Actual sex books about sex — as in, pleasure! “This list was made with adults in mind; it is not a list of sex education books for kids nor is it a list of books on how to talk to your kids about sex. This list also does not include books on dating or relationships, save a few, and I intentionally have not included memoirs.”
100 Must-Read Sex Education Books (for Grown-Ups) (BookRiot)
Wherein Uber HR believes “people of certain genders and ethnic backgrounds [are] better suited for some jobs than others.” It started with a manager who did this over, and over… But Uber didn’t want to hurt his career. “It was clear that he was trying to get me to have sex with him, and it was so clearly out of line that I immediately took screenshots of these chat messages and reported him to HR.”
Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber (Susan J. Fowler)
“… from a moderation perspective, this bluntness often backfires. A monogamous user will accidentally stumble across the profile of a polyamorous one and flag the account with a comment like, “Disgusting. User just wanted a hookup.” And users who mention kink in their profiles are disproportionately likely to be flagged. ”
How I Decide Who Gets Banned on OkCupid (NY Mag)
In case anyone thinks sex work is easy or wants to know what sex discrimination looks like. “What do I do for work, you ask? I’m a sex worker in the porn industry. And at 28 years old, I’m a sex worker who is starting to feel the limitations of her body … A body that has shattered an ankle, torn a meniscus, and ripped a rotator cuff. A body that, despite its limitations, still has to perform as though it is superhuman. This has made me keenly aware of the flaws in the system that put those in my profession in a precarious situation: one in which we’re kept from receiving care due to lack of coverage and stigma, while providers are not given the tools they need to offer more inclusive services.”
No One in the Porn Industry Likes a Broken Vagina (Rewire)
Very important new study contradicts the widely held belief that porn is making people have bad sex ed (or in the UK battle against porn, that online porn is teaching kids harmfully inaccurate sex information). “…we determined that contrary to expectations, frequency of SEM exposure did not contribute to inaccurate knowledge of sexual anatomy, physiology, and behaviour. Rather, the opposite relationship was found.”
Porn Sex Versus Real Sex: How Sexually Explicit Material Shapes Our Understanding of Sexual Anatomy, Physiology, and Behaviour (Springer; journal article purchase requited for entire paper)
“… This democratisation of porn has had positive effects. There’s more diversity of body shape, sexual taste and even pubic hair style on a cam site than on the home page of PornHub. Pleasure takes a more central role, too: one of the most popular “games” on the webcam site Chaturbate is for performers to hook up sex toys to the website, with users paying to try to give them an orgasm. Crucially, without a studio, performers can set their own boundaries.”
How the internet has democratised pornography (New Statesman)
“FIVE years ago, I taught sex education to my daughter Tessa’s class. Last week, I taught death education to my daughter Sasha’s class. In both cases, I didn’t really want to delegate the task.”
First, Sex Ed. Then Death Ed. (NYT)
“Cheap and tacky for the most part, but, if I’m in the mood, damn arousing too. Nor do I choose to over-analyse it, pull it apart as an example of exploitation and anti-feminism. I watch it because I want to have an orgasm and treat it like blindfolds, crotchless knickers or role-play – as a bit of extra fun in the bedroom, not so I can support a three-hour debate regarding the sexualisation of women within society today.”
Why, as a woman, I love watching porn (Metro UK)
“Over the past few months, we’ve been looking at data from across the BDSM spectrum to try and determine which US cities are the best for kink-identified people. … Like our first study, we looked at the 50 largest US cities, and began evaluating them for several factors, including overall size of the kink population, kink resources (from bars, dungeons and retailers to kink-friendly therapists, doctors and lawyers), and total interest in kink. ”
2017 Kink State of the Union | The 10 Kinkiest Cities in the US (Kink)
“Let’s get this out of the way: the new recording rig recently released by VR Bangers [NSFW] is less an erotic fantasy and more the stuff of nightmares. That is, if disembodied heads stir up in you an unsettling uncanny valley response.”
VR Porn Studio Releases POV Head Rig for Max Intimacy Between Actresses and Viewers (Future of Sex)
They’re “Gay for the stay.” “There’s every shade of human sexuality in prison, but sexual activity isn’t a necessary or defining part of the romantic partnership. Relationships in prison are sometimes about sex, but more often they’re about human connection. Because prison is an awful place: It is designed to deny people of their desire to connect.”
Amanda Knox: What Romance in Prison Actually Looks Like (Broadly/Vice)
“… Carrillo and Hoffman note that many of their respondents simply “see no real personal or social advantages that would stem from publicly adopting an identity as bisexual or gay.” In many cases, it may not be in their interests to do so — hence the compartmentalization of their same-sex encounters.”
How Straight Men Who Have Sex With Men Explain Their Encounters (NY Magazine)
Main post image via AN EROTIC ALPHABET BASED ON THE KAMA SUTRA (Dangerous Minds)
