women

Submissions Wanted: Women’s Words on Their Orgasms

by Viviane on 07/09/2010

in Midori, submissions

midori Submissions Wanted: Womens Words on Their Orgasms

Midori by Steve Diet Goedde

Midori is seeking submissions for a special writing project:

I turn to you, dear readers, for some juicy material needed for a very special project. I am collecting women’s accounts of the physical experience their orgasms. I’m really hoping that some of you can help me out with this. Feel free to pass it on to any women or lists with women who might be interested.

Details –

I am seeking first person descriptions from women about their orgasms.

• Who: You are a woman, 18 years or older, who have experienced one or more variety of orgasms. (Transwomen! I want your unique perspectives too!)

• What: Essay of clear and detailed description of your orgasm, from start to finish, focusing on the physical experience, expressed in your own words. When does it start? What’s the hint of it? Where does it start? How does it move through your body? What sort of sensations? Imagine trying to illustrate your orgasm to a person who’s never had it.

• If you have more than one type of orgasm, each variety would be written in a separate essay piece. (The get-to-sleep quickie, the deep one, the surprise one, the long building one, solo-sex one, when getting oral sex, etc…)

• How Long? As long as it takes for you to describe it. It may be a couple of paragraphs or couple of pages.

• Credit line: How would you like your essay to be credited? You’ll have one or two lines.

• Editing: At most I will edit for grammar, spelling and simple readability. I want to keep it as true to your original narrative and tone as possible.

• When: No later than end of August

• Send to midori AT fhp-inc DOT com

• Please make sure that there’s an e mail I can reliable reach you at. I may have some questions around editing or some other detail.

I’m happy to answer any questions on this.

Thank you!

Midori

Tagged as: , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 07/06/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Of Death and the Gender Binary | Cory Silverberg – What they found, after interviewing 38 men, aged 24-50, was that their experience of masculinity at times increased their risk and at other times reduced it. Sometimes, ideals of strength and being a "family man" resulted in men being less likely to think of suicide. Other times men's perceptions of themselves as needing to be alone, capable of solving all problems on their own (which again, they link to traditional gender roles), increased their social isolation which in turn increased their risk. In other words, these men told stories that revealed the relationship between gender and suicide to be complicated.
  • Cervical cancer test approved for the women who need it most | Society | guardian.co.uk – But a piece of good news is the approval by the European Union (in the form of a health and safety CE "kite mark") of a test which the designers say will be easy to use in hot countries with no running water or electricity. It detects the DNA of the cancer-causing virus within a matter of hours, which means a woman who may have walked miles to a clinic can wait for her result and possibly treatment. It is made by Netherlands-based QIAGEN, which offers a more complex HPV test in the wealthy countries.
  • Sex Ed for seniors? Annals of IM: ‘Men who use ED drugs have higher rates of STDs, particularly HIV’ – The authors of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Users of Erectile Dysfunction Drugs: Analysis of Claims Data (Annals of Internal Medicine, July 6, 2010, vol. 153 no. 1 1-7) studied a database of private, employer-based insurance claims from 1997 to 2006 for 1,410,806 men older than age 40 and found that users of erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs had higher rates of sexually transmitted disease infection, particularly HIV, than non-users.
  • Fertilty, Infertility and The Make Up Counter! | The Fertility Advocate – Many of us use all kinds of lotions, cremes and expose ourselves to countless concoctions every day which contain an incredible of synthetic chemicals. We do this often without a thought about how these chemicals could be adversely affecting our overall health and our fertility.

Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 07/02/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • FDA advisory panel rejects Flibanserin | Dr. Petra Boynton – We also need to be careful to avoid getting into debates about whether a pill is needed or whether women have sexual problems, as has been the case in the current coverage of Flibanserin. This has missed the wider aspects of marketing, poor trial design and other research questions that really needed to be talked about. Instead we’re often left with an argument that in questioning medicalisation of female sexual functioning we’re somehow denying women have problems.
  • Wonder Woman, 69, Has Style and Mythos Makeover – NYTimes.com – Wednesday is a good day for Wonder Woman. This 69-year-old superheroine, published by DC Comics, will don a new — and less revealing — costume and enjoy the publication of Issue No. 600 of her monthly series.
  • 10th Annual Trafficking in Persons Report & Redlight World Premiere – The U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons has released its 10th annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. For the first time, the report is introspective to the extent that human trafficking within the United States is also covered by the report.
  • How to Receive Pleasure Without Feeling Guilty (Part 1) | Joy Davidson, Ph.D – In my experience as a sex therapist, I’ve found that one of the most common reasons women feel awkward in sexual situations is that they don’t know how to ask for pleasure without feeling that horrid, creeping sense of guilt, almost as if they are undeserving of erotic joy.
  • The State of LGBT Health—Minus the “T” – The Sexist – Washington City Paper – This is the District’s first report to address the health of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in the District. But as the report’s title makes clear, the transgender community has yet again been excluded from the official conversation on health.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 06/25/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Vibrator Use Among Gay and Bi Identified Men – About.com Guide to Sexuality Cory Silverberg highlights findings by scientist Michael Reece, who recently published data about vibrating sex toy use among gay and bisexual men. "Along with Debby Herbenick and colleagues at Indiana University's Center for Sexual Health Promotion, Reece has managed to find the funding and time to conduct basic research on sex toy use that has long been needed," Cory writes.
  • Gay Workers Will Get Time to Care for Partner’s Sick Child – NYTimes.com – The new ruling indicates that an employee in a same-sex relationship can qualify for leave to care for the child of his or her partner, even if the worker has not legally adopted the child.<br />
    <br />
    The ruling, in a formal opinion letter, tackles a question not explicitly addressed in the 1993 law. It is one of many actions taken by the Obama administration to respond to the concerns of gay men and lesbians within the constraints of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.
  • The Myth of Lesbian Bed Death (Village Voice) – But where did this idea of “lesbian bed death” come from? Thank sociologist Pepper Schwartz, who, in her 1983 book American Couples, asserted that lesbians have less sex and intimacy than other couples. Although her methodology and results were later challenged, the idea of lesbian bed death has taken on a life of its own, with damaging results.
  • Talking Sex, With Kink Educators and Anti-Porn Activists | Amanda Hess (Washinton City Paper) – If KinkForAll and “Porn Harms” have one thing in common, it’s an obsession with airing taboos.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Female Genital Mutilation at Cornell University (Dan Savage)

by Viviane on 06/17/2010

in women

While the whole world was debating the American Academy of Pediatrics’s position on “female genital cutting” the AAP was against it before they were for it, and now, after an outcry, they’re against it again Alice Dreger and Ellen Feder have been raising the alarm about “medical research” currently being conducted at Cornell University. A pediatric urologist at Cornell Dix Poppas has been operating on little girls with what he judges to be oversized clitorises, cutting away important clitoral tissues, and then stitching the glans to what remains of the shaft. Poppas claims that, unlike past clitoral-reduction procedures, his procedure is “nerve sparing.”

…There’s lots to be outraged about here: there’s nothing wrong with these girls and their healthy, functional-if-larger-than-average clitorises; there’s no need to operate on these girls; and surgically altering a girl’s clitoris because it’s “too big” has been found to do lasting physical and psychological harm. But what’s most outrageous is how Poppas is “proving” that his surgery “spares nerves.”

Link

Tagged as: , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 06/07/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Kids With Lesbian Parents Do Just Fine – US News and World Report – When compared to teens of the same age, adolescents raised by lesbian parents are doing just fine socially, psychologically and academically, new research finds.<br />
    <br />
    Not only that, they have fewer social problems, and less aggressive and rule-breaking behaviors than other teens.
  • Americans’ Acceptance of Gay Relations Crosses 50% Threshold (Gallup) – There is a gradual cultural shift under way in Americans' views toward gay individuals and gay rights. While public attitudes haven't moved consistently in gays' and lesbians' favor every year, the general trend is clearly in that direction. This year, the shift is apparent in a record-high level of the public seeing gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable. Meanwhile, support for legalizing gay marriage, and for the legality of gay and lesbian relations more generally, is near record highs.
  • Just How Bad Is Porn, Anyway? : The Thoughtful Animal (Jason Goldman) – This is meant to review some of the research that's been conducted on whether or not there is a reliable causal relationship between pornography and various Bad Things.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

Bookmarks for 5-24-10

by Viviane on 05/24/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Can a Pill Help Women Reach Orgasm? – Barbara Kantrowitz – Newsweek.com – Canner hit on the topic after years of doing documentaries on subjects like human-rights abuses, police brutality, and poverty. Looking for something more upbeat, she was researching female sexuality when she got a call from the pharmaceutical company Vivus, which wanted her to create erotic videos to use in their clinical study of an “orgasm cream” for women.
  • Good Vibrations And The Clitoris Saving Alien Cult: News: SFAppeal – The furor boiled to the rim when in late March, Good Vibes got angrily and publicly called out by a feminist Facebook group, a professor of African politics at USF, feminist email lists and a significant number of sexual health professionals and sex educators in multiple countries. Why? It seems that the venerable retailer, with its reputation and history for championing empowered female sexuality, had publicly aligned its brand with, and intended to raise money for an organization called Clitoraid.
  • Protecting Your Privacy Online | The Beautiful Kind – It’s one thing to be far too public on the web and voluntarily offer more information than necessary, but it’s another when other sources are the culprits. Even the most smug of people who refuse to use Facebook, Twitter or even the internet itself are just as much at risk of having their personal information and identity leaked via the web. Knowledge is power when being proactive about protecting your personal privacy, and I’d like to go over a few of those areas.
  • Swinger Tests China’s Sexual Morals – NYTimes.com – On Thursday, a court sentenced the randy Mr. Ma to three and a half years in prison, a severe penalty for a crime that the Chinese government calls “crowd licentiousness.” Mr. Ma, now China’s most famous swinger, remains defiant and plans to appeal, saying his sex life is his own business, not subject to the law as long as he causes no social disturbance, according to his lawyer, Yao Yong’an.
  • Getting Down and Turned On: Pornography and Society Today | StealingKitty – We are here, we are horny, and our perversions are pushing the envelope of sexual boundaries. Better get used to it. The best place to start the discussion is defining what is porn, erotica, or obscenity in our culture today.

Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 05/06/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Paid Porn Is Backdooring Into the iPad, But It’s Not Going to Get Far | BNET Technology Blog – The only way larger porn companies can differentiate themselves is not by pushing Web content, but by creating original apps with features unique to that platform.
  • Entry to clubs "on the basis of … testicles" |Yawning Bread – A group of transgender women (i.e. MTF transgenders) launched a campaign called Sisters in Solidarity (SIS) with a press conference on 5 May 2010. They felt the time had come to put an end to discrimination against their community. This move was triggered by the experience of Marla Bendini being thrown out of China One, not once, but twice. China One is a club in Clarke Quay, a nightlife district along the Singapore River.
  • Chief Targets of Student Incivility Are Female and Young Professors – Chronicle of Higher Education – The study looked beyond the classroom, asking faculty members about their experiences with student incivility in the course of any class-related activities. The types of student incivility it covered included passive behavior, such as sleeping or texting in class; more actively disruptive behavior, such as coming to class late or talking on cellphones in the classroom; and behaviors that appeared directed at the instructor, such as open expressions of anger, impatience, or derision.
  • "Queer Sex Doesn’t Count" And Nine Other Myths Uncovered- And Debunked- at the Harvard "Rethinking Virginity" Conference – Feministing – The conference was organized by Lena Chen, blogger extraordinaire and recent Feministing Five interviewee, and brought together an incredibly diverse and impressive group of feminists, who dropped some serious knowledge on all things virgin-themed. One of the most interesting parts of the panel was learning how much misinformation exists around issues of virginity, sex, and our bodies. This isn't exactly breaking news- in fact, our very own Jessica Valenti wrote an entire book about it. But the quest to educate and rethink harmful cultural norms and standards is never finished. So I've compiled ten myths we uncovered- and debunked- at yesterday's conference
  • Rethinking Virginity—And Examining Our Assumptions About Sex | Lux Nightmare | Jezebel – I spent yesterday thinking through these questions, and many more, while at Harvard's Rethinking Virginity conference. Organized in response to statements made by True Love Revolution (Harvard's abstinence group), the conference featured a wide variety of speakers (including myself), all hashing through the thorny issues of sexuality, identity, and the notion of "purity."

Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 05/04/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 05/03/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Facebook Users Like Sex | Mashable – As the chart below depicts, Facebook users are extremely fascinated with sex, as sex links are 90% more likely to be shared than other types of content. Links that are positive in nature and/or related to learning rank second and third in terms of shares, respectively.
  • Amy Jo Goddard | CarnalNation – Abby Ehmann's profile of Amy Jo Goddard and her Women's Sexuality Empowerment Apprenticeship workshop.
  • ya ya | Youth Activists – Youth Allies – The Ya-Ya Network is a citywide anti-racist, anti-sexist organization and allies with the LGBTQ community. Ya-Ya is staffed by young activists ages 15-19. We work with other youth, adult allies, youth programs & activist organizations. We help groups & individuals connect. We share information & resources & we support the work that other groups are doing. All to build a stronger voice for young people in the movement for social & economic justice.
  • Mississippi school purges top student from yearbook for being lesbian – Boing Boing – Ceara Sturgis, a top student at Wesson Attendance Center in Mississipi, has been purged from the yearbook. She attended the school for 12 years, but she's also a lesbian, and so they made her an un-person.
  • Transgender Controversy at Tribeca Film Fest – WNYC Culture – The Tribeca Film Festival lists the film Ticked Off Trannies With Knives as a "revenge fantasy flick that brews up a concoction of camp, slasher horror, and power-chick flick to create a radical new genre: Transploitation!"<br />
    <br />
    The film's director Israel Luna stated he intended the film to be empowering, members of New York's transgender community, along with GLAAD, certainly don't think so. They asked the film festival to pull the film from its lineup.
  • Illinois’ teen sexting bill aims to educate, not criminalize | Ars Technica – Illinois is moving forward with legislation that would educate (and punish) teenagers who forward around nude images of their peers, but not treat them as sex offenders. The bill, which has moved to Governor Pat Quinn's desk for signature, aims to take a more modern and realistic approach to teens making stupid decisions, though the door is still open for harsher punishments if needed.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Film Society of Lincoln Center: Orgasm Inc

by Viviane on 05/03/2010

in Events, women

05/27/2010
6:30 PM

Location: Walter Reade Theater, 65th Streeet near Amsterdam Avenue map

When filmmaker Liz Canner took a job editing erotic videos for a pharmaceutical company’s drug trials, she was permitted to film the company for her own documentary. Her employer was trying to develop the first Viagra drug for women to treat a brand-new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). But are her employer and other medical companies actually taking advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion-dollar profits? Orgasm Inc. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, and desire.

Info at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s website

Tagged as: , , , ,

Bookmarks for March 24th

by Viviane on 03/25/2010

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Getting Down About Hooking Up | Shira Tarrant | Ms Magazine Blog – What is new on the sexual landscape are debates about whether casual sex is all about fun and free will, or if hooking up is linked to sexual assault and women’s objectification.
  • Vegas’ Mystery Sex Blog | The Daily Beast – A Sin City prostitute is posting her sexploits on Twitter and her blog. Richard Abowitz talks to the anonymous woman who’s inspired a city-wide guessing game.
  • It’s Called a Scene Name for a Reason | Lee Harrington – It’s called a scene name for a reason.<br />
    Because its the name they want used in the scene.
  • Hidden World of Girls – THE KITCHEN SISTERS are launching a new NPR multimedia series exploring the hidden world of girls. Stories of coming of age, rituals and rites of passage, secet identities—of women who crossed a line, blazed a trail, changed the tide.
  • Dating A Porn Star | Lucy Vonne | The Neave Online Publication – But the minute you mention that sex is part of your profession guys only see one thing and presume things about you. ..Yes, I am constantly consumed with and thinking about sex, which was hard for men to see past. They never saw me as the girl to have a relationship with; I was just the hook up. Or if I did start dating someone, they couldn’t deal with my job and would freak out. You have to put on a certain persona and guys couldn’t separate that from the real me. It makes complete sense that I end up in this type of relationship because not only do I understand him but he gets me.
  • A tale of intriguing timing. — Desk Full of Dildos – The death knell has been sounded, dear readers, for Chilldils. A great idea, which still prevailed even when faced with numerous bumps in the road, a concept that I loved not only because it was my ‘baby’, but also because it was people like YOU who gave it life, has been barred from moving any further. (More drama about a sex toy company giving personal info on former workers)

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

Women’s Sexuality Empowerment Apprenticeship

by Viviane on 02/17/2010

in Events, housekeeping, sex, women

03/23/2010to06/04/2010

Womens Sexuality Empowerment Apprenticeship

A totally unique way to grow your sexuality.

Facilitated by Amy Jo Goddard, M.A. in NYC

Are you ready to own your sexuality, to reclaim it, heal it and celebrate it? Women need a safe space in which to heal, explore, examine and learn about their sexuality. In this sex-positive space, women will be able to do the deep work on their sexual selves that can empower and affect every aspect of their being.

This apprenticeship will be a combination of deep work on the sexual self through discussion, coaching and self-exploration; examination of our sexual history and patterns; and education about sexuality and the sexual body. It will involve homework in between classes, allow participants to develop sexual/relational skills through guided exercises, push boundaries, and ask that people bring their whole selves to the process. It is a rare opportunity to dive deeply into the study and development of our own sexual selves. Women of all sexual orientations and backgrounds are welcome.

About the Facilitator
Amy Jo Goddard is a professional sexuality educator, writer, filmmaker, and sex and relationship coach. Amy Jo’s background includes a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality Education, training as a sex coach, 15 years of experience teaching sexuality to adults, youth and children, extensive training in group process and facilitation, work as a comprehensive sexuality education and l/g/b/t issues advocate, writing about sexuality and sexual identity, working as a college instructor in New York City and teaching gynecology in medical schools, providing trainings on sexuality issues to professionals including how to address sexuality as service providers, ritual and shamanistic work, connection and service to women’s communities, and her own deep work as a sexual being.

For more information on this unique program, please go to www.amyjogoddard.com.
To request a free consultation or ask questions, please email amyjo at amyjogoddard dot com.

Tagged as: , ,

Yes, There Is a G-Spot (The Daily Beast)

by Viviane on 01/12/2010

in sexuality

by Rachel Kramer Bussel

This just in: The G-spot doesn’t exist! At least, according to British researchers who’ve made splashy headlines with this claim in a new study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. According to the abstract, “1,804 unselected female twins aged 22–83 completed a questionnaire about their sexuality and G-spot knowledge” and the point of the study was to find “genetic variance component analysis of self-reported G-spot.” That alone should tell you this study was highly subjective.

Yet the very idea of there not being a G-spot sparked international headlines. One commenter on a science blog wrote, “The supposed ‘G-spot’ is probably an androcentric fabrication to support male penetration,” while many others rushed in to gleefully proclaim the spot nonexistent.

…All the experts I spoke to emphasized that there are no “shoulds” when it comes to the G-spot. On that point, they and researchers Tim Spector and Andrea Burri seem to agree: Women shouldn’t be pressured into locating or playing with their G-spots (or, I’d venture, any other body parts). But the vehemence which with the study’s authors attack the idea of the G-spot needs to be questioned. Whipple says, “I think it’s important to validate women’s experiences and not set up goals.” The media’s response to stories like this is perhaps more troubling than the study itself; a proper conclusion would be, perhaps, that many women don’t believe they have a G-spot, not that it doesn’t exist.

Link

Tagged as: , ,

Bookmarks for December 18th

by Viviane on 12/19/2009

in del.icio.us, sex

  • Man on Man: The New Gay Romance (LA WeeklyO – In many ways the growing popularity of gay romance represents nothing less than a tectonic shift in a culture that says women don’t (and shouldn’t) consume porn. Hot and steamy gay-romance literature is to women what Internet porn is to men: They get off on it, mostly in secret, and keep coming back for more.
  • Canadian Minister Calls for Regulation of Adult Sex Toys | Cory Silverberg – The letter (which you can download here) calls out phthalates and BPA in particular, pointing to what little research has been done on sex toys, and suggesting that there is an "urgent need for responsible regulation in the adult toy industry." The minister wants products to be safety tested before they can be sold, and the chemical composition of all sex toys to be made publicly available.
  • Fantasy On Trial (Again) | Dr. Marty Klein – I’m on my home from Denver, where I testified as an expert witness at a deeply troubling trial—a trial that’s become way too common in America.
  • Porn For Women Retrospective 2009 | Ms. Naughty – The year is drawing to a close and thus it’s time again to take a look back at all the newsy and interesting things that have occurred in porn for women in 2009. Overall it’s been a big year with plenty of media attention and what appears to be a growing recognition within the adult industry itself that yes, women do enjoy porn.
  • Reality and Faux Ho Bloggers | Monica Shores | Carnal Nation – Sex worker web journals generally fall into two camps: marketing tools used in conjunction with a work name and website, or anonymous confessionals in which the writer discloses details about her personal life and clients. (For the purpose of this article, only female bloggers are examined.) These blogs are uniquely positioned to complicate the discourse around sex work in both negative and positive ways. They're capable of revealing rifts and commonalities in sex worker communities while also influencing the public's perceptions of and reaction to those who sell sex.
  • Netflix Spilled Your Brokeback Mountain Secret, Lawsuit Claims | Threat Level | Wired.com – An in-the-closet lesbian mother is suing Netflix for privacy invasion, alleging the movie rental company made it possible for her to be outed when it disclosed insufficiently anonymous information about nearly half-a-million customers as part of its $1 million contest to improve its recommendation system.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →