"Many young Kiwis are using porn to learn about sex."

The New Zealand Government released this PSA as part of their "Keep it Real Online" campaign.

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Grindr, a popular hookup app, yesterday announced it was removing its "ethnicity" filter.

Announcing the change, Grindr said it had a "zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech" on its platform.

It's a problem Grindr long ignored, but something has forced its hand. The BBC's Ben Hunte says because white users have started speaking out:

But some are angry that it has only happened as a result of white people speaking up on social media. Indeed, the most-shared social media posts written to shame Grindr into action were posted by white gay men.

This means that it's just a resolved PR issue to Grindr, not the start of a different approach to related issues. For example, it's likely that the ethnicity filter hid problems with algorithmic racism that will now be readily apparent to searchers Read the rest

In the 1990s, Australian urologist Helen O'Connell performed the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on aroused women's clitorises. She found that the clitoris is 10 times larger than most anyone suspected. In this video, science journalist Rachel Gross, who is currently writing a book called Lady Anatomy, shares some medical history and takes us on a tour of the "clitoral complex."

"The Clitoris, Uncovered: An Intimate History" (Scientific American) Read the rest

Over the past decade or so, Lauren McLaughin (previously) has written a handful of outstanding YA novels, each dealing with difficult issues of gender, personal autonomy and the casual cruelty of teens, starting with Cycler (and its sequel, Re-Cycler) (a teenaged girl who turned into a boy for four days every month); Scored (a class-conscious surveillance dystopia); The Free (a desperate novel about a teen car-thief in juvie) and now, her best book yet: Send Pics, a gripping thriller about sextortion, high school, revenge and justice.

MedFetUK, a UK fetish company that deals in medical supplies and equipment for sex play has donated its supply of scrubs to a National Health Service hospital.

“It was just a few sets, because we don’t carry large stocks, but they were desperate, so we sent them free of charge...” MedFetUK tweeted.

"When we, a tiny company set up to serve a small section of the kink community, find ourselves being sought out as a last-resort supplier to our National Health Service in a time of crisis, something is seriously wrong. In fact, it's scandalous."

When you see someone from the government saying the NHS is getting what it needs, that is a LIE.We have been contacted this week by representatives of NHS procurement all over the country, trying to source basic protective equipment and clothing. [2/5]

— MedFetUK (@MedFet_UK) March 27, 2020

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An official memo from the New York City Department of Health offers guidance for sexual intercourse during social distancing. Among other things, it warns:

We still have a lot to learn about COVID-19 and sex.

COVID-19 has been found in feces of people who are infected with the virus. COVID-19 has not yet been found in semen or vaginal fluid. We know that other coronaviruses do not efficiently transmit through sex.

And provides a very important reminder that:

You are your safest sex partner. Masturbation will not spread COVID-19, especially if you wash your hands (and any sex toys) with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after sex.

But above all, you need to know that:

Rimming (mouth on anus) might spread COVID-19. Virus in feces may enter your mouth.

So now you know: if you're in New York City, DiBlasiDon't Go Ass-To-Mouth.

Sex and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) [NYC Health]

Image via I am R. / Flickr (CC 2.0) Read the rest

Residents of the Ocean Park neighborhood in Santa Monica, California are angry that adult film performer Ellie Eilish and a colleague allegedly filmed a porn movie inside the local public library. The video apparently turned up on PornHub where, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press, "library porn is not uncommon." From the SMDP:

The video, which was posted three weeks ago, shows 19-year-old entertainer Ellie Eilish exposing herself while walking around Ocean Park, outside of the John Muir Elementary School and Santa Monica Alternative School House campus, and inside the Ocean Park branch library. Eilish then performs sex acts inside the library with a man, whose face is not shown...

The city of Santa Monica issued the following statement Monday afternoon:

“We are deeply disturbed to learn about this video. Sex in public spaces is against the law and the Santa Monica Police Department will be looking into this incident.”

image credit: Santa Monica Public Library (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

The Amsterdam city council released plans to possibly move much of its infamous red light district into an indoor erotic complex with a hotel, sex club, theater, and cafes. From The Guardian:

Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, has vowed to clean up the city’s red light district as her staff complain that throngs of tourists, often drunk and rowdy, “disrespected both prostitutes and residents”. Halsema also wants to fight a new trend, a “major increase in unlicensed underground prostitution” around the city centre’s Wallen area, near the central station, for centuries the haunt of sailors and sex workers...

“Sex work is a normal job and the idea is not to chase prostitution from the city,” the council said.

The erotic centre will not just cater to pleasures of the flesh but also house a beauty salon, a hair dresser and a tanning studio.

image credit: Bjarki Sigursveinsson (public domain) Read the rest

Nan Wise, Ph.D., is AASECT certified sex therapist, neuroscientist, certified relationship expert, and author. Follow her @AskDoctorNan. The following is adapted from her new book, Why Good Sex Matters: Understanding the Neuroscience of Pleasure for a Smarter, Happier, and More Purpose-Filled Life. -- Mark

Our society has had a long, challenging relationship with pleasure. A recent study indicates that American adults are having sex less often than before, with an especially steep decline since the year 2000. This decline is significant even when you control for factors such as age, gender, and marital status. And to top it off, in spite of the media’s portrayal of young people as freewheeling, casual sex-seeking, hookup artists, those born in the 1980s and 1990s are now the adults who are having less sex.

There is a clear paradox when it comes to our sexuality — a vexing approach/avoidance that I have come to characterize as a “lewd-prude” phenomenon. As much as we are reinforcing the need for mindful “sexual conduct,” scores of people are coming forth to report sexual harassment and sexual abuse that has long been in the shadows. Sex has become for many a place of pain rather than pleasure. Unfortunately, as movements like #MeToo have uncovered, there is quite a long-standing disconnect between the code of behavior we preach and its effectiveness in our society, creating a kind of shadow culture where people act out negatively and harmfully around sex. And even those who have not had a traumatic sexual experience are impacted by this social component that reinforces a disconnect from pleasure. Read the rest

Now that Viagra is available over the counter in some parts of the world or is easily available online with or without a prescription, many young men without erectile dysfunction are using it recreationally. This episode of Vice High Society looks into the trend, hosted by a "healthy 24-year-old man" who takes Viagra. Read the rest

Darcin is a pheromone found in the urine of male mice. It's used to mark territory and signal mating availability, and was named after the character Mr. Darcy who appears in Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. In the new issue of Nature, researchers at Columbia University report on how darcin "takes hold in the brains of female mice, giving cells in the brain's emotion center the power to assess the mouse's sexual readiness and help her select a mate."

From the press release:

Pheromones, such as darcin, are processed somewhat differently. They interact with a second, parallel olfactory system, which exists in animals like mice but not in people.

"Unlike people, mice have essentially two functional noses," said Dr. Demir. "The first nose works like ours: processing scents such as the stinky odor particles found in urine. But a second system, called the vomernasal nose, evolved specifically to perceive pheromones like darcin."

For today's study, the research team, which also included Dr. Hurst, Dr. Beynon and co-senior author Adam Kepecs, PhD, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, first exposed female mice to darcin-scented urine and monitored their behavior. Nearly all of the female mice showed an immediate attraction to darcin. Then, after about 50 minutes, some females began leaving their own urinary scent markings. They also started to sing, at ultrasonic frequencies too high for the human ear to hear. Both of these behaviors are an indicator of increased sexual drive.

Image by Rama - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 Read the rest

Today on Oh Joy Sex Toy (previously) guest-artist Alex P Perkins offers us a graphic memoir of her breast reduction surgery in 10th grade, and the way it put her on a journey toward "loving my body for what it is: mine." Read the rest

Sweary historian Eleanor Janega writes on her Going Medieval blog (previously) that there was never a time in medieval Europe when bestiality was socially acceptable, and brings the receipts in the form of eyewatering details on the punishments for having sex with animals. Read the rest

Da solen stod op om natten, often translated as How a Baby Is Made or The True Story of How Babies Are Made, was originally published in 1972. Written by 1971 by Danish psychotherapist Per Holm Knudsen, it actually won a Danish Ministry of Culture Children's Book prize for its, uhh, highly accurate depiction of where, in fact, babies come from:

How A Baby Is Made, by Per Holm Knudsen. Piccolo Books, 1975. #FlashbackFriday pic.twitter.com/btiqQjExGU

— Pulp Librarian (@PulpLibrarian) January 10, 2020

On one hand, this is uhhh, pretty graphic. On the other: well, maybe it's better that we stop lying to children and treating sex like some shameful secret. So in that case, it's pretty good. Just not in a creepy way.

But if that's the kind of thing you want to share with your kids, you can pick up a used copy on Amazon for around $50.

This ridiculous sex ed book demonstrates everything that was awesome about the 1970s [Jam Kotenko / Daily Dot]

Image via Wikimedia Commons Read the rest

Every year, veteran sex-advice columnist mounts (ahem) HUMP, an amateur, pornographic short film festival, which tours around Canada and the USA for a dazzling evening of smut, humor, tenderness, weirdness and delight. HUMP is now in its 15th year, and none of the videos from the festival have ever leaked online, which is a testament to the kinds of audiences it draws. Read the rest

“Sir? This is an Arby's card.”

PayPal on Thursday says it has halted payment support for models with PornHub, the online adult site, after Paypal says it found that Pornhub made certain payments without PayPal's permission. Read the rest