Sex News: Third gender ID’s, sexwork conference, history of slips, leftover women

• In my opinion, this is the most important article written about sex so far this year. Please share it as much as you can. I think it’s a show-stopper. “Over the weekend, the UK’s Observer published an editorial about transgender people that crossed a bunch of lines. … I’m not transgender, and I don’t have any close friends or family who are, so why was I treating that editorial like it was personal? I am a dude who is straight and cisgender (that is, someone whose gender identity matches their biology) and who seems to have no stake in this fight. Here’s why I take transgender issues personally…”
  Guy Talk: Why A Straight Man Like Me Cares About Transgender Rights (The Frisky)

• An iPhone app for penis sizing hits Apple’s app store, while a photography app is pulled from the Apple app store for possibly allowing users to see nudes. Also, India attempts a tech solution to try and help women as they are being assaulted, though their wristwatch-SOS-GPS prototype is at least six months away…
  Sex Tech: Apple App Store banhammer, GoDaddy revenge porn suit (ZDNet)

• An official says Nepal’s government will begin issuing citizenship certificates with the category “third gender” for people who do not wish to be identified as male or female. Activists hailed the decision, saying it was an achievement for gay and transgender rights.
  Nepal to Issue ‘Third Gender’ IDs (ABC News)

• Gov. Rick Perry told a crowd of more than 3,000 people Saturday at a rally decrying the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion that he wants to restrict the procedure as much as possible in Texas. “The ideal world is one without abortion,” he said.
  Texas to restrict abortion as much as possible, Gov. Rick Perry tells protesters at Capitol rally (The Dallas Morning News)

• Yes, this – so much. Op-ed: “While it’s all very well to announce that more women are watching porn, what’s more interesting is the hope that the historically conservative view of female sexuality is becoming more expansive and less judgmental.”
  Why ‘women are watching porn’ should not be a story (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Amid Egypt’s ongoing civil unrest, at least 25 women have been sexually assaulted during clashes in Tahrir Square, according to local women’s rights campaigners.
  Tahrir Square sexual assaults reported during anniversary clashes (Guardian UK)

• The U.S. sex work conference has opened its call for proposals – I want to help them spread the word.
  Desiree Alliance: Call for Proposals (desireealliance.org)

• This is amazing – an incredible state-by-state data on sexual health and pleasure, the first large-scale open collection of the data ever.
  Sexual Health Rankings (Sexual Pleasure)

• I didn’t think this history of the slip would be as sexy as it is – and it actually inspired me to go buy a couple of vintage slips to amp the sexy in my life… Worth a read.
  Sexier Than Silk: The Irresistible Allure of the Nylon Slip (Collectors Weekly)

• “I argue that the ‘leftover women’ term is actually part of a sexist media campaign by the government, which is facing a severe demographic crisis,” says Leta Hong-Fincher, an American doing her sociology Ph.D at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. She’s written about the so-called ‘leftover women’ phenomenon, and she says state-run media started using the term in 2007, the same year the government warned that China’s gender imbalance – caused by selective abortions because of the one-child policy – was a serious problem.
  Single and Over 27: What the Chinese Government Calls ‘Leftover Women’ (PRI’s The World)

• Marc McAndrews spent five years photographing 33 of Nevada’s (legal) brothels for Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel (Umbrage Editions). Slate has a full photoessay with his images.
  Nevada Rose, Inside the American Brothel (Slate)

Main post image: Kacie Marie as seen in the (very fun, sexy) Var Magazine.