- Italian actress and porn star (of over 100 films, above) Moana Pozzi, whose mysterious 1994 death has become the stuff of Italian conspiracy theories, might have been a KGB agent and poisoned by radioactive polonium, according to new revelations gathered for a television documentary called Mistero (Mystery).
Italian Actress and Porn Star Was a KGB Agent, New Documentary Claims (Hollywood Reporter)
- Legendary porn star Ron Jeremy has been cleared to go back to work. The hirsute actor affectionately nicknamed the “Hedgehog” quietly checked out from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a week ago after suffering a near-fatal aneurysm near his heart late January.
Ron Jeremy healthy – cleared to go back to work (NY Post)
- “Colorado Democrats approved a bill that expands sex-ed standards after a debate in the House Friday that wasn’t X-rated but certainly wasn’t PG.”
Colorado House passes sex ed bill over Republicans’ objections (The Denver Post)
- ‘I Want Your Love’ is a film made by my logtime dear friend Jack Shamama and Travis Matthew, and it’s a bold examination of looking for love in modern, urban gay male culture – itself largely an economy of casual sex, also where emotional desire swirls with disconnection. It’s a deep, thought-provoking film. The film has just been banned by the Australian Film Board and a protest petition has been started.
‘I Want Your Love’ Banned by Australian Film Board: Gay sex too much for Australian film censor (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Starts February 25: Free 9-week online HIV/AIDS course (Coursera)
- A map showing the area codes in which Ludacris has “hos” – state by state. And more map porn (not actual porn unless you fap to cartography).
38 Maps You Never Knew You Needed (Buzzfeed)
- Police in Tokyo, Japan have arrested an art photographer and two printing executives on obscenity charges for printing and distributing 4,000 copies of a book that includes full-frontal male nudity.
Tokyo Police Arrest Photographer, Printing Execs on Obscenity Charges (XBIZ Newswire)
- An incubator devoted to sexually explicit, porn-themed clones of popular startups could be a thing, but I must wonder – do these sites really ever succeed? There’s Birchbox for your box, Kickstarter for porn, and now there’s Faploid, a Flipboard for adult content. Of course there is.
Good News! There’s Now a Flipboard for Porno and It’s Called ‘Faploid’ (Betabeat)
- A video about the (fake, unproven) “science” behind “porn addiction” making the rounds this week was so obviously pseudoscience bullshit, and yet I was gobsmacked to see blogs I respect (like i09!) swallow it wholesale and without question. I was even more surprised when Gizmodo was the only one to question it…
How Pornography Addiction Works and Affects Your Life (Update: Or Not!) (Gizmodo)
- Figures published this week suggest that leafy, suburban Surrey (UK), the county of George Eliot, PG Wodehouse, EM Forster and Arthur Conan Doyle, is Britain’s capital for readers of erotic fiction.
Under the covers in Britain’s capital of erotic fiction (Telegraph)
- I was in Morocco last month, I loved it there, and so find this item so much more upsetting. The film 475 investigates the case of Amina Filali, a sixteen year old Moroccan girl whose public suicide dominated Moroccan and international media. Filali had accused a young man in her village of rape; when authorities failed to properly investigate her accusations, she was married to her rapist following the citation of article 475 from the penal code, which dismisses a rapist of his charges if he marries his victim. Not long afterwards, she ate rat poison, walked into the village market, and died. An interview with the filmmaker.
Exposing Sexual Violence in Morocco: An Interview with Nadir Bouhmouch (jadaliyya.com)
- Our pal Jon Millward let me know when he published his fun new research results on porn stars, and he’s getting *tons* of attention and acclaim. Definitely do not miss Deep Inside: A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars and Their Careers.
A brunette with a B-cup named Nikki Lee: Porn researcher claims to have uncovered the ‘average’ female performer (The Independent)
- Egyptian women are growing increasingly angry and militant as they deal with one of the unintended consequences of the Arab Spring: an epidemic of sexual assault that law enforcement has failed to contain.
Egypt’s women fighting back against sex assaults (Associated Press)
- My friend and (IMO) the author of one of the best sex guides in the world Dr. Paul Joannides has re-started his sex column on the Psychology Today website, and is a fun, informative addition to reading lists.
As You Like It (Psychology Today)
- The online community over at Hacker News had some interesting comments about a (dense) post about the morality of sperm donation. The commenters there have a rep for being douchey, so be warned in advance.
The morality of sperm donation (Hacker News)
You might like this TED talk on sex and desire in relationships. Some very interesting thoughts: http://www.ted.com/talks/esther_perel_the_secret_to_desire_in_a_long_term_relationship.html