Sunday Sex Reads: Best of the Week

“Zhana Vrangalova had hit a problem. On a blustery day in early spring, sitting in a small coffee shop near the campus of New York University, where she is an adjunct professor of psychology, she was unable to load onto her laptop the Web site that we had met to discuss. This was not a technical malfunction on her end; rather, the site had been blocked.”
* Casual Sex: Everyone Is Doing It (The New Yorker)

“Men and women are clearly similar when looking at the most and least commonly reported reasons for sex. However, when considering the reasons that appeared in the middle of the list (i.e., things that only motivate people from time to time), a number of notable sex differences emerged.”
* Scientists asked people why they have sex — here are their strangest and most common replies (TechInsider)

“I entered the sex industry because I lacked access to health care. … For transsexuals, this often has another dimension. These procedures can provide a degree of relief from gender or sex dysphoria, which, according to the American Psychiatric Association, includes “strong desires to be treated as the other gender or to be rid of one’s sex characteristics.” The APA further recognizes that some individuals with dysphoria “can benefit greatly from medical and surgical gender transition treatments.””
* I Do Sex Work So I Can Look At Myself In The Mirror (Huffington Post)

“First, the psychologists noted that women who read the story about a sexually dominant male endorsed benevolent sexism more than men. That’s right — female participants who read the male-dominated erotica expressed more sexist beliefs than male participants. … Interestingly, when men read about a sexually dominant female they came to value female dominance more. Meanwhile, men in the other groups did not value having a sexually dominant partner at all. In other words, men became more accepting of the idea after reading about it in a story …”
* Psychologists Flipped the Gender Roles in Erotica—and Here’s What Happened (Fusion)

“I got into the adult industry at the tender age of 18. I was really young. I needed money for my transition. Growing up in a small town I was discriminated against when it came to jobs. I couldn’t even get a normal job, like at Burger King. I wanted to transition, so I thought about it and decided to start working in the industry as soon as I turned 18. ”
* The Challenges of Being a Transgender Porn Star (Broadly/Vice)

VB note: My site is https. As usual, the adult industry has yet to catch up with us indies… “Two categories of the most popular sites still haven’t upgraded to secure connections: news/media and adult content sites. … Evil Angel sites offer subscriptions, and the payments pages are secure. The rest of the site is not yet, however. It’s also not a top 100 site. Many of the adult sites on that list are owned or run by a company called MindGeek, such as YouPorn, RedTube and Pornhub.”
* Could Sex Online Lead to Infection? (Observer)

VB note: The title is a misnomer; this article is about a man who enjoys cuckold, and not about a swinger (as in, the swinging community). “The ding comes from a couple in their early 30s, staying at a local casino for the weekend. I want to see a man with a larger cock give her what I cannot, the husband writes. Please give us serious consideration … [Dave] is in his early 40s, a soft-spoken primary-care doctor, a tall and muscular black man with tattoos and a disarmingly boyish face—all of which has made him particularly sought-after in this wealthy part of Phoenix.”
* The Secret Life Of America’s Greatest Swinger (GQ)

“In 1986, Jesse Weaver, aka Schoolly D, was a burgeoning rap star recording his second album, Saturday Night! He was, however, still living at home in Philadelphia. So women would call him on the phone, quite often and at all hours of the night, and his mother and sisters began calling them “booty calls.” (“This, of course, is when there were no cell phones,” he observed. ”
* The Lost History of the ‘Booty Call’ (Esquire)

Note: religious content. “As a privileged married heterosexual and an evangelical Christian ethicist, I finally came to terms a few years ago with how terrible this problem is for LGBT Christians and embarked on a reconsideration process. It led me to a posture of solidarity and moved me to open up my traditionalist lifetime-covenantal-marital sexual ethic to include gay and lesbian unions. This was seen as a grave error by some of my fellow believers.”
* When forbidden sexuality meets unchanging religious tradition (Religion News)

“Christopher Park, a historic community park located immediately across the street from the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City (City), is a place for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to assemble for marches and parades, expressions of grief and anger, and celebrations of victory and joy. It played a key role in the events often referred to as the Stonewall Uprising or Rebellion, and has served as an important site for the LGBT community both before and after those events.”
* Read: President Barack Obama’s Historic Declaration Designating Stonewall Inn a National Monument (New Civil Rights Movement)

“Host Reid Mihalko, a sex educator, told me he started the parties in New York for massage therapists who wanted to receive massages themselves. His non-masseuse friends wanted to come, but were too intimidated, so he joked that they should just have a “cuddle party” instead. The rest is history. ”
* How A Cuddle Party Changed The Way I View Consent (Bustle)

Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma. “One of the hardest presentations I’ve ever given was at a conference on treating sexual assault. My presentation set the stage by inviting people to consider the broad range of sexual behaviors which fall under the concept of normal. In that context, I explored the issue of the female rape fantasy, how it presents in therapy, and its relation to the effects of assault.”
* If You Have Ever Had A Rape Fantasy, Here’s What It Means (YourTango)

Main post photo via Maartje Verhoef by Txema Yeste for Vogue Russia, June 2016.