- Yay Stockroom! Fetish gear from L.A.-based erotic boutique The Stockroom appear in the latest Taylor Swift music video, Bad Blood, above. Stockroom took a chance on me and published my book Fetish Sex in 2006. Swift’s people reportedly picked up $13,000 in fetish clothing from The Stockroom, and Swift wears an outfit from The Stockroom’s latex brand, Syren Couture, in the video.
Stockroom Supplies Fetish Attire for New Taylor Swift Video (XBIZ)
- Last month the A&E Channel aired a few episodes of its reprehensible show 8 Minutes, a reality program about a pastor who “saves” sex workers from “the life.” Now several women have come forward after being on the show saying that they were never connected to the resources promised, were pressured into signing contracts, and were misled about their level of anonymity on the show. The show, unfortunately, is not an anomaly.
Combating Trafficking Takes Much Longer Than Eight Minutes (RH Reality Check)
- As politicians in D.C. push to censor the web in the name of catching sex traffickers, civil-liberty lovers may find some solace in a recent federal court ruling. Maintaining a “free and open Internet” is more important than thwarting traffickers at all costs, ruled Judge Richard Sterns of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
Backpage.com Lawsuit: Sex Trafficking Doesn’t Trump Internet Freedom, Says Federal Judge (Reason)
- I don’t know about you, but this raises some questions about just how cozy Facebook is with law enforcement in sharing (and spying on) its users’ private communications. Also, warning for survivors of sexual abuse and trauma on this one. No one seems to know — or wants to say — just how often Facebook gets involved in tipping off law enforcement about suspicious online behavior. Facebook won’t say, ICE claims it doesn’t know, and FBI just said “No” when asked if they had any data on the number of Facebook tips they investigate.
Facebook helps police bust sex predators (Fusion)
The new federal anti-trafficking act means: lots of money will be given to people who want to harass, arrest and deport sex workers.
— mistressmatisse (@mistressmatisse) May 20, 2015
- Today, the U.S. government released a sizeable tranche of documents and other material recovered during the Osama Bin Laden raid on the Abbottabod, Pakistan, compound used to hide Bin Ladin. An official at the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence today said that the sexually explicit content would remain classified even as other parts of Bin Laden’s personal files were released.
Bin Laden’s Porn Stash Is Kept Secret (XBIZ)
- Faced with a Department of Justice investigation into air marshals, the men and women charged with protecting U.S. commercial flights from terrorism, former and current air marshals are coming forward to describe a “wheels-up, rings-off” culture rife with adultery, sex work, and other misconduct.
Air marshals say a party-hearty attitude prevails at the agency (Reveal)
- The prostitutes at AP need to brush up on their sex work terminology… A California sex worker charged with killing a Google executive with an overdose of heroin aboard his yacht pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter and administering drugs. A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge sentenced defendant Alix Tichelman to six years in prison, bringing a sudden and unexpected conclusion to a case that garnered national attention.
Sex worker pleads guilty in overdose death of Google exec (AP)
- I would like to test this, please: Lovense and VirtualRealPorn are creating a way to enjoy synced-up virtual reality sex. The trick involves using a Bluetooth dongle, specially coded VR videos, and Lovense’s Max and Nora sex toys to make the toys’ vibrations and rotations sync with the VR action seen in your headset.
New Sex Toys Sync Up to Virtual Reality Porn (Wired)
- A judge in Fresno County, California, ruled last week that a lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District’s abstinence-focused sex education program was justified because it was out of compliance with the state’s law mandating sex education to be medically accurate and free of bias.
Judge’s Ruling in California Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Case Shows Importance of Strong Policies (RH Reality Check)
The Best Feminist Porn Directors to Check Out… (Includes @ShineLouise!) http://t.co/CjuFvjGnxe @slutist pic.twitter.com/7YskzRvyVh
— Pink & White (@PinkWhite) May 19, 2015
- Well-deserved: Big congrats to Cecilia Tan! The Pioneer Award is given annually to a few “pioneers” of romance, and the Career Achievement Award in Erotic Fiction is an honor – Tan won both this year!
RT Award Recap: Cecilia Tan Pioneer & Career Achievement Award speeches (Cecilia Tan)
- Join San Francisco Sex Education for a night of education on and exploration of Sex and Video Games, led by a specialist in the field. Morgan “Red” McCormick has been a regularly invited speaker at Penny Arcade Expo on the topic of transgender representation in video games, and much more. Join us as we learn about the history and progression of sexuality in video games.
SFSI Seminars: Sex and Video Games (Brown Paper Tickets)
- Dr. Nadim Uddin Siddiqui hosts a weekly call-in show about sexual issues on a Pakistani cable television channel. The program, Clinic Online, is a rarity for a conservative Muslim nation, but has proved popular, particularly among women.
Live On Pakistani TV: A Call-In Show About Sex (NPR, via Thomas Roche)
- Religious leaders aren’t usually the best advisers on how to spice things up in the bedroom, but Orthodox Jewish couples struggling to sustain passionate marriages are finding a savior in Rabbi Natan Alexander. Men and women dissatisfied with their love lives are making pilgrimages to the Judaean Mountains near Jerusalem, where Alexander may prescribe them a Sqweel.
Toy Vey: The Rabbi Selling Kosher Vibrators (Bloomberg)
New #GrabBag toys just in. Grab 'em while they're hot! #MAYDAY #Maybation #GrabBagSwag http://t.co/kCnZBz5ELu pic.twitter.com/HFPREjc8wG
— Tantus, Inc. (@tantus) May 20, 2015
- Twenty years ago, while people were shoveling processed foods down their gullets, they were also erotically consuming the sex toy equivalent of toxic processed foods. Yes, in the not so distant past folks were heading to their local smut emporium to purchase dildos, butt plugs and other goodies made from toxic, porous materials chock full of phthalates and other unpronounceable scourges.
The frisky new world of non-toxic, cruelty-free, eco-friendly sex toys (Hopes and Fears)
- Fun article: A growing cohort of Torontonians are indulging their wildest fetishes – and negotiating every slap, spank and lash of the whip.
The Kink Club: inside the secret world of BDSM (Toronto Life, thanks, Viviane!)
- The group of eight women sing, dance and enact poetry as getting-to-know-you exercises, but the themes written on the whiteboard reveal the deeper nature of the work: “Misconception, whore, mother, domestic violence, abandoned-thrown out, rebirth.” These are big motifs to tackle, but that’s what the San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival (now in its ninth year) is about — asking difficult questions.
Sex workers act out in S.F. theater workshop (SF Gate)
- An Egyptian court has ordered Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb to impose a ban on pornographic websites. A similar decision taken two years ago denounced pornographic content as “venomous and vile,” but failed to come into force. The Wednesday ruling is to be immediately enforced.
Egypt Court Bans Online Adult Content (XBIZ)
- Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma. Author Cathy Young writes: “To me, this crusade against “rape culture” over-simplifies the vast complexity of human sexual interaction, conflating criminal sexual acts like coercion by physical force, threat or incapacitation—which should obviously be prosecuted and punished whenever possible – with bad behavior.”
Feminists want us to define these ugly sexual encounters as rape. Don’t let them. (Washington Post)
And yet, she isn’t stupid enough to write:
“To me, this crusade against ‘non-consensual culture’ over-simplifies the vast complexity of human sexual interaction, conflating criminal sexual acts like coercion by physical force, threat or incapacitation—which should obviously be prosecuted and punished whenever possible – with non-consensual behavior.”