Sex News: Stanford disputes NYT, The Bachelor gets sex-positive, why we equate penises and guns

• “Brian Le, a new faculty member in the Department of Urology with a background in materials science, is hoping that a heat-activated memory metal called Nitinol (a nickel-titanium alloy) will create a better implant for men with erectile dysfunction.”
  * Heat-activated penile implant might restore sexual function in men with ED (Medical Xpress)

• “Stanford University took the unusual step Thursday of issuing a detailed statement objecting to an article in The New York Times about the university’s handling of a sex assault case.”
  * Stanford Disputes NYT Article on Sex Assault Case (Inside Higher Ed)

• “My predictions are based on the understanding that eventually all food will fit someone’s definition of “gay”, and their inclusion in my list is based on my understanding of the context of our fight for gender and sexual equality, and not on the merits of any sort of innate gayness.”
  * My Predictions For What Food Straight White Men Will Fear In 2017 (Fry Havoc)

• “Researchers from two universities in Italy and Bell Labs decided to take a crack at answering this hugely important question by looking at data from Tumblr and Flickr, both Yahoo properties. They published their results to the arXiv preprint server last week, and the research was also presented at a conference earlier in the year. Their surprising conclusion: Tumblr has a lot of porn, while Flickr, not so much.”
  * So… How Much Porn Is on Tumblr? (Vice/Motherboard)

• “A lawmaker in Virginia has filed a bill that would declare pornography a public health hazard in the state, CBS Richmond affiliate WTVR reports.”
  * Virginia lawmaker wants porn declared a public health hazard (CBS News)

• “After opening a new Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas, one family got an … interesting surprise when their kid sidled up to the device to ask it to play a song by holding the little robot in both hands and shouting into the microphone. It’s very cute! Until, that is, Alexa starts rattling off a list of X-rated terms like “cock pussy” and “anal dildo.””
  * Little Kid Accidentally Gets Amazon Alexa to Talk About Dildos and Anal Sex (New York Magazine)

• Bacchus writes, “Here are the top five ErosBlog posts of 2016, as measured by Google Analytics data from 2016.” This great post includes his “breathless rant about mass surveillance, law enforcement incitement versus entrapment, and official hysteria over imaginary human trafficking.”
  * 2016: ErosBlog’s Greatest Hits (ErosBlog: The Sex Blog)

• “One of the best-known and one of the most respected political reporters at The Washington Post in a well-received analysis of Democrats post-election made one gigantic statement that deserves pushback from readers and, frankly, a correction.”
  * Washington Post Ludicrously Claims Gay Voters Don’t Think Trump Wants to Prevent Them From Getting Married (The New Civil Rights Movement)

• “The cultural code for sex in America is “gun.” The theory is not as phallic as it seems, rather it explains that, for most Americans, sexuality is at once the source of excitement and danger. It is a powerful weapon, but a weapon indeed – something to treat with caution and approach with fear. Rapaille’s examination of America’s sexual psychosis explains why mainstream culture consistently oscillates between vulgarity and frigidity. ”
  * George Michael, a queer guide for the straight guys (Salon)

• “The thing that always baffled me about The Bachelor and its ilk is that they like to ignore that sex is a big part of relationships, especially if marriage is the eventual intention … Between him standing up for an expression of sexual desire and his history on the show, I have a feeling this season will be different in a great way.”
  * Nick Viall’s ‘Bachelor’ Season Is More Sex-Positive Than Ever Before, Which Is A Great Step Forward (Bustle)

• “The space romance Passengers has faced a mudslide of criticism for its conflation of Stockholm syndrome and romance and for taking a heady plot with scientific inaccuracies and intellectually lazy ideas about 24th-century culture. Still, it has one thing going for it that NASA never has: sex.”
  * Space Sex Will Suck Without a ‘Coupling Suit’ (Inverse)

Main post image via Kingsley McLean ‘Born to be blue’ (Sticks and Stones Mothership)