Sunday Sex Reads: Best of the Week

“It seems these days that one cannot swing a stick on the internet without hitting an article on why bots are So Hot Right Now. As your friendly neighborhood dominatrix and expert on being served by people and things as a lifestyle, I feel obligated to chime in.”
* A Dominatrix’s Review of Chatbots (Chatbot Magazine)

Warning for survivors of sexual abuse, assault, and trauma. “For decades, the ancient forests here have provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry, shielding pot farmers from convention, outsiders and law enforcement. But the forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation. Some have spoken out; a handful have pressed charges. Most have confided only in private.”
* In secretive marijuana industry, whispers of abuse and trafficking (Reveal News)

“Many intelligent, well-informed self-described feminists believe sex work should never be decriminalized. In fact, the decriminalization of sex work is perhaps the single most divisive subject within feminism today. This divide is the result of a moral blind spot on the part of anti-sex work feminists or “antis.” They conflate all sex work unconditionally with rape, trafficking, and patriarchal exploitation. Ultimately, this is based on a (very un-feminist) distrust of the loud and powerful testimony of sex workers themselves, who, as individuals and organizations, have called over and over again for decriminalization to keep us safe from violence, stigma, and exploitation. ”
* 10 Reasons Sex Work Should Be Decriminalized (Refinery 29)

“Claire* said that she faced retaliation from her male colleagues for reporting them. According to Claire, when someone finally came in to investigate the issue of the harassment she reported up, Apple admitted to her that she was in a hostile work environment. But instead of working to ameliorate her situation, she said, the company gave her a choice: stay in the position or take a lower ranking, lower paying job on another team. Claire took the demotion.”
* Leaked Apple emails reveal employees’ complaints about sexist, toxic work environment (Mic)

“As a sex worker, sometimes I want to believe the Pretty Woman fairy tale exists — the one where the dirty slut gets a makeover, a Hermes bag and polka dot sundress; the one where a rich guy and a broke girl live happily ever after. So I sat down eagerly to watch Starz network’s episodic half-hour dramedy, The Girlfriend Experience, which delivers a trope mainstream audiences crave: an understated high-end, well-mannered, well-groomed call girl, Christine Reade (Riley Keough) who decides to make a splash sucking cock for profit while studying law and straddling an internship at a prestigious law firm.”
* Girlfriend Experience Interrupted (Medium)

“I guess you could say that Mary Astor and I “met cute,” the way romantic leads always do. It happened in 1965. I was 36, a freelance illustrator who, thanks to Vietnam, had begun doing political satire in a left-wing magazine called Ramparts. Mary, as I would come to call her, had retired from the screen a year earlier, after a career often playing soigné, exquisitely coiffed upper-class women. She was 59.”
* Inside the Trial of Actress Mary Astor, Old Hollywood’s Juiciest Sex Scandal (Vanity Fair)

“Because I take it so frequently, Adderall doesn’t impact me the way it does those who rarely take it. I simply feel normal on it, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have some negative side effects, such as making me more restless, quicker to agitation and more prone to bouts of anxiety. Regardless, Adderall is part of my daily routine, and out of all the areas I see it impacting my life, my sex life is certainly one of the top.”
8 Ways Sex On Adderall Was Totally Different For Me (Elite Daily)

“Yet these biographical facts do not interest French filmmakers Thierry Demaiziere and Alban Teurlai. Their extraordinary documentary Rocco, which recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival, is a portrait of the porn star that tries to make sense of his mind. It’s an introspective look at Siffredi, who opens up about the death of his brother, his sexual reaction to his mother’s death, his relationship with his wife and two children, and, of course, why he likes performing carnal acts on film so much.”
* Rocco Siffredi Couldn’t Be a Priest, So He Became a Porn Star (Vice)

Main post photo: Emma Maris by Ethan Gulley, “Golden / SOTW” (Sticks & Stones Agency)