Friday, March 21, 2003
Putting it Together
Since I recently wrote to you about an erotic photography exhibit in Minneapolis and a new sex shoppe in Paris, then I most certainly would be remiss in my calling as a naughty tour guide if I didn't tell you about the opening of Sacred Profanities, a gallery devoted to erotic art, in Berkeley, California.You can't miss Sacred Profanities. It's that bubble-gum pink building on San Pablo Avenue. The sex-positive baby of Beth McCoy (a.k.a. Ruby Pearl) and Steve DeAngelo, the small gallery has been hopping since its opening March 1st. The first show features work by 27 artists, including Craig Morey and Annie Sprinkle.
But don't go expecting to see the usual nude. McCoy and DeAngelo are looking for work that "takes a stand." A bronze horse statue with a huge phallus for a head. The Virgin Mary's robes forming the familiar folds of a vulva. Oh, and "dildolls." And Ruby Pearl's own boxes and soaps featuring female genitalia. —perfect for the coffee table or guest bathroom!
An Energizer Moment
There's a nice poem by Carissa Neff over at Nerve.com today. My Mother's Penis is about a young woman's discovery and secret sharing of her mother's hot pink vibrator:"... How many nights — lonely and wanting —
did you go to your penis and find it dead?
How many emergency flashlights, how many
babydolls' backs did you rip open in the fucking dark
searching for just two goddamn batteries with one
orgasm's worth of voltage left?..."
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Best of Breast 2003?
Without comment, I call your attention to Mr. Skin's 4th Annual Anatomy Awards, as announced earlier on the Mr. Skin site and on… ugh… The Howard Stern Show. Given to female celebrities appearing nude in movies released during 2002, the Anatomy Awards are one more silly antidote to Sunday night's Oscars. (And a much nicer one than watching CNN today.)Sadly, Mr. Skin only gives awards to female celebrities —presumably since they have, as he puts it when referring to Heather Graham's appearance in Killing Me Softly, "funbags." Perhaps the Reverse Cowgirl could quickly put together awards for the male celebrities? "Best Packed Levis?" "Most Amazing Unit (flaccid)?" You be the judge.
Monday, March 17, 2003
Flirting: It’s a Science
Have you ever wondered why men are so awful at reading women's signals? Scientists studying how people flirt think they have some of the answers.In a scientific study of flirting conducted by Britain's Social Issues Research Centre, researchers found that men are correct in feeling that women are sending out "come hither" signals, just way too optimistic about what those signals mean.
Upon meeting a guy who might be a prospective mate or lover, a woman does send out flirting signals —intense eye contact followed by a lowering of the eyes, smiles, coy looks, head or hair tossing, making the same body movements that he makes. Sometimes she does it on purpose. But often, she sends out these signals in an unconscious, instinctive attempt to determine whether the man is worth pursuing. "By sending erratic and ambiguous signals in the early stages of an encounter," says report author Kate Fox, "women manipulate men into showing their hands."
Researchers also found that most flirting is done by women. This shouldn't be surprising; they're better at it. But, beyond that, the report says that human females share a characteristic called "female proceptivity" with chimpanzees and other species:
"Chimpanzee females, for example, actively solicit sex with males, going so far as to pull a resting male to his feet and insist on copulation… Among humans, female proceptivity is much more subtle. In fact, female solicitation is done so unobtrusively that most people think men take the initiative in making the advances."
I suppose this explains a lot but, in the end, doesn't change anything. Once you get past the initial sizing-up stage, don't you just flirt because it's fun?
Friday, March 14, 2003
Get Behind Me, Doctor
As if things weren't weird enough with breast implants and Melanie Griffith's lips, now it seems media fascination with Jennifer Lopez and her fabulous fanny have led to a boom in buttock augmentation surgery. Yes, that's right. People are out there getting silicone butt implants and fat injections in their tushies.At $4000 to $5000 per cheek, butt implants aren't an operation for everyone. Aside from the risk of infection, bleeding, and a creepy threat of damaging the sciatic nerve, there's the painful recovery time. And in the end (so to speak) you're left sitting on something that feels like Jell-O. Ah, but at least you can fill out those Lycra bike shorts at the health club. Just don't use the treadmill —these things have been known to wander South.
Discerning readers with even mild curiousity will want to view these before and after photos of the procedure. These Venezuelan doctors are both plastic surgeons and travel agents, offering "Aesthetic Surgery & Caribbean Vacations." Ooo! A firm ass and a cheap charter flight!
Thursday, March 13, 2003
A Slow Night in the Outback
Like yin and yang, Jekyll and Hyde, sophisticated older sister and pain-in-the-ass little brother, the rhetorically powerful Vagina Monologues is being theatrically shadowed by the senselessly silly Puppetry of the Penis, a two-person show in which naked men twist, stretch, and transform their genitals into weird, recognizable shapes and then project them onto a large video screen.I guess what I'm amazed by is that there are now six separate companies performing Puppetry of the Penis worldwide and that the shows have already brought in more than $20 million in ticket sales. And they're looking to expand… er, stretch… even farther. In Boston through March 21, the show's creator, Simon Morley, and his fellow Aussie costar, Dan Lewry, recently held auditions for new puppeteers. "Size isn't everything. We're looking for good stretch factor."
I haven't seen the show and have been trying to imagine what some of the "installations" look like. The Eiffel Tower and the Windsurfer seem obvious enough. But the Loch Ness Monster? Help, Cecil! Help!
Dribble Gently, Please
Over at My Messy Bedroom, Josie Vogel's column this week is all about playing with testicles. Actually, it's more of an account of an evening Josie and her lover spent attending a workshop on that very subject at a Toronto sex shop.String, yarn, shoelaces, or even hair scrunchies can be nice for binding testicles. You'll have to read the article to find out what the sandpaper, chopsticks, snakebite kits, and lead weights might be for. With proper attention to safety and good lines of communication, the balls are in your court. Er, hand. Whatever.
Should Waxing Wane?
Are today's women taking depilation —the removal of their natural body hair —too far? I've read two interesting articles this week about women and body hair. Both appeared in Australia's The Age. Suzanne Carbone writes about the history of hair removal and describes the latest torturous innovation, the Brazilian wax. She writes, "Thank heavens for the hair-free zone of palms and under the feet."Mimi Spencer takes a more humorous approach, writing about the endless cycle of tweezing, plucking, shaving, electrolysis, bleaching, and waxing that greets many a girl upon reaching womanhood. She writes, "[The Brazilian bikini wax] was surely developed in Hades, but (get this) has actually received good press from the world's ditzy beauty editors. Not only is it a humbling and hideous experience, during which you proffer your undercarriage to an unknown shop girl, it also hurts like bejaysus."
I guess I strike the middle ground between wanting someone who is as naturally furry as our stage of evolution allows and someone as artificially smooth as a lightbulb. While I appreciate a woman whose legs are shaved, I don't run in mortal dread from a hairy armpit. And I'd prefer a slightly coiffed pudendum to one with razor stubble any day. I know what's in there; I can find it and so can you. Basically, my vote is for some hair somewhere… just to let me know you're a grown-up.
Then again, my vote doesn't count, does it? It's your hair! But for God's sake, sweetie… put down the Epilady!
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Foreskinned is Forearmed?
As the happy owner of a bobbed banana, I'm having a little trouble seeing why Greg Dervin of San Francisco State is so upset about the foreskin he lost at his bris 24 years ago. Dervin is founder of Students for Genital Integrity, a campus organization against genital mutilation. And, while his organization is also against the unarguably horrible practice of female genital mutilation, Dervin's crusade against routine male circumcision seems personal. "Yes, I'm pissed," he says. "I was denied a whole sexual experience. I was robbed. The experience should be my birthright." About two-thirds of American male babies are still routinely circumcised.Mrs. Dervin? Is there any chance you gold plated and kept Greg's foreskin? He wants it back.
And the Crop Circles?
Is it possible that Stonehenge is actually intended to be a representation of a giant pussy? Anthony Perks, a professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver seems to think so.Think about it. At a time when worship of an Earth Mother goddess was common, wouldn't it make just as much sense for Stonehenge and other similar stone monuments to be have been built for use in fertility ceremonies as it would for them to be used for astronomical observations and predictions?
Perks proposes that a woman's labia majora could be Stonehenge's outer stone circle (and possibly the outer surrounding mound). The inner stone circle would then be the labia minora, the altar stone the clitoris, and the empty center outlined with bluestones is the vagina/birth canal.
I just have a few questions:
- Do gynecologists see "female sexual anatomy" everywhere they look?
- Or is that archaeologists never get to see "female sexual anatomy" and therefore can't recognize it even when it's huge, stone, and staring them in the face for centuries?
- Would anyone be offended if the Harvard men's crew stopped by to build a snow Stonehenge? Just checking.
Photo of the Day
Recent Entries
Between Us, A Girl (Part 3 of 4)You’re Mumbling
Redacted in NY State
This and Mostly That
Between Us, A Girl (Part 2 of 4)
DIY
Horny
Haiku
April, Come She Will
Between Us, A Girl (Part 1 of 4)
Archive Calendar
| November 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Archives by Date
September 2008June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
June 2007
Search Me!
Subscribe!
Members
LoginRegister
Member List
About me
ProsperoMassachusetts
Fascinated by language, drawn to art, and utterly amused by everyone's naughty bits. Beyond that, I'm hundreds of years old and I live on an island. Read the play.
Email
Links
