Web Log Archives: November 03, 2002 - November 09, 2002
Saturday, November 9, 2002
Charles Taylor reviews the updated edition of The Joy of Sex. "Cheeriness is not sexy. A smile -- salacious, conspiratorial, sly -- is. And so are shared jokes, dirty or otherwise. But cheeriness, which can imply a sort of pep-talk falsity, is a real turn-off. And 'The Joy of Sex,' just reissued in an edition said to be 'Fully Revised & Completely Updated for the 21st Century' (of which more later), fairly reeks of cheeriness."
From Aftenposten: "A thin, battery driven ring which can be drawn onto the penis should be able to produce the same effect as potency stimulating pills. The mechanical, rather than chemical, approach is a Norwegian invention. Electrical engineer Birger Orten invented the simple stimulator. The contraption is comprised of a narrow, thin ring with advanced energy transferral that is placed at the root of the penis."
Friday, November 8, 2002
The Italian Chamber of Deputies overwhelmingly rejected a proposed 25% pornography tax.
UPDATE: Metro ran the Mattel-Susanne Pitt story with two pictures of Pitt's "Dungeon Dolls". If the link dies, I'll post the pictures here. (Thanks, Eddie.)
While we're on the subject, the porn industry started its own retro Debbie craze a few years back with Debbie Does Dallas: The Next Generation and Debbie Does Dallas ’99, both produced by glossy high-end studio Vivid.
Not to mention Debbie Does New Orleans, Debbie Does Wall Street (starring Nina Hartley), Debbie Does Iowa (Iowa?) and Debbie Does ’Em All.
Ryan Tuthill reviews the off-Broadway Debbie Does Dallas musical. "Edgy as Cats, but actually doesn't suck. . . . Debbie Does Dallas is nothing if not innocuous: it celebrates porn like Grease celebrated T-birds and letter sweaters."
Mattel lost its lawsuit against British artist Susanne Pitt, who created and sold "Dungeon Dolls" with Superstar Barbie heads attached to voluptuous doll bodies dressed in S&M gear. The judge argued that Pitt's dolls were not "a market substitute for Barbie dolls. To the court's knowledge, there is no Mattel line of S&M Barbie." More and more. No pictures of Dungeon Dolls in any of these stories, and Pitt's site is apparently offline.
Technology columnist Larry Magid argues, "What the Web needs is more soft-core eroticism and less hard-core pornography." The self-proclaimed "very liberal minded adult" sees nothing wrong with letting teenagers browse nudie pics and "explore their sexuality on the Internet," but worries about their easy access to much harder, sleazier stuff. Good column.
Dear Abby (or to be exact, the original Dear Abby's daughter) answers a question about cyberporn. "My daughter, 'Rhonda,' hosts several 'soft porn' Web sites, and it upsets me greatly. She's 24 and a very bright, sweet and loving person, which is why it's so difficult for me to understand why she does this." No URLs for Rhonda's sites, alas.
Jane and Justin at game girl advance try out the Playstation 2 game Rez with the special "trance vibrator" attachment. "I handed him the controller but you'd better believe I kept that vibrator right there in my lap." 100+ comments follow. (Thanks, Eric.)
Thursday, November 7, 2002
Steven Soderbergh is wrestling with the MPAA ratings board to get a PG-13 rating for the upcoming Solaris. The main sticking point is George Clooney's bare ass. An unnamed "Solaris insider" says, "We trimmed down most of the sex scenes, and we are not taking out George's butt, which is basically all that remains--and which is actually pretty nice. You can show women's breasts and butts and still get a PG-13; why can't we?" Soderbergh himself says, "Believe me, there is nothing here that is worse than what has been on NYPD Blue."
Katha Pollitt reviews two recent scholarly books about corsets, The Corset: A Cultural History by Valerie Steele and Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset by Leigh Summers. "Instrument of female torture or symbol of empowerment and sexual confidence? Never has a garment taken on so many conflicting meanings as the corset." (Thanks, Robin.)
The Turner Prize, an annual British arts competition, has in recent years been dominated by conceptual art. This year's short list of four nominees includes Fiona Banner, who creates large-format works filled with detailed text descriptions of movies. One of her Turner-nominated pieces describes a porno film called Arsewoman in Wonderland.
Not a moment or detail in this undoubtedly ludicrous and unedifying porn flick escapes her attention. I'm sure Banner finds it as fascinating and tacky as most of us, and her descriptions take in all the "nob" actions, all the wet quims, the fake orgasms. Everything is carefully, mechanically observed. The whole thing is printed in a seedy orange colour, in a slyly nasty and intermittently clear typeface across a creased, billboard-sized sheet of paper (itself glued over a mat of earlier sheets, billposting style).
Banner's website has a large photo of Arsewoman and other pieces. The Guardian flips the obligatory "But is it art?" question and invites porn producer Ben Dover to answer the question: "It's art. But is it porn?"
New York Times article about the Paris prostitute street protest.
At New York Times, Nicholas Wade reviews Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson. Elsewhere, Valerie MacEwan reviews Dr. Tatiana at PopMatters. More info about the book at drtatiana.com.
The New York Times looks at a new wave of racy videogames which flaunt "aggressive sexuality, salty language and off-color sight gags," including BMX XXX and Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball. But the tightly controlled licensing system for console games will prevent gamemakers from getting too wild. "Sony had second thoughts about releasing [BMX XXX] uncut for its PlayStation 2, the most popular game console. Alan B. Lewis, the spokesman for Acclaim, said that after discussions with Sony, the game's developers removed a function that allows players to design a female biker to appear topless. In addition, a BMX logo now obscures the breasts of the real-life strippers who appear when a player wins a bonus. So far the game remains unchanged for the Xbox and the GameCube."
From IMDB's daily gossip sheet: "Dennis Quaid caused the director of his new film Far From Heaven a few headaches - because he was too enthusiastic in acting out gay love scenes. Quaid plays a struggling homosexual in 1950s America in the new flick. And director Todd Haynes says it took Quaid a few takes to get used to kissing another man. Haynes says, 'When he started, he and the other actor went at it like they were a pair of tigers in a wrestling match. I really needed it to be more still and romantic, like a Hollywood movie kiss.'" (Link snagged from blee bloo blar BLOG.)
Josey Vogels interviews an Edmonton poet who sells her used panties online. "I used Ziploc bags before and it's not the same. Now I have a Vac-U-Seal and it's beautiful. All the panty women use them."
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
The town of Wilmington, Vermont, voted 495-478 to repeal the anti-nudity ordinance passed by the town's selectboard in June. The ordinance was aimed at stopping the clothing-optional swimming and sunning at a nearby reservoir site, and local naturists had organized a repeal campaign. Earlier story.
The trial of Paul Burrell, Princess Di's favorite butler, has revealed some new juicy royal gossip. "Nothing to do with Camilla Parker Bowles or Major Hewitt, eating disorders or suicide attempts; much more revealing than that ... we learn that Burrell was asked by his employer to buy pornographic magazines for Prince William."
Libida has a short essay by fetish photographer Eric Kroll and six thumbnailed images from his new book Beauty Parade.
David Steinberg's latest article deals with the murder of transgender teenager Gwen Araujo.
Tuesday, November 5, 2002
AP: Hundreds of prostitutes rallied in front of the French Senate on Tuesday to protest a high-profile government crackdown on their livelihood. Photo.
A Texas comic store clerk who was arrested and convicted for selling an erotic comic book to an adult undercover cop has been denied his second appeal. ICv2 reports, "The good news, if there is any, is that the six-month jail term for Castillo has been suspended, meaning that it will be served on probation if the conviction cannot be overturned. . . . For retailers that carry adult material, this is a chilling event. The retailer in question handled the adult material very responsibly, and there's no allegation that the material was sold to children." More and more and Metafilter. Law-blogger John Smith analyzes the court's decision in Castillo's first appeal.
The Houston Chronicle has a good overview of the Texas sodomy case that may reach the US Supreme Court. "Court watchers speculate that the court's liberal bloc -- Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer -- could decide before year's end to push the case onto the court's calendar. If the case clears that hurdle, the court could use it to settle how far government can go in regulating something as private as consensual sex among adults, homosexual or heterosexual, in their own bedrooms."
1500 Church of England parishes have signed deals with a mobile phone company to place transmitters on their bell towers and spires. But some parishioners are angry that the transmitters will send out porn along with news, sports and ads. "I'm shocked that people could be worshipping in their churches while pornography is being streamed out of the spire above them. It's as if the Church has sold out in a pact with the devil."
A San Antonio video store owner has won an appeals court ruling allowing him to keep an adults-only section in his store.
Debra got a cease-and-desist letter from a company that makes an "anal retention catheter" which she had mentioned several times in her journal. The company insisted she remove all references to the trademarked name of their product. What's wrong with these people? Most anal retention catheter manufacturers would kill for that kind of free publicity.
Monday, November 4, 2002
Pravda reports: "According to the research that was conducted in the United States of America, men with higher education masturbate twice as often in comparison with other men." From which Pravda concludes, "If you master the art of masturbation, then you will not have to finish a high school."
A poster at the "praise and prayer request" bulletin board writes, "I have just caught my 15 year old girl, masturbating with a vibrating 'control pad' on a Nintendo Gamecube. Now I am banning this vibrator from my household, but I am concerned about other teenagers who are using these products as masturbation aids. I think that we should call for the banning of these so called game consoles." The original message is dated July, but most of the responses have come in the last week. (Link snagged from Aberrant News.)
The Vancouver boutique Lululemon offered free yoga gear to naked shoppers as a publicity stunt for the opening of a new location. One participant said, "Yoga's not a sport that requires clothing, so this is a real treat."
In the New York Times Sunday Magazine's "expert opinion" section, Paul Verhoeven explains how to shoot a nude scene.
Alex Kuczynski reports on a modern trend toward teenage girls becoming more aggressive in dating, romance and sex. "After a half-century during which generations of young women were advised to never even call a boy on the telephone, it is now teenage girls who not only do the calling, but who often initiate romantic and even sexual activity. Whether they are influenced by the trickle-down effects of feminism, which has taught girls to be assertive in all areas of life, or have internalized the images of sexually powerful women in popular culture, American girls are more daring than ever."
At Scarlet Letters, Kara Maia Spencer explores the history of women's erotic comix. Fascinating, well-researched piece with plenty of suggestions for further reading. However, the author's Dworkinite view of hetero male sexuality as inherently creepy and degrading got on my nerves, and dismissing R. Crumb's work as "misogynistic and racist" is just plain stupid.
Nerve regulars Em & Lo jump to the Guardian and offer some cunnilingus tips for men, or "basic table manners that should help you both enjoy your dining experience." (Link snagged from World Sex News.)
Frances Borzello traces the history of the "reclining nude" painting genre and the oversophisticated sidestepping of the erotic element among critics and artlovers. "The words reclining nude conjure up a vision of voluptuous femininity, a bed with crumpled sheets, and a painter, mind focused, brush alert, making his mark on the canvas. All very sexual, really. Which has always been the problem. Fine art, as we know, is respectable. Sex is not. The reclining nude is where they meet. One of the most fascinating of fine art's spectator sports is watching the rude removed from the nude." Here's Sleeping Venus by Giorgione (circa 1510), which Borzello calls "the figure that launched a thousand reclining nudes."
Sunday, November 3, 2002
Winona Ryder showed up for her shoplifting trial on Wednesday wearing a see-through black dress. Drudge has photos.
