- The makers of Sesame Street say characters Bert and Ernie will not marry in a same-sex ceremony despite an online petition calling for the union. Sesame Street pair Bert and Ernie ‘will not marry’ (BBC News)
- For years, the Houston Police Department has conceded about 4,000 rape kits — all untested — are stored in a property room freezer, but a recent inventory shows there are potentially thousands more containing never-examined evidence from sexual assault cases. HPD rape case backlog is far worse than feared (Houston Chronicle)
- Autofellatio, the subject at hand—or rather, not at hand at all—is the act of taking one’s genitals in one’s mouth to derive sexual pleasure. Terminology is important here, because at least one team of psychiatrists writing on this subject distinguishes between autofellatio and “self-irrumatio.” Autofellatio: The contorted history (Slate Magazine)
- Republican Indiana state Representative [Rep. Phillip Hinkle], who recently voted for a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, has been accused of using Craigslist to offer an 18-year old male $80 for “a couple hours of your time tonight” plus a tip “for a really good time.” Anti-Gay Marriage State Rep. Accused Of Offering Young Male Money ‘For A Really Good Time’ (TPMMuckraker)
- (Great comments.) The introduction of the internet has made pornography more easily available than any time in modern history. Responding to this development, some have worried that adolescents are looking at and watching porn, and plenty of it. Is this true? Are Kids Watching Internet Porn? (Sociological Images)
Image: cute short-haired Brit model Mellisa Clarke (aka Pixie) from this small Loaded UK gallery.
ok, two things:
1) I don’t think Bert and Ernie are gay. I think Bert’s gay and the reason he’s so pissed off all the time is because he’s stressed over staying in the closet and frustrated that Ernie can never return his feelings. Ernie remains oblivious to all of this.
Besides, they sleep in separate beds. If they’re a couple, then their relationship is in some serious trouble, and has been for about forty years now. No way they should be getting married until they can work that out.
2) Does anyone have a list of the conservative anti-gay politicians who have gotten caught being gay? I’ve always thought there should be a word for that. How does ‘getting hinkled’ sound?
These politicians and their peccadillos are getting to be quite the cliche. I just wish they’d just set a schedule for all the usual announcements ahead of time…
“I’ll be denying any involvement with that woman/man/goat on Tuesday. I’ll be claiming someone hacked my Twitter account the following Thursday. My admission and loud refusal to resign will be the following Monday. Unfortunately, my resignation won’t be until two weeks after—my wife has a business trip she can’t postpone and won’t be able to stand tearfully behind me until she gets back. Oh, I will be entertaining book and movie rights deals at any point up until the indictment. Any questions?”
Lewis – I had no idea that Anna Richardson was fueling the anti-porn hysteria I’ve seen coming out of the UK over the past year or so. I saw the first few episodes of that Channel 4 show and I was really impressed by them – I really wished we had something like that in the US, as it would do a hell of a lot of good. But NOT with the porn misinformation. That’s actually pretty harmful, and it seems to follow the tradition of UK anti-porn pundits being these hysterical women operating on feelings, anecdotes and in many cases literally inventing the threat. I’m continually surprised that they’re not laughed out of their jobs and considered a liability to hire. What a shame to see that happen to such a promising show.
Justin – I really feel for Bert and Ernie, I do. I mean they are under a lot of pressure. What if they’re queer, questioning, or – the relationship no one ever talks about – a straight man with a gay best friend!? But seriously, I’m in agreement with you. Making over established characters isn’t genuine, no matter how much anyone ‘believes’ Bert and Ernie might be – or should be – partnered. I’d love to see the topic addressed and normalized, but not introduced in a way that might polarize fans and community.
And I’ll comment on the thing I presented without comment: WTF with another anti-gay politician getting caught trolling for dick!!?? Can we just now assume that all loud anti-gay campaigners are… And what’s with the wife cover-up club? Is this something they learn to do in finishing school? It’s just beyond the point of a joke anymore.
I think Bert and Ernie are just good friends, albiet poor ones who have to share a bed and a bath (I think?) sometimes to keep their costs down. They’re not introduced as gay characters, even though some may see elements of a gay lifestyle in how they’re protrayed. I would like Sesame Street to perhaps introduce two gay human characters, perhaps even one gay and one lesbian couple, to help explain to kids how that kind of relationship can work and so they can better understand kids who have two mummies or daddies.
The porn study was certainly interesting, here in the UK, we have a generally good education show on Channel 4 (a free to air partially public funded station) which teaches kids all about sex along with a website that they are encouraged to view with their parents. It’s far beyond the sex ed I had about 14 years ago which was pretty much the reproductive organs and how to put on a condom but their anti-porn agenda goes far beyond a warning.
They had such a one sided, pre-judged attitude towards porn, the presenter, Anna Richardson, has an obvious dislike of porn, so skews all the discussion towards how evil it is. She comes up with some nonsensical stuff like claiming she was generally searching for porn online like a child would and somehow found freely available child porn within a couple of minutes and never has any facts or figures to back up her theories. Most of stuff she does is shock tactics, like taking parents onto chat roulette and painting this as the normal experiences children get of the internet.
She rarely, if ever, in the several series on, talks about child filters or not putting a PC in the kid’s room where they can access it without supervision; and always paints porn as being this corrupting evil that is some sort of “boogieman” trying to force kids to click on links or pretending “niche” (for want of a better word) stuff like triple anal, scat, S&M etc stuff as being the sort of porn you instantly find on google.
I’m not saying 12 year olds should be looking at porn but the idea that they present is that kids will grow up warped and insecure because they are curious about sex and might search for some images or videos online or because they somehow stumbled upon hardcore sites.