research

Bookmarks for November 30th

by Viviane on 12/03/2009

The Sex Doctor Is Out / Violet Blue: Talk to your doctor about sex? You’re better off asking Twitter – Picking out a new doctor that you'll feel comfortable talking to — and hope to get accurate answers from — is a challenge with a health care system that is not consumer friendly, nor awake to the concept of sex-positivity.
YouTube – NYS Senator Diane Savino speaks on the Marriage Equality bill –
13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Classmates Spread Nude Photos : The Curvature – Hope Witsell made the decision to end her own life. A whole lot of other people seemingly decided that keeping women in their place was a lot more important than protecting a 13-year-old girl, and than stamping out sexual misconduct. A whole society backed that second decision up.
Female Sexologist Awaits Pawtucket Zoning Board | Womens eNews – A sexologist in Rhode Island is trying to open an adult-ed center focused in part on the female pleasure principle. Her battle has been complicated by the recent passage of a ban on indoor prostitution, which she opposed.
The Hunt for Porn-Virgins | Carnal San Francisco – A study that set out to examine male subjects who had never been exposed to pornography was foiled by a lack of porn-virgins.
Good Vibrations Magazine » Blog » Sex-Positivity and Judgment – When I started putting these two simple and elegant concepts together, I came to see just how much I was letting my judgments come out. As I learned to pay attention to how my reactions arise, I began to be able to own them and take responsibility for them. When I learned to use language that reflected the fact that my emotions were internal feelings rather than statements of identity or descriptions of the world around me, they became much less likely to take over my experiences…I think that this has major ramifications for sex-positivity. Speaking from a sex-positive place means that we can take responsibility for our judgments.
Speaking to Las Vegas in the Language of Las Vegas — Kickstarter – This is going to be an art installation that combines sculptural elements, performance, audio, video, photo documentation, and illustrated portraits of Las Vegas sex workers. The purpose of this show is to investigate the connections between the Las Vegas economy & the legal & illegal sex work that happens there.
Hand Holding vs. Hand Held – All Tech Considered : NPR – Can you love your partner and your cell phone?

Tagged as: art, health, IloveNewYorkequality, judgment, marriage, perception, politics, porn, relationships, research, samesex, sexuality, sexwork, society, technology, zoning

Call for Volunteers for a Study Addressing Menopause and Sexuality

by Viviane on 07/08/2009

in research, sex

What are some of the issues that affect sexuality during menopause? African American and Caucasian women are needed for a study addressing questions about menopause. Participants must be women between the ages of 40 and 60, experiencing menopause, English speaking, currently not taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or on hormonal birth control, in a relationship with a sexual partner, and without major medical or mental health problems.

Participation requires completing an online or paper survey. Some volunteersÂ who live in the Washington, DC metropolitan area may also be eligible to participate in a substudy that involves a small blood draw. Participants in the blood draw substudy may be compensated. For more information, please contact Robert Clark, MS, at 301-295-9666 or at menopausestudy1@gmail.com.

This research study is sponsored by the Uniformed Services University, Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, in Bethesda, Maryland. You can access the on-line survey here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VcP8PJrCyVoqmjAp9o3BJw_3d_3d

This study was endorsed as a meritorious research project on January 30, 2009 by the CARAS Research Advisory Committee, a community advisory board hosted by the Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS).

For more information on CARAS, please visit the CARAS website at https://www.caras.ws . Download the current CARAS Calendar athttps://www.caras.ws/downloads/CARAS_Calendar.pdf

Tagged as: menopause, research, sex, sexuality

What Do Women Want? (Sex In The Public Square)

by Viviane on 01/27/2009

in research, sex

We won’t find out by trying to separate biology from culture.

The cover asks “What is Female Desire?” and the story title, “What do Women Want?” seems to promise that scientists are getting closer to figuring out one of life’s great mysteries. Daniel Bergner, in fact, does not attempt to answer those two questions (and the small subtitles make it clear that he isn’t going to try) but rather he profiles the work of several scientists who are researching women’s sexual response, their subjective sense of arousal, and the ways those do or don’t line up.

It is a well-written article and a very interesting read. It takes on complex questions and, within its scope, attempts to address them without oversimplifying or sensationalizing (except for the first sentence of the article, in extra large and colorful print that reads “Meredith Chivers is a creator of bonobo pornography.”). I would encourage anybody to take a look. But prepare to be frustrated as well as intrigued. Some readers will be frustrated, as was Meredith Chivers (a psychology professor at Queens University, and one of the scientists whose work is the focus of the article) because the answers are not clear and meticulous research takes so long and is so difficult to do, and because, as she is quoted as saying early in the piece, “The horrible reality of psychological research is that you can’t pull apart the cultural from the biological.”

More. . ..

Tagged as: Daniel Bergner, research, sex, sexuality, women

More People Appear to Be Cheating on Their Spouses, Studies Find (NYTimes)

by Viviane on 10/29/2008

in adultery, sex

. . . The most consistent data on infidelity come from the General Social Survey, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and based at the University of Chicago, which has used a national representative sample to track the opinions and social behaviors of Americans since 1972. The survey data show that in any given year, about 10 percent of married people â€” 12 percent of men and 7 percent of women â€” say they have had sex outside their marriage.

But detailed analysis of the data from 1991 to 2006, to be presented next month by Dr. Atkins at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies conference in Orlando, show some surprising shifts. University of Washington researchers have found that the lifetime rate of infidelity for men over 60 increased to 28 percent in 2006, up from 20 percent in 1991. For women over 60, the increase is more striking: to 15 percent, up from 5 percent in 1991.

The researchers also see big changes in relatively new marriages. About 20 percent of men and 15 percent of women under 35 say they have ever been unfaithful, up from about 15 and 12 percent respectively.

Link

Tagged as: adultery, marriage, research

The News They Donâ€™t See Fit to Print (Cory Silverberg)

by Viviane on 10/01/2008

in research

. . .So you could be forgiven if everything you know about medication research you learned from the news. And yet, if you care about your health and about truth in advertising, a study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association reminds us why relying on the print or online media alone isnâ€™t a safe bet.

The authors of the study looked at how often news articles about medication research reported whether or not the research was funded by a pharmaceutical company. They found that 42% of all news articles failed to report that research had received company funding. They also surveyed editors to ask about editorial policy (both written and unwritten) regarding citation of funding sources. Of the 104 articles taken from publications where editors reported always citing funding sources, 45% failed to do so. Three percent of the editors surveyed said their paper had a written policy about naming company funding sources. Far more (62%) said there was an unwritten policy. According to the data neither is working out very well.

Link

Tagged as: research

Bondage lovers lead happy lives: Study

by Viviane on 08/26/2008

in bdsm, research, sex

An unusual sex survey has found that Australians who enjoy bondage and discipline are not damaged or dangerous, and might even be happier than those who practise “normal” sex.

The research showed two per cent of adult Australians regularly partake in sadomasochism and dominance and submission-type sexual role play.

And contrary to commonly-held stereotypes, they are not doing so in reaction to sexual abuse or because they are “sexually deficient” in some way, according the study of 20,000 Australians by public health researchers at the University of NSW.

Link

Tagged as: bdsm, research

Freakonomics: Interracial Sex Makes Us More Beautiful (Twanna A. Hines, Huffington Post)

by Viviane on 08/19/2008

in research

. . .The quick and dirty? Biracial kids are sexy, fashionable, mediocre students who grow up with absentee fathers and incomes similar to black kids.’ Oh, and, did I mention they’re really sexy?

“There are some bad adolescent behaviors that whites do more than blacks (like drinking and smoking), and there are other bad adolescent behaviors that blacks do more than whites (watching TV, fighting, getting sexually transmitted diseases),” Steven and the others write. I’m a sex, dating and relationships writer who developed a fetish for facts while studying multivariate regression analysis in my graduate sociology courses in Florida. I wanted hard numbers. So, I did what Steven probably hoped all of us who read his blog post would do. I read his research.

Link.

Tagged as: research

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