“Bad sex is what happens when we believe that talking about sex is ‘redundant’ and writing about it is ‘crude,'” writes Laurie Penny. “It’s what happens when sexuality becomes a shameful, angry place at the forbidden centre of culture, where all the angst and hate and gendered pain is enacted on the bodies of others.” She’s absolutely right.
The plan was to have a few drinks and swap partners. The reality involved gunfire and police. It’s a cautionary tale not soon forgotten. The key takeaway, I think we may all agree, is that guns have no place in an argument, especially one fueled by a disinhibitor like alcohol. But there is another lesson here, too: it’s essential to communicate with our partners about what we desire.
The season is upon us and everyone is busy writing guides to help you navigate the complex rituals of appropriate gift-giving. Every occasion calls for a specific thing, which is precisely why the blog, The Worst Things for Sale, exists. Face it, some stockings deserve a lump of coal, and here is the best lump we’ve ever seen.
“We want no Gestapo or secret police. FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandals and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals,” worried Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States. Of course, he had a hand in creating what would become the National Security Agency, or NSA. It’s been over a century since the country began formalizing its intel-gathering aparatus, but we’re still seeing similar tricks.
Like most content destinations, The Cut is occasionally forced to employ stock photography in their articles. And like most editors at content destinations forced to sit at a desk trying to find images using stock photography sites filled with the sort of photos we haven’t seen since the days of bad corporate brochures, the editors at the Cut went a little mad and decided to collect all the insane results they got for variations on feminist themes during their searches.
The founder of the porn Pinterest clone Pinsex doesn’t think anyone has been successful at making porn social. But if you ask any porn star on Twitter or person running a porn tumblelog, you’ll be laughed out of town. Hell, you can even find private communities on anti-porn platforms like Facebook and Plus. Porn has long since become social. What it’s never had is a place it could call home without fear that it would be removed for some seemingly arbitrary infraction.
In August, Russian officials issued an edict against anything that struck, in their opinion, as a “nontraditional” relationship, citing concern for the easily corruptible minds of Russian children. This gay ban was met with a great deal of protest from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual allies and activists and now, the group FCKH8, best known for manufacturing gay marriage equality t-shirts, has stepped up with a coloring book for children depicting the story of little Misha, a little boy with two moms. It’s the most heart-breaking thing you’ll ever see.
The internet has been having some fun these last few days circulating an image of a Samsung billboard with a very amusing kerning error which makes the text read “The penis, mightier than the finger” instead of “The pen is mightier than the finger.” People discussing the hilarious mishap on the Galaxy Note 10.1 billboard named Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya and France as its location. The truth is less amusing.
A couple of years ago, researchers exploring the effectiveness of emergency contraception uncovered an interesting thing: that levonorgestrel, which is used in a number of over-the-counter morning-after pills, becomes less effective in women over 165 pounds (75 kilograms) and is almost completely ineffective for women weighing over 177 pounds (80 kilograms). In 2011, they published their results, drawing the attention of a number of pharmaceutical companies worldwide, but why haven’t any of us heard anything about it until now?
The RealTouch, a device that transforms scenes on your computer screen into stimulation you can experience, has decided to discontinue its product in the face of increasing licensing fees and manufacturing costs. This is a shame. The RealTouch was monumental: using a combination of conveyor belts, heating coils and other parts, the RealTouch changed the heat, wetness, friction and squeezing based on the sort of porn you tuned into. It was a leap into the future for self-pleasure for men. We’re sad to see it go.
