A group link blog about sex and sexuality
From the category archives:
| 12/19/2010 | ||
| 1:00 PM |
Organized by Art Positive.
A version of “Fire in My Belly” may be viewed on Youtube (you must be signed in).
For more info about other protests, visit Hideseek.org (Chronicling responses to the “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibition and the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s film “A Fire in My Belly.”)
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| 09/27/2010 | ||
| 6:30 PM | to | 8:30 PM |
This month, the National Coalition Against Censorship is holding a series of programs called “How Obscene is This! The Decency Clause Turns 20,” to highlight the effects 1990s attacks on culture continue to have on art and society and to reassess the state of art funding.
This Monday, there will be a free screening of Destricted, a collection of short films by visual artists, all exploring the boundaries between pornography and art. This will be the exclusive national pre-release screening of the film. Destricted has screened at the Tate Modern in London in 2006, Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Sundance and Edinburgh Film Festivals.
The films are as follows:
Watch the trailer for DESTRICTED.
7:30 Discussion with Amy Adler, the Emily Kempin Professor of Law at NYU, documentary film director Tony Comstock, Andrew Hale, Destricted‘s Founder, filmmaker Marilyn Minter, and Neville Wakefield,one of Destricted‘s Producers.
8:30 Larry Clark’s Ken Park (2002), a film about the abusive home life of several skateboarders in California. Ken Park’s controversial sexual content has led to the film being banned in Australia and to its very limited distribution in other countries.
See also Comstock’s post, “Me and Destricted go back aways...”
Location: SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, NYC
The event is free and you can RSVP here: http://decencyclausefilm.eventbrite.com/
*Image: Marilyn Minter, still from “Green Pink Caviar,” in Destricted.
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I’ve long been an admirer of the photography of Barbara Nitke, both for its artistry and for its message of emphasizing the humanity of people in alternative sex communities. I was also struck by her bravery in defending free speech in challenging the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Decency Act of nineteen ninety-six, which regulates indecency and obscenity online. This was a fight closely watched by those in the arts and by those of us who publish online.
Barbara is an inspiration to those who care about freedom of expression, no matter the artist’s chosen media. She is kind enough to offer her support to my current battle.
Jefferson
To whom it may concern,
I am a professional photographer on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York. My work has been the subject of one-woman exhibitions in New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, Provincetown and Philadelphia. My subjects include fashion, editorial and portraiture. Since nineteen eighty-two, I have also documented human sexuality.
I have known the man behind Jefferson for nearly a decade, first in a professional capacity and now as a friend. I’ve always been impressed by his intellectual curiosity and the respect and care he brings to sensitive subject matter.
These qualities continue to impress me as I’ve come to know his work as “Jefferson.†I’ve read his blog, attended his classes and observed his interactions with others. He brings great intelligence, humor and warmth to all of these. His blog is regarded as essential reading by those in the sex-positive community. Whereas other texts seek to teach by instruction, One Life, Take Two does so by example. Readers learn as “Jefferson†learns. We follow him through his passions, his upsets and his joy in the everyday, particularly in his stories about parenting. As a fellow artist, I fully respect the power of his documentary approach.
If anyone has exemplified responsibility in writing on sex and sexuality, it is Jefferson. I strongly support his right to continue writing freely.
I know the struggles Jefferson now faces. I was co-plaintiff in Nitke v Gonzalez, 413 F. Supp.2d 262 SDNY (2005), as we brought a pre-enforcement challenge to the Federal Communications Decency Act (CDA) on the ground that it was unconstitutionally overbroad. While I succeeded in proving that I had standing to bring that pre-enforcement challenge, unfortunately, the court held us to an impossible burden of providing “sufficient” evidence regarding “the total amount of speech that is implicated by the CDA and the amount of protected speech lacking in serious value, but potentially not patently offensive or appealing to the prurient interest in all communities.”
While we did not completely succeed in that case, the struggle to protect free speech and freedom of expression continues. I am heartened that many of the organizations and activists allied with me in that case are now rallying around Jefferson to support him in his current battle to preserve both his joint child custody and his freedom of speech and expression protections. Any silencing of Jefferson is a loss for art, free speech and the personal freedoms we cherish so much here in the United States of America.
Sincerely,
Make an ANONYMOUS, TAX-DEDUCTIBLE contribution to Jefferson’s legal defense by visiting the Sexual Freedom Defense and Education Fund at:
Sexual Freedom Legal Defense and Education Fund
Please remember to specify that your donation is earmarked for the Jefferson Legal Defense Fund. The Sexual Freedom Legal Defense and Education Fund affirms that these earmarked donations are tax deductible.
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Support the Holiday Inn Worthington, the Host Hotel for Winter Wickedness
Please make a phone call now to support the Holiday Inn Worthington, the host hotel for Adventures In Sexuality’s (AIS) Winter Wickedness Event taking place February 6-8th . The religious extremist group, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, along with a local religious radio station in the Columbus, Ohio, area are running a smear campaign against this pansexual BDSM event.
Peter LaBarbara of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality calls the event “a freakish sadomasochistic perversion-fest” and urges people to call the hotel’s corporate headquarters to pressure them into canceling “for the sake of decency and public health.”
Bob Burney, a religious extremist Talk Radio DJ, devoted an entire segment of his show slamming Winter Wickedness and attempting to link the event with non-consensual and criminal activities. He urged his listeners to call and mount a campaign against the hotel. (Tuesday, Part 3 starting at 10 min 42sec)
It will only take a minute for you to help! It doesn’t matter where you live or if you’re not going to attend this event. Please call the Intercontinental Hotels Group Corporate Customer service line at 800-621-0555, then press option 1, then option 5, and thank them for not discriminating against groups, and for being willing to face minor adversity for the sake of our freedom.
You can also call the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington today at 614-436-0700 they’ll be very glad tohear a friendly voice to counter the hatred of the religious extremists.
Suggested points to make:
1. Thank you for upholding the Fair Accommodations Act and choosing not to discriminate against legal events.
2. Please don’t let a small number of religious extremists manipulate you by drumming up fear with their misinformation campaigns.
3. There are over 200 weekend-long BDSM events that take place every year in America – we bring in a lot of revenue in these hard times. We like to stay at hotel chains where we have been welcomed when we’re traveling on personal or business travel.
4. Organizers of BDSM events such as Winter Wickedness at The Holiday Inn comply with state and local laws prohibiting public sexual intercourse and other forms of sexualintimacy. Demonstrations, lectures and discussion groups as well as dinners and evening parties compose the variety of offerings to guests, nothing different from any of the other hundreds of conventions hosted by your franchisees on a weekly basis.
5. Thank you for standing strong against hate and ignorance.
Please pass this on to your friends to call now!
February 4, 2009
###
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory communities,who often face discrimination becauseof their sexual expression.
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
917-848-6544
media@ncsfreedom.org
www.ncsfreedom.org
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Look, kiddie porn and terrorism are bad. Obvious. But what better way for a government to push through controversial legislation quickly than to harness their emotive properties? After all, what self-respecting member of the US House of Representatives would vote against legislation called Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online, or SAFE? Only two, it turns out (Rep. Paul Broun from Georgia and Rep. presidential candidate, Ron Paul), with 409 members voting yesterday in favor. The new bill requires everyone (that includes you and Starbucks) offering an open WiFi connection to the public to be on the lookout for report known “illegal images” and “obscene” cartoons and drawings. The reporting requirement extends to cover social networking sites, ISPs, and email providers. Failing to dutifully report what you’ve seen (or haven’t seen but are unwittingly complicit in) could leave your data seized and in debt from fines of up to $300,000. This isn’t a call to arms, however . . .
(more . . . )
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Bacchus writes:
I’ve been saying for years that blogging services suck. I said it in 2004 when LiveJournal destroyed a vintage erotica journal that I liked. I said it again in 2006, when, you guessed it, LiveJournal started threatening to suspend users for posting pictures of nipples.
Well, I’m saying it again.
Of course it will come as no surprise that I’m saying it — again — because our old friend LiveJournal (that outfit makes a wonderful bad example!) deleted a bunch of journals for posting dirty stories that management didn’t like.
“Our decision here was … based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what’s not. We have an awful broad range of discussions and topics and other things going on in LiveJournal, and we encourage other broad-ranging conversations on all sorts of topics. This was a specific case where we felt there was not a reason (for these journals to stay online).â€
This is not a censorship issue (it’s their sandbox and their rules). This is not a rights issue. This is a no-brainer “poor stupid fuckers spent years of their lives writing their shit on a blog service that could, and did, turn them off and delete all their posts†issue.
“We felt there was not a reason for these journals to stay online.â€
Why in the name of Odin’s enormous penis would you put your creative efforts at the mercy of someone who had the power to say that, and make it stick?
Dude, don’t do that. It hurts.
And it hurts to watch.
I’m telling you for the third time:
Anything worth doing on the internet is worth doing at your own domain that you control.
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By Q Boyer
BEIJING — To further its ongoing effort to combat sexually explicit websites, the Chinese government last week arrested a blogger for posting sexually explicit stories to his website, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
The blogger, identified only by his surname Li, posted the stories to a blog called “Hazy Night.†According to a spokesman from the Beijing Public Security Bureau quoted by Xinhua, the blog received close to 100,000 visits between August 2006 and April of this year, when police began to receive complaints about the blog’s content.
Li was arrested last Tuesday by police from Beijing’s university district, and charged with distributing Internet pornography, according to Xinhua. Individuals convicted of selling obscene content in China face jail terms of up to three years, but Xinhua reports that the law may not apply to Li, as the stories were freely available on his site, and not being “sold.†(more. . .)
[via Fleshbot]
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A Bentonville, AK resident is suing for trauma allegedly caused when his two sons stumbled across a sex guide book shelved with the military books at the library:
A Bentonville man asked the city to pay his two sons $20,000 and to fire the library director for including what he called “pornography” in the Bentonville Public Library collection.
“The Whole Lesbian Sex Book” by Felice Newman was removed from the library shelf after Earl Adams of Bentonville complained it is “patently offensive and lacks any artistic, literary or scientific value,” according to a letter he wrote and faxed Feb. 16 to Mayor Bob McCaslin.
Adams said his 14- and 16-year-old sons, Kyle and Ryan, looked at the book while the 14-year-old was browsing for material on military academies. He requested the city pay him $10,000 per child, the maximum allowed under the Arkansas obscenity law.
Author Felice Newman said in a press release today:
Boys have been pouring over sexually explicit materials in libraries since – well, since there have been libraries. Why was a copy of my book in the military section? Well, sometimes young people browsing the library shelves will tuck away a favorite book where they can find it later. These two young guys are the very reason libraries must be uncensored, and librarians must be free to order the books they feel will benefit the public.â€
I pulled the the Library Journal review off Amazon.com:
Newman’s sex guide for lesbians is superb. Why can’t more heterosexual sex manuals be this good? Newman, who, as the publisher at Cleis Press since 1980 has edited many other sex books, covers oral, manual, anal, and insertive-vaginal techniques with loving care. She includes a whole chapter on breast play, addresses safety repeatedly and thoroughly, and discusses transgender and bisexual orientations, SM, group sex, masturbation, and sex toys–all while acknowledging that some women prefer monogamy, some polygamy. Her bibliography and resource list are simply outstanding. Newman’s work updates and embodies the best of the half -dozen other lesbian sex manuals in print) all acknowledged in her bibliography). Even though this book is aimed at lesbians, it’s extremely suitable for heterosexual women (to enhance their own eroticism) and men (to tell them what turns women on). For all public libraries.
(reviewed by Martha Cornog, Philadelphia. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc)
You can send a message of support to the Bentonville Public Library here.
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Tony Comstock writes:
If you’re not a registered user with your super-secret “adult titles†search enabled, you can’t.
You can find 9 SONGS, a film about a fictional pair of rock-show going, coke-snorting lovers, that famously features explicit footage of felatio, cunnilingus, coitus, and even a pop-shot.
You can find PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA, the film that shared the Best Documentary prize with DAMON AND HUNTER at the 2006 Melbourne Underground Film Festival.
You can even find MARIE AND JACK: A HARDCORE LOVE STORY, our first erotic documentary title.
But you can’t find DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER.
Says IMDB:
“The IMDb contains over 400,000 different movie titles. The aim of the database is to cover as many titles and genres as possible. As a result, some of these titles contain words or expressions that some of our users may find inappropriate and some movies themselves may also fall into this category.
To provide some level of control for those of a sensitive nature some adult titles have been made searchable only by users who are registered with the IMDb and have requested access to this material.â€
“Inappropriate.†Apparently an intimate film about two young men in love, and loving one another is “inappropriate.â€
Caligula,, Bob Guccione’s notorious bait and switch production isn’t “inappropriate.â€
(more…)
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…The New Yorker runs clever, sexually sophisticated stories all the time. They say “fuck.” They publish critically acclaimed erotic, and nude, photography. They discuss and illustrate the
lives of famous artists (who can forget the Balthus story?) who may be highly eccentric fetishists with every sort of paraphilia.
Some of these articles receive wide discussion, like Daphne Merkin’s “Spanking Piece.” But even with less-known stories and photos, the NYer delivers a steady diet of grown-up arts and politics which resonates with thousands of readers.
Nowhere, in all the internet, would you ever hear The New Yorker described as “Not Safe for Work”: NSFW. Whether you brought their magazine to the office, or searched their web site on line, the firewall/censorship/Dilbert Nightmare of NSFW would never crease a NYEr reader’s brow.
(more…)
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InFocus Girls
Comstock Films
I Feel Myself
I Shot Myself
Tasty Trixie
Beautiful Agony
SkinVideo
For the Girls
.
Nena Blue
Femjoy
Gallery Carre
gODDESS
You’re welcome.
WANT THIS?!?
1) Reblog this.
2) Go to your blog and click on the photo that you just reblogged.
3) Click “yes” (your blog will be shown to thousands when you do)
4) Wait 10-15 minutes
5) Watch your followers GROW!
Magdalena Frackowiak - Dansk #26 by Anders Sølvsten Thomsen, Fall/Winter 2011
