Culture

The imagination is rarely given enough credit. Think of the eroticism inherent in the careful W of skin on the nape of a maiko’s neck. Or the hint of cleavage created by toes in a pair of satin pumps. When was the last time you beheld something so suggestive it was more erotic than actually seeing the real thing might have been?

Ali Carter in a whipped cream bikini in Varsity Blues. We can’t remember what the movie was about, but we will never forget the whipped cream bikini. It looks awkward now, laughable. We’ve graduated from cherry-nipples and a huge triangle-shaped covering down there. Lucky for us, whipped cream has graduated, too.

Medical books are fun, especially the really dusty ones no one reads anymore with information no one believes anymore, like this 1845 tome describing mental illness, the main cause of which, of course, was widely believed to be masturbation — or should we say, self-pollution?

Whatever your views may be when it comes to flesh on social networks, you have to agree that a process that doesn’t notify users of actions being taken by a social network with regard to their content is one that breeds insecurity and doubt. How can we feel that Google+ is an extension of our homes when we can’t be sure that we’re allowed to voice our opinions? This situation is grave indeed.

Apparently, Cosmo has added a new sex position to their catalog and they’re looking for help in naming it. Curious, we headed over and scoped it out only to find the position wasn’t so new after all.

Halloween is an artifact that has existed far longer than this country, under various names and in many guises over time. It’s a weird, twisted survivor that survives by absorbing the qualities of the culture in prominence where the day is celebrated. These days, people shake their heads when they think about Halloween — how could a kid’s dress-up holiday have become so grossly sexualized?

A little book about sex inspired by Dr. Seuss is making the internet rounds. Before you panic, allow us to remind you that this is not a book being handed out on street corners to children, but one that resides online with so little SEO as to render it impossible to stumble upon unless someone has a direct link. Having gotten that out of the way, allow us to introduce you to “Now That You’re Big” by Simon Greiner.

We concede that we’re not the typical porn consumers, but even so, we had a feeling we were not the only ones who get distracted during porn by certain errors or leaps of creative license in story lines that deal with our respective fields or topics of interest. Turns out we were right.

Sure! Let’s tell the girls not to get naked! Never mind the differences in salaries between men and women and the fact that porn is one of the only industries that pays women more. Don’t do that, girls! Doesn’t matter if you have to sleep on the street tonight or take up with an abusive asshat. Think of your dad! Think of the man who won’t marry you unless you fit his perfect vision of a good girl! That’s right, think of everyone but yourselves!

What happened to us? What happened to people me? Where I was running with packs of people who have bold ideas, inventing these amazing things, being at the forefront, and now I’m handing my communities and my value over to gatekeepers? And these things are being built not by leaders, but by followers. So why are we doing this?