Category Archives: Sex

Discussion Concerning False Opinions Regarding Margaret Sanger

Christian 
Margaret gets cozy with her allies, the KKK.
Clifton 
Here’s the original:

[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/27/article-2434992-185184C900000578-612_634x471.jpg]

Christian 
Point taken — I should be more critical of photos. But do you have anything to say about the address – which did happen? Or anything about her views?
Clifton 
I’ve meant to explore her views in more depth, but, not having done so, I can’t comment on those views generally. However, I can let her speak for herself of this encounter:

 

All the world over, in Penang and Skagway, in El Paso and Helsingfors, I have found women’s psychology in the matter of child-bearing essentially the same, no matter what the class, religion, or economic status. Always to me any aroused group was a good group, and therefore I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan at Silver Lake, New Jersey, one of the weirdest experiences I had in lecturing.

[…]

Never before had I looked into a sea of faces like these. I was sure that if I uttered one word, such as abortion, outside the usual vocabulary of these women they would go off into hysteria. And so my address that night had to be in the most elementary terms, as though I were trying to make children understand.

In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered. The conversation went on and on, and when we were finally through it was too late to return to New York. Under a curfew law everything in Silver Lake shut at nine o’clock. I could not even send a telegram to let my family know whether I had been thrown in the river or was being held incommunicado. It was nearly one before I reached Trenton, and I spent the night in a hotel.

Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography

Continue reading Discussion Concerning False Opinions Regarding Margaret Sanger

Length of Time to Female Orgasm

Female_Orgasm

Previous research indicates that women prefer orgasms triggered by penile- vaginal intercourse (PVI) as compared to those triggered by direct manual stimulation of the clitoris.

Miller and Byers (2004) found a large difference between women’s ideal duration of intercourse and their actual duration of intercourse. Women reported having sex for 7 minutes on average, but they desired to have intercourse for 14 minutes on average.

[I]n a sample of East German women, Schnabl (1980) found that 25% of women were able to have an orgasm within 2 minutes of intercourse, while 60% of women could have an orgasm after 10 minutes of intercourse.

The never or rarely group had an mean intercourse duration of 23.24 minutes, the sometimes group had a mean intercourse duration of 27 minutes, and the almost always or always group had a mean intercourse duration of 34.64 minutes.

No prior studies were found that reported an average duration of intercourse as high as what was found in the current study (M = 27 minutes, Mdn = 20 minutes). A previous study with a national sample of Czech women found an average estimated duration of penile-vaginal intercourse of 16.2 minutes compared to American women’s average of about eight minutes (Weiss & Brody, 2009).

Ideal Average Minutes of PVI: 33.38
Average minutes of PVI to trigger orgasm: 18.60

Powers, C.R. (2012, August). Female Orgasm from Intercourse: Importance, Partner Characteristics, and Health. University of North Texas. Retrieved October 21, 2014 from http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc149654/m2/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf


22.8% of females reported reaching climax less than 2 minutes after intromission
52.6% less than five minutes in coitus in first marriage
19% claimed to have lasted 10 or more minutes

Kinsey, Alfred C. et al. (1953/1998). Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; Bloomington, IN: Indiana U. Press. Retrieved October 21, 2014 from http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-data.html#coitus


Women in this study said they could masturbate and orgasm with ease in just a few minutes. Of the 82 percent of women who said they masturbated, 95 percent could orgasm easily and regualarly, whenever they wanted. Many women used the term “masturbation” synonymously with orgasm: women assumed masturbation included orgasm.

Hite, S. (Original study — 1976; eBook edition — 2011). The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality (Google eBook).*

Image credit: Bernie C and Tony McCann

Recent Dream

I recently engaged in sexual congress with Shirley MacLaine and woke up mid-climax. This is not something I would normally share so publicly, but it’s something that I found too fascinating to keep to myself. I subsequently engaged in some googling with my computer regarding wet dreams and found out little except that they seem to be common in both men and women. One source I read claimed that there’s friction involved: you’re dreaming of a sex act while also stimulating yourself, unconsciously, out there in real-life.

But, hold on a second: is it not the case that our most dream-filled sleep occurs during the REM phase? And, is it not also the case that during REM sleep our bodies produce chemicals that paralyze us?

Now, I can’t be sure but I don’t think that there was any real-world friction involved in my tryst with Ms. MacLaine. This idea has prompted me to keep revisiting the experience and to wonder if it’s possible, generally, to achieve orgasm without external stimulation.

Now, consider a scene in the recently-released movie Her in which the main character, Theodore, has sex with Samantha (aka OS1), a manufactured, disembodied consciousness. Staring at the giant, black rectangle in the theater, fully engrossed in the story, I found this love scene perfectly convincing, especially in light of my recent dream. Save for skin-on-skin contact, the relationship between Theodore and Samantha is, of course, fully realized before the movie ends.

Skin-on-skin contact. Skin. Do we need either? I’ve read some comments on-line suggesting that at least some people were disturbed by Her’s unorthodox relationship. Among other things, they found Theodore pathetic for apparently being unable to connect deeply with flesh-and-blood people, echoing the sentiments of his ex-wife. I’m inclined to think that connecting with another consciousness is probably more important than connecting with another flesh-person. Theodore seems to genuinely do this. Because I bought their relationship (allowed myself to buy it?), I found myself both jealous of Theodore and of Samantha. Both the chance to fall in love in a new way and the chance to experience existence in a new way (and perhaps extend my life) are very appealing prospects to me.

I’ve read that Steven Soderbergh gave Her’s director, Spike Jonze, important editing suggestions which ultimately helped Jonze whittle his initially three-hour movie down to two. I’m not surprised that Jonze would turn to Soderbergh given the latter’s work on Solaris, a story that legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky felt needed a nearly three-hour run-time to tell and that Soderbergh felt needed only about an hour and a half.

Actually, Her’s story and Solaris’s have at least one other connection: both deal with humans who, in some way, ultimately choose fantasy over reality. Theodore, I would argue, imagines a physical relationship with Samantha in Her; Chris imagines an entire reality in which his ex-wife is alive and healthy in Solaris. (Incidentally, I do heretically prefer Soderbergh’s version of Solaris to Tarkovsky’s coma-inducing version.)

To some extent, Theodore and Chris are both in love with aspects of their own respective conscious or unconscious minds.

This brings me back to Ms. MacLaine. Research exists — thanks primarily, it seems, to the work of Stephen LaBerge — suggesting that lucid, controllable dreaming is possible. So far, it doesn’t seem that many people have been successful in exploring the possibilities suggested by LaBerge’s research.

An interesting question might be, though, what would happen if it were easy for the average person to act out really convincing fantasies within the safety of his or her own mind? Has somebody out there gotten good enough at lucid dreaming to conjure up Dreamy MacLaine on a regular basis? If so, have they ever felt in danger of falling in love with her? I would guess that such unbridled access to one’s unconscious would be selected against. After all, what need would someone have of, for example, procreating if they could just dream, convincingly, satisfyingly, that they were doing these things?

And, what need would someone have of procreating if they had a devoted consciousness (such as OS1) to provide convincing, satisfying companionship?

Hmm.

* * *

“We like to be in love because it allows us to feel idealistic about ourselves. The other person ennobles, inspires, redeems. Our lover deserves the most wonderful person alive, and that person is ourselves.”
–Roger Ebert, from his review of All the Real Girls

Sweet Potatoes and Lentils

So, here’s a recipe that appears to’ve originated with Alicia “Alisha” Silverstone. I found Silverstone’s original recipe and it did not include kale. Big mistake! However, in her recipe, she uses broth for precooking the onions instead of sautéing them. Might be good if you want to make it even less fatty. (I used a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil myself.)

Also, I would recommend slow-cooking some lentils beforehand, especially if you’re like me and you don’t like to babysit legumes and don’t want to worry about the sodium or .

After consuming only seven large bowls of this, I was able to race the fastest animal, walk along the longest path, and hold the hottest substance. I also wrote this great new song: “I’m strong as a quail ‘cause I eats me [sic] kale.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKSr8v5QuQg

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp safflower oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 small tomatoes, diced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Pinch of sea salt
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
7 cups vegetable broth
1 cup brown lentils
1 cup baby spinach or kale

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat and saute onion for about 2 minutes, until soft.
  2. Stir in tomatoes and ginger, cooking an addition 3 minutes.
  3. Stir in turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne and salt and cook for 2 minutes, tasting to make sure its to your liking.
  4. Add the sweet potatoes, broth and lentils.
  5. Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat and cover, allowing to simmer for about 30 minutes.
  6. Add spinach (or kale) and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
A recent study shows that canned food doesn’t lead to increased BPA in the blood:

TEEGUARDEN: So for bisphenol-A, for example, you may be exposed to relatively large amounts in the diet. But what matters most, is how much of the bioactive form actually reaches your blood and your tissues.

HAMIILTON: Teeguarden studied 20 men and women who spent a day on a diet loaded with BPA, from canned foods and juice in plastic containers. He wanted to know whether there is a lot of bioactive BPA in the blood of people who ingest large amounts of the chemical.

TEEGUARDEN: What we found was, no, there is not. At least if it is, it’s present in amounts that are below our limit of detection, which in this case was point three parts per billion.

HAMIILTON: Some studies that have found much, much higher levels of BPA in the blood. And that’s really surprising, Teeguarden says. The reason is that to get levels that high from food, a person would have to ingest hundreds or thousands of times more BPA than the typical American gets in their diet.

TEEGUARDEN: So the question is: Where did that bioactive bisphenol-A come from?

HAMIILTON: Teeguarden says one very real possibility is that it got into the blood accidentally after samples were drawn.

Excerpt from the Documentary Whore’s Glory

still from the documentary Whore's Glory

I had nine customers today. All nine were really fine. They were perfect gentleman with me. It always depends on the man’s family. If he comes from a good family, he has good manners; if he comes from a bad family, he has bad manners. … But it depends on my behavior too. If I treat him badly, he treats me badly. If a girl behaves badly, she gets a bad reputation quickly. … If I lose a customer, then his friends stop coming too. I treat my customers right so they keep coming back. Otherwise, I would be left with nothing. A customer would come once and then never again.

Delicious Squid Spermatophores

We report a case of oral stings by spermatophores of the squid Todarodes pacificus. A 63-yr-old Korean woman experienced severe pain in her oral cavity immediately after eating a portion of parboiled squid along with its internal organs. She did not swallow the portion, but spat it out immediately. She complained of a pricking and foreign-body sensation in the oral cavity. Twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva were completely removed, along with the affected mucosa. On the basis of their morphology and the presence of the sperm bag, the foreign bodies were identified as squid spermatophores.

[source]

The Case for Anilingus in The B52’s “Roam”

Jim DeRogatis is pop-music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times. He’s written several rock ‘n’ roll books, and is a host of Sound Opinions.

In an article titled “Songs About Sex,” a compilation of 40 such songs, DeRogatis lists “Roam” from the B52’s. He says, “…and only these New Wave art-popsters could pen one about analingus.”

This isn’t the first time DeRogatis has made this claim. In a June 19, 2008 article regarding Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, he says, “…some of the greatest hits in pop history have paid subtly veiled homage to oral sex, ‘Please Please Me,’ ‘Sugar, Sugar’ and the B-52s’ ‘Roam’ among them.”*

Upon reading this for the first time, I loudly exclaimed, “Anal-oral sexual contact in a catchy pop song? I don’t freakin’ believe it!” The elderly woman sitting next to me at the bus stop made a strangled gurgling sound and nearly fainted. Continue reading The Case for Anilingus in The B52’s “Roam”

I use both spellings of the word here and I don’t think I can justify correcting “analingus.” A Google search for both terms favors the “analingus” spelling, roughly 3,000,000 to 1,000,000. Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, and Random House dictionaries all favor the “anilingus” spelling.*

Human Ova, Chicken Ova and Misinformation

From Useless Sexual Trivia: Tastefully Prurient Facts About Everyone’s Favorite Subject*:
“[T]he number of human ova necessary to repopulate the world could fit into a chicken egg.”

The human ovum appears to be roughly spherical:

The diameter of an ovum is ~120 µm. Continue reading Human Ova, Chicken Ova and Misinformation

WolframAlpha says the human ovum is 500 µm. However, several other sources give a number closer to 120:
  • 130 µm*
  • 150 µm*
  • 100 µm*
  • 140 µm*
  • 100 µm*

Semen and Evolution

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the evolved semen literature. Here’s a snapshot of other recent findings from Gallup’s lab: semen-exposed women perform better on concentration and cognitive tasks; women’s bodies can detect “foreign” semen that differs from their recurrent sexual partner’s signature semen, an evolved system that, Gallup believes, often leads to unsuccessful pregnancies because it signals a disinvested male partner who is not as likely to provide for the offspring; women who had unprotected sex with their ex-partners—and therefore were getting regularly inseminated—experience more significant depression on breaking up than those who were not as regularly exposed to their ex’s semen (and they also go on the “rebound” faster in seeking new sexual partners, which presumably would help fix their semen-deprived depression). And the list goes on.

[source]