Web Log Archives: December 22, 2002 - December 28, 2002
Friday, December 27, 2002
Rapper Lil Kim appears on the cover of One World (a fashion/culture/music magazine run by Russell Simmons) wearing a burka around her face, holding the rest of the burka around her shoulders to reveal her nearly naked body underneath. In an interview inside the magazine, Kim says "Fuck Afghanistan!" Some Muslims are angry at Kim and Simmons for disrespecting Islam and its attitudes toward female modesty. Well yeah, I think that was the point.
On a linguistic side note, the Eurweb article calls Lil Kim a "raptress." Never heard that term before.
UPDATE (3/30/02): British tabloid The Sun has posted the full-length Lil Kim cover photo from One World. If you want a copy, that's the place to get it.
The Quebecois cult known as the Raelians has announced the first human clone birth. More. "Many scientists are skeptical about Clonaid's ability to accomplish the feat. The company was founded in the Bahamas in 1997 by Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist and leader of the Raelians group. Mr. Vorilhon and his followers claim aliens visiting him in the 1970s revealed they had created all life on Earth through genetic engineering."
Thursday, December 26, 2002
Body modification guru Todd Bertrang has been arrested in California on suspicion of practicing medicine without a license. Bertrang performs elaborate genital piercings and other body modifications (including, according to these allegations, female circumcisions or clitoridectomies), which Medical Board of California regulators decided constitute illegal medical procedures. More. Check out ToddBertrang.com, which features articles, images of his work, a reprinted interview from Fetish magazine, some poetry and more. Body Modification Ezine has an interview with Bertrang plus several dozen images of his "scarification" work.
The Straight Dope: Does menstrual synchrony really exist? A 1971 study found evidence that "menstrual cycles of women who spend a lot of time together tend to synchronize over time." This phenomenon of "menstrual synchrony" has become conventional wisdom (several women friends have told me this as fact in the past), but Cecil Adams notes that many researchers are skeptical.
Toronto Star columnist Ben Rayner ponders the heightened titillation factor in teen pop music, from Britney's S&M-themed "Slave 4 U" video to Christina Aguilera's reincarnation as "a full-on hoochie's hoochie" to the arrival of Tatu. "There's no way Interscope Records would be releasing [Tatu's CD] 200 Km/H In The Wrong Lane in North America, where there's no real mainstream audience or commercial-radio outlet for Tatu's overwraught brand of trancey Euro-cheese, unless there were a couple of panties-clad nymphettes swapping spit in the video. No way. Until enough cash trades hands to convince arch-rivals Britney and Christina to get down and, ahem, 'dirrty' before the cameras on a Twister board soaked in vegetable oil, Tatu is the record-exec's ultimate wet dream."
Photographer Jackie Alpers presents an online gallery of photos taken at porn conventions.
Japan's National Police Agency has proposed regulation of online dating services, which "encourage the social tendency of selling sex for money among youth" according to a new agency report.
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
The Guardian has a fascinating review of Sexual Blackmail: A Modern History by Angus McLaren.
Salon has an interview with Leif Ueland about his new book Accidental Playboy: Caught in the Ultimate Male Fantasy, which chronicles his gig as writer-photographer for Playboy's crosscountry bus tour search for the Miss Millennium playmate. "The ultimate male fantasy? Perhaps for some, but not necessarily for Leif Ueland. A neurotic, hyper-self-aware Minnesota native descended from a long line of strong feminist role models, Ueland at first found the idea of spending six months with Playboy hopefuls unsettling, vaguely predatory, maybe a little sad. But in the course of the adventures ... he discovers a not so surprising (to us), but unexpectedly lovely (to Ueland) thing: Desire can be fun."
Recently at Clean Sheets: Roberta Carwin visits the Red Light Museum in Virginia City, Nevada, and Ann Regentin ponders the erotic language of chess.
The Indianapolis Star reports that Shane's World #32 is "selling briskly" at Bloomington adult shops since shipments arrived last Thursday. (Shane's World #32 is available on DVD at Gamelink.)
The Independent has an end-of-the-year sex news quiz.
Newsarama has an interview with Jesus Castillo, the Texas comics store clerk arrested and convicted for selling a sexually-explicit comic book to an adult undercover agent. (Link snagged from Slotman.)
Sage Stossel interviews social historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead about her new book Why There Are No Good Men Left: The Romantic Plight of the New Single Woman, which considers the situation of educated professional women in their late twenties or thirties searching for mates. The sidebar has links to past Atlantic Monthly articles and interviews about dating, relationships, marriage and divorce.
