Sunday Sex Reads: Best of the Week

File under NYT on BBC. “The black penis is imagined more than it’s seen, which isn’t surprising. This newly relaxed standard for showing penises [on HBO] feels like a triumph of juvenile phallocentrism — it’s dudes peeking over a urinal divider and, as often as not, giggling at what they see. Not all of that peeking is harmless; some of those dudes are scared of what they’ve seen. And knowing that — knowing even a whiff of the American history of white men’s perception of the black penis — leaves you vulnerable to attack…”
Why Pop Culture Just Can’t Deal With Black Male Sexuality (NYT)

“I asked him if he’d been waiting for me, and he said no. He was just out there, standing before his home, a 20-room former motel, now “a kind of halfway house,” where friends, lovers and the occasional porn actor, lived in intimate commune, and where, for the next 24 hours, I would too.”
My 24-Hour Sleepover With a Sex Therapist at Her Ape-Inspired Commune (Mel Magazine)

“Say California resident John Smith is watching porn and he doesn’t see the actors using condoms. He can file a complaint with the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. The agency has to get back to him within 21 days. If it doesn’t, or if it declines to investigate, Smith can bring a civil action—a lawsuit—against anyone who was involved in producing or distributing the film. Assuming a judge doesn’t dismiss his suit, Smith would have to prove in court that condoms weren’t used on the porn set. If he succeeds, the producers could have to pay the state thousands of dollars—and Smith would get 25 percent of the cut.”
Here’s What Happens When the Government Tries to Regulate Sex on Porn Sets (The Atlantic)

“The finding that the latest version of the injected male contraceptive is now very effective is fantastic news. In a trial of 320 men, researchers found that, over a one-year period, it was 96 per cent effective in preventing pregnancy. … But the trial of the drug has already been halted – because just 20 of the men … found the side effects of the injection intolerable … Those side effects included depression, muscle pain, mood swings, acne and changes to the libido.”
Male contraceptive injection halted due to ‘intolerable’ side effects that women have suffered for years (Independent UK)

“In their more desperate but imaginative moments, spies for both governments tried to turn Sukarno’s famed sexual prowess against him. These efforts included a CIA-produced pornographic film and a “honey pot” scheme with KGB operatives dressed as flight attendants.”
The CIA and KGB Both Tried to Blackmail This World Leader With Sex Tapes (War is Boring)

“Instead, the term was invented by the spurned Chicago housewife Rose Allegretti in 1908. It referred to “the demure, tailor-made little typewriter girl whose habitat is the skyscraper, whose weapon is the two-edged sword of coquetry, whose prize is the human heart.” Much like Una Goslin, Rose Allegretti blamed the dissolution of her marriage on a young stenographer who worked for her husband, Benedetto Allegretti, the Chocolate King of Chicago.”
When Typists Were Feared as ‘Love Pirates’ (The Atlantic)

VB note: BBC frames these men as victims, and I’m not buying it. Article doesn’t back up claims that women are also victims. “The Oued Zem scammers trawl Facebook for victims, and as soon as a man answers a video call – either on Skype or, increasingly, within Facebook itself – they activate software that shows the victim a pre-recorded video of a girl downloaded from a porn webcam site.”
The Skype sex scam – a fortune built on shame (BBC News)

“…“Talking about it and forcing accountability for it,” Packer said, “is not ‘a fascination with sex.””
The difference between talking about Donald Trump’s accusers and being ‘fascinated by sex’ (Washington Post)

“Although Mr. Shilts did not accuse Mr. Dugas of starting the American epidemic, he demonized him as a deliberate spreader of the virus who ignored a doctor’s demand that he stop having unprotected sex, and coldbloodedly told some sex partners that he had “gay cancer” and now they might get it.”
H.I.V. Arrived in the U.S. Long Before ‘Patient Zero’ (NYT)

Warning for survivors of sexual assault and trauma; includes [fantasies of] gore, violence, and death. “Anna Tyler, a 22-year-old with blond hair and blunt-cut bangs, is an adult actress with an unusual skill: She has perfected her death stare. Several times now, Tyler has performed in what you might call faux snuff porn. She has writhed as though being strangled, laid naked covered in fake blood, and kept her eyes unblinking ”
Knives, Blood, Blank Stares: Inside The Dark World Of Fake Death Porn (Voacitv)

Main post image via Cai Lee by Arnaud Lajeunie for Purple Fashion No.26 FW 2016 (Fat Tongue)