Web Log Archives: June 30, 2002 - July 06, 2002
Saturday, July 6, 2002
India's censor board has decided to allow pornographic films to be legally screened in licensed theaters. Clandestine theaters show hardcore films in most Indian cities ("mostly in morning shows" according to this BBC article), and pornography is widely available on cable and satellite TV. Vijay Anand, chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification, says, "The business of sex films is thriving in India because there is a demand for such films. Since we are unable to control it, we might as well try to regulate it." But not everyone is happy with the new permissiveness. Actress-turned-politician Vjyanthimala Bali criticises the policy shift, adding, "We are not Americans."
The Arkansas Supreme Court has overturned the state's law banning sexual relations between same-sex couples. The court ruling stated, "We agree that the police power may not be used to enforce a majority morality on persons whose conduct does not harm others. . . . A fundamental right to privacy is implicit in the Arkansas constitution." This was not one of those antiquated nineteenth-century "crimes against nature" laws still on the books; the Arkansas legislature passed this law in 1977. No one had ever been prosecuted under the law, but seven plaintiffs and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund challenged the ban. Five other states still have laws criminalizing gay and lesbian sexual conduct between consenting adults: Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
Friday, July 5, 2002
Also at the Village Voice, Judith Levine tells a personal coming-of-age story which "couldn't happen today" amidst the cultural panic regarding teen sexuality.
In 1967, the summer before my 15th birthday, I fell in love. It was my first intense erotic love, and its object was the photography counselor at camp — a lean, bearded, blue-eyed guy I'll call Jake. He was 26. Nothing sexual happened. Still, I think of those two months as the summer of my épanouissement, a French word meaning blossoming or opening, which also means glow. Jake took hundreds of pictures of me, and his affirmation and his camera opened me to myself. They helped me begin, sexually, to glow.
If the same events had occurred in 2002, they would not be viewed as innocent. The adults around me would write my chaste romance as a perverse tale, casting Jake as a predator and me as his hapless, clueless prey. Had I started my sex education with good-touch-bad-touch lessons in kindergarten or listened for a decade to media reporting on a world allegedly crowded with sexual malefactors sniffing the world for young flesh, I might even have believed that my friend and mentor Jake was one of them.
At the Village Voice, Sharon Lerner reviews the ideological assault against Judith Levine and her book Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex.
Ryan Tuthill takes apart the current crop of television dating shows including Blind Date, Shipmates, Elimidate, Fifth Wheel and Dismissed. "As weirdly fascinating as they are, these shows always make me feel a little sad. There's no such thing as reality television, of course — TV invariably cuts and chops people and scenes into the simple, ersatz nuggets — but all of these dating shows contain painfully recognizable moments: the disappointed looks of contestants when they meet; the horrible clanging-fork silences over dinner; the limp, you're-not-getting-any hugs goodbye."
The New York Times covers the Burning Man vs Voyeur Video lawsuit.
The wonderful webzine Soapboxgirls just published the Sexuality Issue with pieces by Hanne Blank, Anna Mills, Kythryne Aisling, LaSara W. FireFox and others. Highly recommended.
The East Bay Express has a long feature about Caleb Mitchell, the son of Artie Mitchell. "When he was eight, his porn-mogul uncle killed his father in a Shakespearean family feud." Now at age 19, he's a champion "no-holds-barred" fighter and hangs out at the famous strip club his father and uncle founded in 1969.
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
The Burning Man organization is suing the distributors of voyeur videotapes of naked women at the Burning Man festival.
Boswell has penned a hilarious Godfather-esque satire on Mike Ovitz's "gay mafia" comments. (Link snagged from Boing Boing.)
Liz Langley ventures into online dating, but only to the point of filling out the personal profile and date criteria forms. "You should have a passport and like to travel, but nowhere stupid, like the woods. That said, you should think it's a romantic idea to hit the road in an Airstream and tour America for a year. This vehicle should be an option and not a place you live in now because you're broke and lazy."
Former Hollywood powerbroker Michael Ovitz blames his downfall on the "Gay Mafia" in an interview with Vanity Fair. My first response: "What an asshole." My second response: "Wouldn't it be cool if there were a gay mafia?"
Seattle Weekly reports that erstwhile cybersleaze entrepreneur Seth Warshavsky has fled to Thailand to evade creditors. In the late 1990s, mainstream media sources dubbed Warshavsky the prince of porn, the Bob Guccione of the 90s, the Larry Flynt of the Internet and the virtual Hefner. Even this article calls him the "cyberspace wunderkind who ruled the global Internet sex world." As far as I can tell from my spot at the fringes of the online porn industry, Warshavsky's sites were never among the top porn sites in terms of visitors, subscribers or revenue. He was simply a great self-promoter who successfully bullshitted journalists who desperately wanted to profile a "Larry Flynt of the Internet."
Mink Stole advises a female reader whose boyfriend "from a small farm community" is freaking out over a visit from her pre-op transsexual best friend.
A ten-year study by Spanish scientists found that the risk of HIV transmission via oral sex is low. "Researchers in Madrid followed several hundred couples that included one partner who was HIV-positive from 1990 to 2000. Then the researchers narrowed the number to 110 women and 25 men who engaged in unprotected oral sex but wore condoms during other types of intercourse. . . . The researchers, counting both fellatio and cunnilingus, estimated that 19,000 oral sex acts had occurred, and men had ejaculated in 34 percent to 41 percent of the fellatio acts. However, no HIV-negative partners contracted the virus."
Tuesday, July 2, 2002
Guardian reviewer Hugo Williams really hates Kim Cattrall's book Satisfaction.
The book positively oozes New Man (who is really a woman, of course). It has some suggestions for love-talk. We should say, "I'd like to forget about my penis for a while and concentrate on you. If it's all right with you, could we just take our time and let me feel you more and really get lost in your pleasure?" I'm sure the authors think a few reallys and justs make their writing more user-friendly. "Really getting into your pleasure will turn me on even more, and I think it would be good for me to feel you more."
Note that "good for me". If a chap wants to step up the action, he should say: "I feel that you have a lot more inside you that wants to come, and I'd like to help bring it out of you." The triumphant humourlessness of this robot-talk is impressive, denying the existence of all the absurdity and waywardness that runs through life.
An appellate court will hold hearings in August on the sex.com domain theft case. The conman who stole the domain is appealing the $65 million judgment against him. Meanwhile, the original owner is suing Network Solutions for wrongly transferring the incredibly valuable domain, then making no effort to rectify its error for five years.
Jennifer Aniston has settled her lawsuit against Celebrity Skin and High Society magazines over this nude paparazzi photo.
According to a United Nations report released today, the worldwide AIDS epidemic continues to grow at alarming rates and "now outstrips even the worst-case scenarios." Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest-hit region, and it's spreading fastest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. More information available from Wired's facts and figures summary or from this UNICEF/UNAIDS/WHO press release.
The video for George Michael's new single "Shoot the Dog" is an extended political cartoon. The Guardian writes, "Known better for his permatan than his political views, the pop star has reincarnated himself as a protest singer with an assault on US foreign policy and British acquiescence." The video depicts Tony Blair as George Bush's pet poodle and a ship's captain steering Britain towards America. The cartoon Michael also rides a nuclear bomb into Blair's bedroom wearing only a leopard-print thong and tries to seduce Cherie Blair, singing "So Cherie, my dear, could you leave the way clear for sex tonight?" More.
Vijay Anand, the head of India's film certification board and himself a major film producer, has proposed legalizing exhibition of hardcore pornography. Clandestine XXX cinemas are common in many Indian cities. Anand says, "Porn is shown everywhere in India clandestinely ... and the best way to fight this onslaught of blue movies is to show them openly in theatres with legally authorised licences. There is a demand for such movies in India and we as censors cannot always keep a tap on pornography. By setting up such theatres we would offer an outlet to people who want to see such movies."
Three female roommates in Moscow, Idaho, have started a roving topless car wash service to make ends meet. The city council is trying to push through an indecent exposure ordinance to shut them down.
From Cecil Adams' Straight Dope archives: Does the Vatican have the world's largest pornography collection?
Monday, July 1, 2002
The US House of Representatives voted 413-8 to approve a new "virtual child porn" law last Tuesday, called the Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act of 2002. Wired reports, "COPPA narrows the definitions of the law, by banning only those computer images that are 'indistinguishable' from real child porn images. It also prohibits all obscene pornographic images of prepubescent children, including drawings, cartoons, paintings and sculptures."
Tangential quibble — Why do they give all these porn-related laws such similar acronyms? CIPA, COPA, CPPA, now COPPA. It causes unnecessary confusion for the honest, hardworking, taxpaying sex bloggers. Why not something like the Virtual Juvenile Obscenity Ban (VJOB)?
An Ohio judge has sentenced a couple to apologise to fellow beachgoers in newspaper ads for having public sex at Mentor Headlands State Park Beach.
Fred Finlay, the fire victim whose big testicle made the Rocky Mountain News front page, has become a local celebrity. "The Lewis and Floorwax radio show on 103.5 FM The Fox interviewed Fred Finlay, donated $300 to help him rebuild, and offered to set him up on a date. A Denver knitting circle is also making him a blanket so he can properly cover up his private parts."
Chicago police are investigating another R. Kelly sex tape, which allegedly shows him with four different women.
Sunday, June 30, 2002
Tom Tomorrow's latest cartoon riffs on the news that Bush appointees to UN conferences have formed alliances with Islamic fundamentalist representatives to fight women's rights and gay rights initiatives. (Original Washington Post story here.)
