. So I was happy to be a big part of my best friend’s wedding. In my role as “best man,” I had a lot of jobs to do. Some prescribed by the bride and groom, and some prescribed by society. Continue Reading →
Hymen Handling Tips
In the mood for a cute, upbeat video that discusses how to better understand and care for your (or your intimate partner’s) hymen? Then watch this, and take note of the speaker’s tips on how to ease into sexual activity while taking into account the porous membrane that partially covers the vagina. You can also read Dr. Debby’s advice on how to deal with a hymen that covers more of the vagina and can thus lead to painful sex. Continue Reading →
O-H-I-No! – Limits to Sex Ed in Ohio’s Schools
I’ve mentioned here before that I live in Ohio, and have a decent amount of pride for my chosen state (and especially the city that I live in). Living in Ohio can be a constant test, whether it’s experiencing a whole season in the matter of days or dealing with living in a state that is not a fan of comprehensive sexuality education. Each semester, I have a minimum of three students who tell me that they wish they had received adequate sexuality education before now (these are college students, typically juniors and seniors). I have students who tell me that they believe they wouldn’t have been pregnant or have dealt with a sexually transmitted infection, etc. While on one hand I’m glad that my students seem to enjoy and learn in my classroom, I do wish that medically accurate and age appropriate sexuality education was more readily available. Continue Reading →
Book Review Of Violation: Rape In Gaming
Maybe you don’t think of the words “rape” and “gaming” being used together very often, but according to Clarisse Thorn and Julian Dibbell, co-editors of a new anthology, perhaps you should. They recently released Violation: Rape in Gaming as an e-book and paperback, and as we MSP readers know to expect from Clarisse’s other work, this is a thought-provoking foray into the collisions between sexuality and subcultures. Thorn’s introduction reflecting on game rape, feminism, S&M, and selfhood is one of the highlights of the book, giving readers some framing terms and concepts to accompany us through the rest of the essays. Thorn describes her involvement with feminism and with the BDSM/S&M/kink communities, and she draws some intriguing connections between the use of negotiated boundaries and safewords in BDSM and consensual reality in role-playing games (such as how the Mind’s Eye Theater system of role-playing emphasizes player boundaries even in horrifying in-game situations). Thorn also gives a history of gaming starting with tabletop role-playing games like D&D, and moving up through LARPs, MUDs, and MMOs. Continue Reading →
JimmyJane Form 3 Review
I’ve once again had the pleasure of teaming up with Good Vibrations for a MySexProfessor toy review. This time, they sent me the JimmyJane Form 3, an adorable rechargeable vibrator. I’ve always been impressed with JimmyJane’s unique toy designs, and the Form 3 is no exception. The vibrator is small (it fits in the palm of your hand) but mighty! With four power levels and four vibration patterns, the opportunities are endless (well, maybe not endless, but 16 options is a lot). Continue Reading →
Queer Scholarship In Song And Story
Queer theory is known for being dense, almost unreadable at times. That’s why it’s all the more impressive that Kay Turner, a folklorist at the Brooklyn Arts Council, dedicated an evening to performances of queer-theory-oriented songs. And even better, the New York Times wrote up the event in a blog post documenting the songs and attendees. Why is this noteworthy? Queer theory had its beginnings as an offshoot of academic feminist theory, gay and lesbian activism, and other influences from the humanities, social sciences, sexuality studies, and the public sphere. Continue Reading →
Is Sex-Based Medicine Helpful or Harmful?
Our society needs categories in able to function (or so it seems). These categories come in handy when we’re collecting data for the Census, but the rest of the time, they tend to do more harm than good. In the United States, many pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals use these categories to study human health. It seems like this would make sense, right? Some groups of people are prone to some diseases more than others, so stratifying the data could help to create cures or treatment specific to this group. Continue Reading →
How A Misogynist Changed His Mind
What makes people change their core beliefs about how the world works (a.k.a. their worldview)? This question intrigues me, as I note in this post about how Canadian health care converted a self-identified conservative to support universal health care. In this blog post, you can read about a similar sort of thing happening: a guy who used to be a real misogynist explains how, over a period of years, he slowly began to change his mind about the feminist conspiracy to oppress men and keep “nice guys” like himself from getting laid. What would it take for you to change your mind about a deeply held belief regarding gender or sexuality? Continue Reading →
What do Helen Hunt and Sex Surrogacy Have in Common?
image courtesy of rottentomatos.com
Quite a lot, it turns out. A few weeks ago, I watched The Sessions, a new film starring Hunt as Cheryl Cohen Greene, a California-based sex surrogate. What is sex surrogacy, you may ask? I asked myself the same thing. When my mom first proposed that we watch the movie together and explained a bit of the premise, I was dubious. Continue Reading →