Web Log Archives: May 26, 2002 - June 01, 2002
Saturday, June 1, 2002
Kiss has teamed up with Condomania to market Kiss Kondoms, which will feature pictures of band members on the packaging. . . . Meanwhile, Gene Simmons is launching a new magazine called Gene Simmons Tongue, which looks like a lame Maxim clone.
A death row inmate is suing to block a Tennessee prison policy that took effect Saturday banning sexually explicit publications like Playboy and Hustler.
More coverage of yesterday's CIPA decision at Wired and the New York Times. If you're so inclined, you can read the judges' complete 195-page decision online in HTML or PDF formats (or print it out to read at the beach). The American Library Association website has a section devoted to CIPA, including a new press release "ALA applauds federal court ruling on CIPA."
First Amendment lawyer Eugene Volokh discusses the CIPA decision at the Volokh Conspiracy. Among other things: "The Supreme Court will almost certainly have to rehear this case, a prediction that I very rarely make."
The contraceptive sponge may make a comeback within the next year.
Rebecca Blood ponders the question of whether humans are mildly polygynous by nature, touching on scientific, sociological and historical sources.
Friday, May 31, 2002
A panel of federal judges has overturned the Children's Online Protection Act, which would have required school and public libraries receiving federal funds to install filtering software on Internet terminals. Their 195-page decision stated, "Any public library that adheres to CIPA's conditions will necessarily restrict patrons access to a substantial amount of protected speech in violation of the First Amendment."
Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit, expands his blog comments on teen sex into an insightful Fox News column on teen sex and media hype.
Teen-agers have been having sex forever. Their bodies are maturing, their hormones are raging and doing what comes naturally is, well, natural. Indeed, for most of human history, teen sex was an entirely normal part of life, since people tended to marry and be treated as adults at what were, by modern standards, very early ages. Programs that don't take that into account aren't likely to succeed, and media coverage based on sensationalism doesn't help.
Great column, required reading for anyone interested in this issue. Since Reynolds first criticized the US News & World Report cover story at InstaPundit, many other political blogger-pundits have taken up the debate, both in InstaPundit's comments section and on the their own blogs. Many (though not all) of the big-name "warbloggers" (the dumbest coinage since "blogger") are quite liberal-libertarian on social issues. Some highlights:
British tabloid The Sun has been running topless yoga demonstrations all week. As journalistic yoga primers go, the series is actually quite good — and, uh, the models are topless. Introduction, day one, day two, day three, everybody's doing it!, day four, day five. Today's installment features a complete topless salutation.
Barbara Crossette reports on the Bush Administration's efforts to push abstinence-only sex education on other countries at the United Nations.
Arizona officials have shut down a company that sold bogus penile enlargement pills over the Internet. The "Longitude" pills hawked by CP Direct cost $40/month and promised results within months. The company also allegedly sold pills that supposedly guaranteed height increases and bigger breasts. Officials seized $30 million in assets from the company's three owners. (Just for the record, guys: There are no pills that will make your penis bigger.)
From the Toronto Globe and Mail: "Montreal is already known as a tourist destination for its museums, festivals and fine cuisine. According to the Quebec Council on the Status of Women, it's also becoming a top draw for the sex trade. Officials from the Quebec agency said yesterday in a study on prostitution that the lower Canadian dollar and the city's reputation for permissiveness are turning Montreal into a haven for sex tourism."
Next Globalgasm takes place this Saturday night. Globalgasm is "a monthly digital orgy with the intent of healing the planet." Read more at the Globalgasm world headquarters.
Leslie Harpold discusses the connotations of various synonyms for breasts including "tits," "boobs," "jugs" and more. The comments section includes more interpretations and favorites from readers. And by the way, Verisign.
Ariel Meadow Stallings wrote a great article about Globalgasm for Scarlet Letters. She explains the history and philosophy of Globalgasm, interviews “Digital Explorer and Love Ambassador” Halcyon, and recounts her participation in the event earlier this year.
Thursday, May 30, 2002
Michael Castleman reviews the new Doniger-Kakar translation of the Kama Sutra, which he calls "fascinating, thought-provoking and occasionally even amusing." <peeve>Like most other reviewers, Castleman mistakenly claims that this is the first English-language version since Richard Burton's nineteenth-century translation. It's not.</peeve>
Kell Brannon reviews the new anthology Tough Girls: Down and Dirty Dyke Erotica edited by Lori Selke.
New York entrepreneur Daniel Gluck will stage an exhibition about the city's sexual history opening in September and running for ten months. Topics will include the 1834 murder of prostitute Helen Jewett, prostitution and obscenity laws, the AIDS crisis and the transformation of Times Square. Gluck hopes to open a Museum of Sex in the near future.
Steffi Graf won a court ruling against Microsoft Germany over fake nude photos of her posted by users. Microsoft Germany deleted the photos at Graf's request, but Graf sued to make Microsoft liable if any similar fake nudes appear in the future. The company argues that the ruling "endangers the existence of live-chat and private (Internet) communities."
More reviews of The Sexual Life of Catherine M, both generally positive, by Susannah Meadows and Joy Press. (Links snagged from Pursed Lips.)
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
BBC News looks at current trends in British film censorship. The number of cuts ordered by the British Board of Film Classification increased in 2001 after several years of decline, but this actually reflects a loosening of restrictions. More hardcore porn and sexually explicit art films like Baise-Moi are being submitted to the board, and "complete rejection by the BBFC is now extremely rare." There's also a movement underway to make the BBFC's rating system advisory rather than mandatory. Also worth noting: "Complaints included one disappointed customer, annoyed that the video Bram Stoker's Legend Of The Mummy 2 failed to live up to the promise of 'erotic content' suggested on the sleeve."
Brilliantly tasteless Onion humor: Sexual Tension Between Arafat, Sharon Reaches Breaking Point.
Daniel Kurtzer, U.S. ambassador to Israel, recalled suspicious comments made by Sharon at a state dinner in his honor at the White House last September. "Ariel had had a little too much wine, and he ended up confiding to me about how he has a crush on somebody he shouldn't like at all," Kurtzer said. "He said he couldn't say who it was because it would never work out anyway. At first, I thought maybe it was Crown Prince Abdullah, but now it's pretty obvious who it was."
Alternet has a piece by Emmanuelle Richard criticizing the "mainstream media’s love affair with covering the adult industry" and the way journalists buy into the porn industry's myths about itself. This is actually a condensed version of a piece Richard wrote for Online Journalism Review last year. The OJR version also has lots of useful links, while the Alternet version has no links. So I recommend the earlier, longer, link-filled OJR version if you're interested. Richard has her own bilingual blog at Emmanuelle.net.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
British prosecutors have sent four people to jail for making crush videos.
Janelle Brown observes that "butt crack is the new cleavage," exposed everywhere in pop culture and fashion. "Perhaps, having grown weary of nipples and thighs, we simply needed a new body part to fetishize. And maybe that's not a bad thing. It's hard to oppose a trend that extols a generous posterior. But like so many trends that spring from retail, this one comes with a punishing beauty protocol. We're going to expose your ass now, the fashion industry has said, and it had better look good."
An Australian Senate committee is holding hearings on the banning of Baise-Moi. The director of the Office of Film and Literature Classification testifies that 50,000 people saw the film in Australia before the ban took effect and that "one or two" filed complaints.
Tristan Taormino takes on the stupid Texas ban on sex toys. "Each time I travel, I continue to put as many whips, riding crops, and sharp objects as I can in my checked luggage, but I was especially nervous when I recently booked a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport."
Nick reveals a dirty little secret: sex blog authors don't necessarily lead unimaginably exotic sex lives.
