Sex News: AHF attacks Tinder and Grindr, Instagram blames Apple, bogus sex trafficking laws

0 pieces of BRILLIANCE put forth by a DARING and DELIGHTFUL reader

Seven skilled authors merge sci-fi and sex: Wetware: Cyberpunk Erotica (ebook, $3.89)

  • Just blocks away from the Tinder headquarters in Los Angeles, a large pink and purple billboard shows two pairs of people silhouetted, foreheads inclined toward one another. Two of the faces say Grindr and Tinder. On the other two are scrawled the names of STDs. The billboard is part of a campaign from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which posted its warnings about Internet hookups and venereal disease in more than 50 spots around the city last week.
    Billboards linking Tinder to STDs are latest battleground in online dating wars (Washington Post)
  • Sex, money, betrayal: The bizarre brawl between American Apparel Inc. and its founder, Dov Charney, has all that and more. But now this tabloid tale is coming down to a seemingly staid bit of finance: the bonds.
    For all the back-and-forth over American Apparel — spanning Charney’s alleged sexual antics, management’s wrath and the dueling lawsuits that have followed — neither side is in control. Instead, the bondholders are. That became apparent on Monday, when the company announced a prearranged bankruptcy filing.
    Sex, Betrayal and Bond Traders: The Fall of American Apparel (Bloomberg; super annoying video autoplay alert)
  • We like to think that, over time, our laws become less prejudiced and discriminatory. For sex workers, however, the law hasn’t bent in the direction of greater equality. Over the last 150 years, rights for sex workers have in many ways diminished, according to West Virginia University journalism professor Alison Bass. In her book Getting Screwed: Sex Workers and the Law, released today. In the past and today, Bass finds, sex workers have been marginalized by stigma that portrays them as immoral, dangerous, even diseased figures. But while the stigma hasn’t changed, the laws have — in many cases, from the point of view of the sex worker, for the worse.
    The Law’s Tougher on Sex Workers Today Than It Was in the 19th Century (Pacific Standard; see also this excerpt from the book on Salon)
  • There’s a reason why the campaign #freethenipple blew up on (Facebook-owned) Instagram: the photo-sharing website is typically quick to pull down posts showing women’s nipples, even if there’s nothing pornographic about the photos. Why? Well, according to Business Insider, the app’s cofounder puts the blame on Apple.
    Instagram blames Apple for strict anti-nudity stance (Engadget)

Thanks to our sponsor in Spain, women-run Lust Cinema.

  • Forcing others into sex or any sort of labor is abhorrent, and it deserves to be treated like the serious violation it is. But the activity now targeted under anti-trafficking efforts includes everything from offering or soliciting paid sex, to living with a sex worker, to running a classified advertising website. What’s more, these new laws aren’t organic responses by legislators in the face of an uptick in human trafficking activity or inadequate current statutes. They are in large part the result of a decades-long anti-prostitution crusade from Christian “abolitionists” and anti-sex feminists.
    The War on Sex Trafficking Is the New War on Drugs (Reason)
  • On September 24th game developer Zoe Quinn and cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian, both targets of Gamergate, testified in front of the United Nations about online harassment. In this article, Vice talked to Randi Harper, the creator of GG Autoblocker and founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, who said “Sex trafficking, sex work, and pornography should not have been included in a report about online abuse. It was a distraction from other valid concerns that should have been covered more thoroughly, and furthermore, it was a call for censorship. It is becoming clear that certain groups are willing to fly the flag of online abuse on their pet causes, such as banning pornography or wanting to remove the safety of anonymity.” < too bad Quinn and Sarkeesian didn’t say this to the U.N.
    ‘I’m Disappointed’: Zoe Quinn Speaks Out on UN Cyberviolence Report (Vice)

Much gratitude to our thoughtful sponsor, Nubile Films.

  • Annalee Newitz visits the set of Kink’s upcoming feature, Star Trek: The Next Penetration. According to Newitz, when someone asks you if you want to visit the set of a Star Trek gangbang film, “Just in case you are wondering, the answer to that question should always be yes.”
    The Best Little Porno Movie on the Internet (Gizmodo)
  • Three New Zealand historians have contributed a wealth of astounding, rich and often surprising information to the issue of sex addiction, with the first book chronicling the history of this influential concept. Sex Addiction, A Critical History, was published in 2015, and represents a remarkable detailing of the troubling, often hidden, history of this concept.
    Who Is The Real Father of Sex Addiction? (Psychology Today)
  • As Patrick Kane’s attorney Paul Cambria Jr. held his first news conference about the ongoing rape investigation involving his client, a national TV audience couldn’t help but notice the “Hustler” mug on the shelf directly behind him. The Internet lit up with criticism, questioning the wisdom of having a mug — which advertised a pornographic magazine often accused of demeaning women — in the background while addressing a sexual assault accusation. It appeared imprudent to many, even though Cambria has represented the magazine’s publisher, Larry Flynt, for decades.
    Patrick Kane’s defense attorney: More than just a ‘porn lawyer’ (Chicago Tribune)
  • If you needed any more evidence that the smartphone is the dominant computing platform, then Pornhub’s figures should probably convince you. Back in 2010, desktop browsing accounted for 88 percent of the site’s traffic, but in 2015, that figure has fallen to just 37 percent. The rest of that figure is now accounted for by Android and iOS, with a near perfect split between the two (Android has 32 percent, iOS has 31).
    Pornhub thinks your smartphone choice reflects your kinks (Engadget)

Thank you to our sponsor in Holland, Abby Winters.

  • The eJaculator is the latest addition to a series of male teledildonic sex toys taking advantage of developments in virtual reality technology. The eJaculator will consist of an app, a silicone sex sleeve with a plastic exterior (measuring 12 by 4 inches), a hands-free remote control, and a virtual reality (VR) headset. Note that the VR headset does not display content on its own. Instead, the headset is designed as a bracket that clamps onto a smartphone, and uses the device’s screen to display the VR videos.
    Introducing the eJaculator: A New Male Virtual Reality Sex Toy (Future of Sex)
  • Amber Rose kicked off her first annual “SlutWalk” at Pershing Square in downtown L.A., which drew a sizable crowd of supporters. The 31-year-old has spent most of the year campaigning for the event, which seeks to empower women about their sexuality while also breaking down stereotypes and double standards about gender.
    Amber Rose Draws Large Crowd of Supporters for Her “SlutWalk” (VladTV)
  • “Appealing an obscenity charge against Hubert Selby’s Last Exit to Brooklyn in an English court, the brilliant ­lawyer-novelist John Mortimer advanced what would come to be known as the “aversion defense” or the “repugnance theory.” The idea was that, far from tending to “deprave and corrupt” its readers, a work like Last Exit to Brooklyn, precisely by being so disgusting, would induce a moral counterreaction. Mortimer won the case and went on to successfully defend, among other things, the Sex Pistols’ album Never Mind the Bollocks.”
    Why Read Books Considered Obscene? (NYT)

Thank you to our sponsor and friends, Pink Label TV.

  • Barley Marshall said officers turned a blind eye when she carried out sex acts with then-prisoner Ben Harwood during six-hour visits in the hospital. At the time Harwood was serving 12 months in Nottingham prison for drug offences, aggravated burglary and possessing ammunition.
    Prisoner has sex with girlfriend in hospital bed while chained to guard (Star UK)
  • The Federal Election Committee yesterday dashed the hopes of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which was counting on the panel to revisit the issue of foreign money donated to a group opposed to the 2012 “Safer Sex” Measure B ballot measure.
    FEC Won’t Review AHF’s Complaint Over Foreign Donations (XBIZ)

  • Recently added to the BioPortfolio report store is Global Adult Vibrator Market Study Report 2015-2019, a new report from Technavio published on 2015-09-29. This 52-page report is available in pdf from $2500 (which means none of us will ever see it; ping me if you get a copy). “With the rapid growth and development of e-commerce and the easy availability of adult products online, this industry is poised for further growth. Adult vibrators are a key part of this growth, led by the relative anonymity and comfort of buying these products online. Technavio’s analysts forecast the global adult vibrator market to grow at a CAGR of 16.98% over the period 2014-2019.”
    Global Adult Vibrator – Market Study Report 2015-2019 (Bio Portfolio Reports)
  • Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma: A Colorado man has been accused of “hunting” boys and young men on social media, keeping them at his home as sex slaves, and branding them with a tattoo of “ownership.” Sean Crumpler, 48, faces a dozen counts related to sex trafficking, including one count of a sexual offense with notice of HIV.
    Man accused of ‘hunting’ sex slaves on Grindr and branding them (Fox 4 Charlotte)

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