Web Log Archives: January 12, 2003 - January 18, 2003
Friday, January 17, 2003
More research and debate about women's sexuality. "A new study suggests sex researchers have been overestimating the prevalence of sexual problems in women for years -- perhaps because they have been looking at things from a man's point of view. . . . Research on the topic has tended to focus on physical aspects of sex, such as orgasms and arousal. But the new study found that the best predictors of a woman's sexual satisfaction are her general emotional well-being and her emotional relationship with her partner."
Blogger jhames writes about his job at an internet porn company and his attitudes toward pornography. Interesting debate follows in the comments section.
St. Petersburg Times: "For some small independent video stores, the way to compete with big chains is to offer what they don't: pornographic videos."
Pleasant Gehman attends a Bondage 101 adult education class.
Peter Hyman tells a New York story about getting a massage at his upscale health club.
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Incisive pieces about the Pee Wee Herman child porn case by Debra Hyde and Richard Goldstein.
At humor zine Haypenny, Dr. Almonrade Smith explains How to Have a Better Sex Life.
Tom Cruise won a $10 million judgment against Kyle Bradford, the ex-porn actor who allegedly told the French magazine Actustar that he had an affair with Cruise. (Also read the original Actustar story and past articles about Cruise's assorted lawsuits against gay rumors.)
From a January magazine interview with Clive Barker.
LR: You're like total renaissance guy too because you do all these things. You make movies, you create books, you paint. Any other creative things you do?
CB: Fuck.
LR: (Laughter) That's the only way to do it.
I just finished reading The Great and Secret Show and Everville, which I highly recommend if you like that sort of thing.
At Clean Sheets, William Dean interviews writer Ann Bannon, who published six lesbian pulp novels between 1957 and 1963. "As for the tenor of the times, there really was a lot of tension between the 'nice girls' in the ruffled aprons, at home making babies and tuna casseroles, and the uncontrollable, adventurous, curious, and sometimes naughty girls out there looking for jobs, looking for fun, looking for a life, and looking, sometimes, for each other." Dean also reviews two Bannon titles. Cleis Press has recently reissued several of Bannon's books with glorious retro-pulp covers. Ann Bannon's website displays the original paperback covers as well.
From Vogue: "Tom Ford's latest sensational Gucci ad will feature a naked woman whose bikini line has been waxed into the shape of a 'G'." With photo. (Link snagged from Adam Gerstein.)
This Saturday is Sex and Pornography Day in Santiago, Chile.
The Georgia Supreme Court overturned the state's fornication law on Monday. The Chief Justice wrote, "Our opinion simply affirms that . . . the government may not reach into the bedroom of a private residence and criminalize the private, noncommercial, consensual sexual acts of two persons legally capable of consenting to those acts." You can read the ruling in PDF. (Links snagged from How Appealing.)
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Is Britney back together with Justin? Page Six reports, "Justin Timberlake savored a tender kiss with his rekindled flame Britney Spears early yesterday, right after the tipsy pop tart tossed her cookies in the bathroom." Or is she hooking up with Fred Durst? Over the weekend Durst wrote on the official Limp Bizkit website, "Anybody out there who has a serious problem with my feelings for Britney should just chill and worry about your own feelings for a minute. [She] just happens to be a person that I [wouldn't] have thought could make me feel this way. And believe that I have never felt this way, so there."
Heidi Fleiss has sold the movie rights to her life story to Paramount, with Nicole Kidman mentioned for the lead role. Fleiss (who's obviously had some serious plastic surgery since getting out of prison) says, "This should be like Pretty Woman, but with the visual energy and excess of Scarface."
Utah has eliminated its "porn czar" position (officially known as "obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman") in a round of state budget cuts. Reigning porn czar Paula Houston loses her job on April 1, but she expects to remain in the attorney general's office.
Justin Timberlake appears shirtless on the cover of Rolling Stone in one of Herb Ritts' final photo shoots.
Anti-war protesters got naked and spelled the word "peace" in a field in Sussex. (Link snagged from World Sex News.) Same thing happened two months ago in Marin county. Does this mean nude message-spelling is becoming the new "what do we want? ... when do we want it? ..."?
The Guardian: "Mobile phone companies are turning to soft porn in a bid to recoup the billions they have splashed out on third generation licences. And they are being forced to consider introducing a film classification rating system for picture and video messaging to pave the way for adult-only mobile phone services. All the major mobile operators are trying to tie up deals with adult content providers such as Playboy, as full colour phones capable of displaying high-resolution images become more popular." (Link snagged from World Sex News.)
Moxie is writing weekly commentaries on Joe Millionaire: episode one and episode two.
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Good feature article about Leif Ueland. "When Ueland decided to write 'Accidental Playboy,' about the six-month bus trip he took in 1998, documenting Playboy's search for the Playmate of the Millennium -- during which he was dragged to strip joints, obliged to photograph topless women and forced (well, maybe not forced) to sleep with two tryouts -- his publisher wanted to use the subtitle 'Living the Ultimate Male Fantasy.' 'I just wanted to shoot myself,' says Ueland, descendant of feminists, recovering sexual neurotic, gay-seeming straight and all-around Sensitive Male. He made a counteroffer: 'Caught in the Ultimate Male Fantasy.' That, he felt, more accurately captured the angst of his journey."
Neal Pollack reveals the glorious truth about cloning!
A not-so-loyal Daze reader corrects my characterization of the Raelians as a "Quebecois cult".
I Would like you to inform that your knowledge of the raelian movement is very poor.The raelian movement is french (From France ...do you know where that is ?)and most of its followers are european and american (Yes from the USA in deed!)They hold a nutbar party in Quebec in the summer because for europeans and americans the canadian dollar is so cheap and since everybody in Quebec speaks french, it makes it easier for them to organize an event in Canada.Two seminars take place in the eastern townships of Quebec in the month of July.They choose this part of Quebec because it's a 20 minutes ride to the US border, making it easier for horny americans to join the scam.Did you ever wonder why the first human clone was american? Money perhaps.In the province of Quebec there is no such thing as human cloning, it is illegal.Today the press released a article on cloning Jesus in the US since most of the DNA blood sample owners are proud americans.There's nothing like religion in the US.We've seen it all...Quebec churches for the most part are struggling.They either serve as shelters for refugees or are bought by wealthy entrepreneurs to create luxurious housing projects for the wealthy.Straighten your crap, I mean you even had an upper-class Taliban in Afghanistan.You guys already forget John Walker?
On behalf of the USA, my apologies to aggrieved Quebeckers and their loved ones.
The Japan Times runs a series of fascinating articles about "host clubs", where "the male staff do whatever it takes to make their female clientele feel very, very welcome." Women attending host clubs are pampered by "impeccably clad, coiffed and manicured hosts in designer suits." Host clubs have apparently become a cultural craze. "Hosts now also regularly appear on television variety shows, and some write no-holds-barred books on their working lives. In many ways, they are becoming the closest thing to a celebrity that the average woman could ever lay her hands on."
Reporter Masami Ito offers a first-person account of a visit to Club Gigolo and other host clubs. "These men exuded an air of confidence, and each was dressed to kill. As we sat down and I got out a cigarette, Misaki (hosts usually go by first names) whipped out his Zippo, flipped open the top and lit it all in one graceful movement. I crossed my legs and smoked while the men scurried about, setting the table with a bottle of Jinro shochu, ice and water. Reversed roles; I loved it." She also interviews several hosts and explores the hierarchy among host club staff.
The third piece is an interview with Usagi Nakamura, who writes a popular weekly magazine column called "Shoppingu no Joo" ("The Queen of Shopping") and has written several books about host clubs. "Nakamura, 44, who describes herself as 'shop dependent,' writes frankly about how she impulsively purchases luxury brand items and how foolish she then feels to have wasted so much money 'chasing illusions.' What she calls her 'serial follies' do not stop, though, and she usually ends up asking publishers for her royalties in advance to pay her credit-card bills. While slowly managing to put the brakes on her buying, Nakamura found a new target for her spendthrift ways -- host clubs. For 14 months from mid-2001, she was totally absorbed in one of the host clubs in the Tokyo entertainment district of Kabukicho, the industry's 'holy ground.' Surprisingly (or maybe not), Nakamura spent a total of 15 million yen [approximately US$125,000] on her favorite host over that period."
Wired looks at the efforts of Adult Sites Against Child Pornography. The organization runs a voluntary oversight and certification system for legitimate porn sites, and reports illegal material to the FBI and local police agencies.
Sheerly Avni interviews the founders of the Alternatives to Marriage Project.
County officials declared a billboard near the Las Vegas airport obscene and requested it be removed. "The advertisement, promoting the Hard Rock Hotel, depicted a topless woman holding a pair of dice strategically concealing her nipples." The billboard company removed the ad last week, but insisted that it was conveniently scheduled to come down anyway. The ad was created by David LaChapelle, and the hotel sells prints at its gift shop. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy online.)
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Judith Lewis interviews Ashly Massey, the 15-year-old California girl who is suing her school district for keeping her out of gym class because she's a lesbian.
At the LA Times (free registration required), P.J. Huffstutter criticizes the dangerous lack of regulation in California's porn industry. "Koop and others note that in Nevada, legal brothels are subject to stringent state oversight--and the spread of sexually transmitted disease in that industry has been reduced to trace amounts. In California, the adult film business, which has expanded to include the most risque forms of sex widely referred to as Triple X, is remarkably similar in scope to Nevada's legalized prostitution in terms of the number of people employed and the nature of the job. Yet the only monitoring in Triple X is a form of modest self-regulation by some companies that request health tests before performers go on camera. But even that practice is neither widespread nor tightly monitored."
