Sex News: Furry fury at fascists, #MeToo ignores sex workers, all about deepfakes, AI fails at nudes

• “The extremist La Meute (french for “The Wolf Pack”) is a Quebec based anti-immigrant group that has been rapidly growing, both in numbers and in recognition. It is one of the largest far-right groups in Canada. Like many of the nation’s far-right groups, their focus is primarily on halting Muslim immigration. The leader of the furry La Meute, which started before its far-right counterpart, is named Mr. Wolfenstein and he damn well wants you to know that the far-right version of La Meute is “the false wolf pack.””
  * This Quebec Furry Group Is Fighting the Far Right (Vice)

• Warning for survivors. “An adult-film actress has come forward with an accusation against the actor and comedian T.J. Miller, who starred in the HBO series Silicon Valley. Dana DeArmond, a porn star who has also appeared in several mainstream movies, tweeted Tuesday: “I was harassed by both Tj Miller and the director Jordan Vogt-Roberts shooting for Comedy Central’s Mash Up. I’ve been saying Tj was an asshole for years. So there you go.””
  * T.J. Miller and ‘Kong’ Director Accused of Harassment by Porn Star Dana DeArmond (Daily Beast)

• “Bitcast is a service that tracks the real-time value of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin in US dollars, on a chart that syncs with a line of internet-connected Lovense sex toys. When the value goes up, the vibrations intensify. When it goes down, the vibes back off.”
  * Now You Can Literally Get Fucked by the Price of Bitcoin (Motherboard/Vice)

• Warning for survivors. “Ten thousand rape kits tested. One hundred twenty-seven convictions won, 1,947 cases investigated, 817 serial rapists identified. It’s been a long eight years for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. … We started off with an 18-month pilot program with UPS. We knew that if you could track a package, when you order something online, you ought to be able to track a rape kit in your own state.”
  * Kaffer: 8 years into tests of abandoned rape kits, Worthy works for justice (Detroit Free Press)

• Warning for survivors. “… Nor have these women or their peers been actively courted by the #MeToo movement, which has acted as a kind of virtual welcoming tent for countless famous and everyday victims (of all genders) of sexual misconduct. Even in this incredible moment of vocal support for those muted by violence and intimidation, long-held stigmas surrounding porn have cast its participants aside.”
  * What will it take for the porn industry to have its #MeToo moment? (Mic)

• “Adolescent female macaques climbed on top of a sika deer and crouched. Then, they moved their pelvises as if thrusting or grinding. They squeaked sexual sounds. They also bit, sniffed and pulled on the deer’s antlers. The deer, meanwhile, stood nonchalantly and continued foraging for food.”
  * Yes, that’s a monkey grinding on top of a deer (Washington Post)

• “It’s especially striking considering that it’s allegedly the work of one person—a Redditor who goes by the name ‘deepfakes’—not a big special effects studio that can digitally recreate a young Princess Leia in Rouge One using CGI. Instead, deepfakes uses open-source machine learning tools like TensorFlow, which Google makes freely available to researchers, graduate students, and anyone with an interest in machine learning.”
  * AI-Assisted Fake Porn Is Here and We’re All Fucked (Motherboard/Vice)

• “London’s Metropolitan Police believes that its artificial intelligence software will be up to the task of detecting images of child abuse in the next “two to three years.” But, in its current state, the system can’t tell the difference between a photo of a desert and a photo of a naked body.”
  * British Cops Want to Use AI to Spot Porn—But It Keeps Mistaking Desert Pics for Nudes (Gizmodo)

• “Before Divine became a popular cam model, she ran her career change by her husband, Jeff Davis, who at the time worked for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Clackamas, Oregon, for over 23 years. To make certain Divine’s new career wouldn’t affect her husband’s status at work, she and Davis hired Dan Thenell, an attorney, before creating her business. … Unfortunately, Divine and Davis’ efforts were ineffective.”
  * There’s Way More to This Ex-Police Officer’s Layoff: #NowWhat (Eco Salon)

• “It’s the human ass part in particular that’s upsetting residents. NorthJersey.com reports that Amy Tingle posted a now-private open letter on Facebook criticizing the ice cream shop’s choice. “It is offensive and sickening. A hyper-sexualized, obviously female cow with her ass upended and poking through a circle, tail raised up, waiting for what? I’m not sure, but I do know that I am repulsed and offended,” she wrote.”
  * This Sexy Cow Logo Is Tearing a New Jersey Town Apart (The Cut)

• “In 1962, Beate Uhse, one of a handful of female pilots in Germany’s World War II Luftwaffe, opened what she called the world’s first sex shop, the Institute for Marital Hygiene, in the northern German town of Flensburg. … The global sex toy market will expand about 7 percent a year, to $30 billion in 2020, researcher Technavio predicts. Beate Uhse faces a growing range of rivals including—of course—Amazon.com Inc., which now sells vibrators, fur-lined handcuffs, and other sex toys.”
  * This Company Could Have Been the Amazon of Sex Toys, But Botched Its Chance to Dominate (Bloomberg)

• Warning for survivors. “Surprisingly, my female students fared no better in understanding why Phoebe didn’t say no. To determine how easy it is for a woman to actually say “no,” I went around the room asking all my female students to say aloud the word like they mean it. The first time around, none of them could do it. Instead, there were whispers and even some giggles.”
  * What bad-sex novels can teach us about consent and harrassment (Washington Post)

• Content warning: graphic descriptions of mutilation. “The summer of 2016 was the first season Dakwa can remember in which none of the 3,500 initiates died in or around Flagstaff. “December, last year, we experienced three deaths and four amputations,” Dakwa recounts. “June, last year, we also [had] two deaths and three partial amputations and one full amputation.””
  * Secrets and Nightmares of the Teenage Circumcision Circuit (Narratively)

Main post image via ‘The Celebration Issue’ | Vogue Italia Dec. 2017 by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott HQ Photo Shoot (In The Raw)