Superbowl = Ground Zero for Sex Trafficking? Super Nonsense
Superbowl 50 is taking place next Sunday just a few miles from here. Some of my neighbors are renting out their suburban houses—five grand for the long weekend. Lots of locals here are getting out of town—winetasting in Napa, skiing in Lake Tahoe, or making the long drive to Disneyland.
Along with all the other hazards of 200,000 visitors descending on one place at the same time, one is talked about with increasing frequency—sex trafficking. For years, the urban myth of increased sex trafficking has followed the Superbowl (and Olympics, and World Cup) around like an unwanted cousin at a tailgate barbecue.
Sex trafficking—the real thing, not the political consumer product or object of do-good sloganeering—involves kidnapping or manipulating someone out of their community, forcing them to engage in sex acts somewhere else, and not allowing them to leave at will. Read more.
Michelle, Her Breasts, & the Male Gaze
I have a close friend in Santa Cruz, a therapist named Michelle, with whom I have lunch once a month. It's usually pretty glorious, with several conversations going on at once—professional, personal, political, and mmm-this-bagel-is-perfect-isn't-it.
Yesterday we talked about women's breasts.
We were talking about breasts as symbols of sexuality—whether their owner wants that or not. We reminisced back to junior high school—when Michelle (in California) already had adult-sized breasts, and I (in New York) just gawked at such things wherever they were, whenever I could. Read more.
National Men's Health Week
National Men's Health Week is June 13-19, 2016. Guys, here are 6 tips for better sexual health. Ladies, feel free to listen in.
* Don't have sex drunk
While drinking, your judgment is compromised, your sensitivity to others is reduced, and your penis slows WAY down. As Shakespeare tells MacDuff in Macbeth, "drinking stimulates desire but hinders performance." Every year, dozens of men come to see me for supposed erection problems that are simply penises functioning normally when their owners are hammered. Read more.
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For answers to more questions about pornography, see my new book, His Porn, Her Pain: Confronting America's PornPanic With Honest Talk About Sex .
Republicans: Porn a "Public Health Crisis"
As delegates land in Cleveland International Airport for the Republican convention next week, they can expect to hear the following announcement: "As our plane descends into Cleveland, passengers are reminded to set their watches back 15 years."
Yes, the proposed Republican Party platform is seriously behind the times. It urges that the legalization of same-gender marriage be reversed; endorses the professionally-discredited "conversion therapy" (attempting to "cure" GLBT children); wants transgendered people barred from bathrooms that don't match their birth gender; and of course demands that abortion be criminalized—or made so onerous that no actual person could get one.
And it declares that pornography is a Public Health Crisis, especially for children, which "is destroying the life of millions;" and it urges states to fight this "public menace," pledging their "commitment to children's safety and well-being."
Them's fightin' words. Read more.
More Religious Bullying—Around Sex, Of Course
The "First Amendment Defense Act"—who could quarrel with that?
I do. Maybe you do, too.
HR2802 prohibits the federal government from acting against anyone who "believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief" that gays shouldn't marry or that sex belongs only in heterosexual marriage.
Under this law, the feds couldn't withhold tax exemptions, contracts, or loans from people or corporations defying federal laws prohibiting discrimination against GLBT people. The bill would protect a business denying time off for a gay employee to care for a sick spouse. It would protect a private school refusing a child just because her parents are gay. Read more.
"Foreplay"—It just Makes Us Nervous About Sex
I continue to be baffled by the relationship many people have to "foreplay."
I've been putting the word in quotation marks for decades (driving print magazine editors crazy as far back as the 1980s), because it describes a state of mind I don't want to endorse.
First, it supposes that intercourse is "real sex," and everything else isn't—other activities are just second-rate sex. Furthermore, "foreplay" supposes that one is preparing for something—that these activities don't have a satisfaction or integrity of their own. Read more.
