Sunday Sex Reads: Best of the Week

“It’s time for another timely reminder that the credit card companies are why we can’t have nice adult things online. Well, to be fair, I suppose it’s the credit card companies and their shadowy political masters. Like that makes it better?”
* #Pornocalypse Comes To FetLife (ErosBlog: The Sex Blog)

“To “identify” which men were gay, doctors inserted tongue depressors into patients’ throats to trigger their gag reflexes, assuming that men who performed fellatio wouldn’t gag. Doctors also asked suspected homosexuals on how they felt when engaged in the “application of the mouth to the sexual organ” of another guy, theorizing “true homosexuals” gave so many blowjobs they’d report they felt pleasure in their mouth while their penises remained flaccid during fellatio.”
* How Exclusion From the Military Strengthened Gay Identity in America (Rolling Stone)

“The strange thing about this is that the things that used to trigger me about being a man (like lifting and playing sports) are things that now affirm me as a woman who cannot — and so, does not —conform. At this point in my life, sex has also been one of those things. While I was celibate the second time around, which only lasted about a month, to be honest, I realized something about me: sex is a form of self-preservation for me as a Black Trans Woman.”
* Why I’m Unapologetic About My Sensuality as a Black Trans Woman (Autostraddle)

“The Sessions is the movie I ritually watch before I go to my own “sessions” as a 25-year-old person with cerebral palsy (CP). Seeing someone in a similar situation to myself gives me the courage to go, and to be open to anything. Knowing that someone so much worse off than myself can find a partner makes me feel better about my own search. Despite my disability, I’ve got the looks and the personality (plus the modesty).”
* I Have Cerebral Palsy and I’m Happy to Pay for Sex (Vice)

“The growing popularity of these diverse platforms hints that today’s generation is focussed on varied examples of sex, love and intimacy more generally. Government fear-mongering represses education to the point that many of us grow up without understanding the importance of sexual pleasure. We may be aware of disease prevention, but porn offers a glimpse into a fantasy world free of consequence. Sites such as Love Matters are crucial – these forms of alternative sex education are vital to fully understanding that sexual stigma exists for a reason.”
* Can porn really provide a safe, alternative sex education? (Dazed)

“While virtual-reality porn is making strides, there’s definitely still something missing from the experience. One company is out to make those virtual sessions a little more realistic with the OhRoma, a mask that brings scent to VR porn.”
* This VR Mask Is Adding Scent To Your Porn (Refinery 29)

“There’s no porn on Netflix, at least not the type you’d find on Pornhub or Brazzers. But there’s plenty of real-life sex to be enjoyed on the streaming platform.”
* The sexiest movies that somehow passed Netflix’s porn censors (Daily Dot)

“Dr. Taylor Kohut, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario who has researched porn for a decade, thinks he can do better. Kohut is currently crowdfunding a site and app called the Porn Genome Project, where participants map images of porn, effectively metatagging sample pornographic images to compile data he says will help us better understand arousal and improve sexual content.”
* This Guy Needs Your Help to Make Searching for Porn Easier (Mel Magazine)

“Anyone dismissing the claims against Trump on the premise that the honey-trapping of Western officials is an obsolete Cold War practice should heed the words of Sir Anthony Brenton, Britain’s ambassador to Moscow between 2004 and 2008, who described this as “very much a part of the way Russia works”. Sure enough, various incidents of recent years prove that Western diplomats and luminaries on tour in Russia still need to keep their noses clean.”
* The Trump dossier might be unverified, but using sex for spying is what Russia really does (Business Insider)

“Nearly 80 rights groups on Wednesday accused Facebook of “racially biased censorship” and failing to be more transparent about its removal policies and cooperation with law enforcement, adding to criticism the company has faced in recent months over its management of content on its network of 1.8 billion users.”
* Facebook dismissive of censorship, abuse concerns, rights groups allege (Reuters)

“Perla, 34, has worked for three years at Sheri’s Ranch, a legal brothel located outside of Las Vegas. Prostitution is legal in Nevada only in the 24 licensed brothels in the state. … “About half of my family knows what I do for a living. My family is very supportive. They know I’m in a safe place.””
* What It’s Like To Work In A Legal Nevada Brothel (Esquire UK)

“Greta Garbo and the underappreciated playwright Mercedes de Acosta were madly in love—”trips together, trysts on the beach, naked portraits”—but when Garbo wouldn’t publicly identify as a lesbian, de Acosta had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat had a fling, but it was so acrimonious that he made her return the paintings he’d made her, and then he covered them in black.”
* All Your Favorite Writers and Artists Were Constantly Fucking (Vice)

Main post image via Paperback Paradise.