Inside Gloria's Mind

Magic bread, a la francaise

Funny French Bread!

OMG! Did I just see the face of the Virgin Mary in the balls???

Hanging Tit

What were you expecting, you perverts?

Hanging out : A Blue Tit hangs from a branch awaiting its turn on a bird feeder

Check out those tiny little tail-feathers!

Pimp your iPhone for clits

from Boing-Boing:

Tim Vandecasteele has create a web application for the iPhone designed to teach men how to digitally pleasure a woman's nethers—if only female reproductive organs were as sensitive as a perfectly smooth sheet of hardened glass. I'll never be in an uncomfortable, unfulfilling relationship with a patio door again!

It's called "RubMyClit." I feel dirty just typing that, but I have a duty to you, the reader.

LINK:
Rub My... Uh, I'm Not, Uh... You Know

(Thanks to Mike for sending this)

Special Wishes from Santa

Santa does Adonis Cabaret's Girls Night Out

(Thanks to T. for the holiday spirit!)

Really bad Christmas joke

You were warned!

The origin of angel tree-toppers

One Christmas a long time ago Santa Claus had
problems. Four of his elves were sick so
Santa got behind schedule. Then Mrs Claus
told Santa that her Mum was coming to visit;
this stressed Santa even more. He went to see
his reindeer and found that three of them
were about to give birth. More stress. Then
when he began to load the sleigh he dropped
the toy bag and scattered the toys.

Santa went into the house for a shot of whisky
but the elves had drunk him dry.

Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed
on his way to the door. There was a little
angel with a big Christmas tree. "Merry Christmas
Santa”, said the angel, “Isn't it a lovely
day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where
would you like me to stick it?”

Thus began the tradition of the angel on
top of the Christmas tree.

Fascinatingly grisly SM trial in Switzerland

I blogged about this sensational high society murder when they first found Mr. Stern in SM gear and arrested his Mistress. Now the case is finally in court and the emerging details are ghoulishly fascinating. If you like SM, and you like true crime (and I like both), this is a must read.

Crime of passion? Or fit of uncontrollable rage? Is there a difference?

I'll excerpt some of the most salacious bits.

Fiery love of tycoon and sex game killer

MORE than two years after Edouard Stern, the wealthy banker, was found shot dead at his home in Geneva wearing a latex suit during an apparent sadomasochistic sex session, the tranquil world of Swiss finance was rocked by fresh scandal last week as lawyers in his murder trial swapped claims of prostitution and intimidation.

The first public hearing on the case, in which Stern’s blonde mistress Cécile Brossard, a 38-year-old Frenchwoman, has confessed to killing him, was supposed to decide what evidence was admissible, including recordings of telephone calls. It turned into an angry courtroom clash, with her lawyers revealing new details from the investigation.

Lawyers for the Stern family argue that the murder was premeditated, while Brossard claims it was a “crime passion-nel” -- that she killed him in a fit of passion.

In February 2005, colleagues worried at having heard nothing from the 50-year-old Stern found his body, dressed in a latex suit and wearing a harness, a hood over his head, at his penthouse apartment in a chic Geneva neighbourhood. Stern, ranked the 38th most wealthy Frenchman and nicknamed “the little prince of finance”, had been shot four times.

He had promised to marry Brossard, his mistress of four years, before giving her a gift of $1m £504,000 . On February 14, 2005, he blocked the payment and broke off relations with her.

----

At the hearing in Geneva last week Brossard appeared in public for the first time since her arrest. Dressed all in white, including her boots, she sat silently and wiped away tears with a handkerchief while lawyers for the Stern family delved into her past as a call girl.

Marc Bonnant, one of the lawyers, described Brossard as “cunning and money-seeking” and as “a tart having fuelled the fantasies of a 50-year-old man” who had become dependent on her. She went by the name of Sophie when seeing clients at the plush Hotel Scribe in Paris but was known as Alice “when she played the dominatrix in Geneva”. Before meeting Stern, she would charge €6,000 £4,350 for a weekend with a client, the lawyer said.

----

She asked for the $1m when Stern asked for her hand in marriage.... Stern decided to get the money back, a decision that was to prove fatal, he added: “She went into a terrible rage. She left, taking her combat gear-- tights, a dog-collar, a latex suit and other accessories -- with her.”

According to Bonnant, Brossard told the prosecutor: “I killed him because during a sex game he told me, ‘A million dollars-- that’s expensive for a whore’.”

Brossard allegedly shot Stern first in the head, then twice in the chest and one last time in the forehead. Brossard entrusted her response to Pascal Maurer, her lawyer, who pledged to reveal “the true face” of the banker who had morally “harassed a fragile woman to the limit”. Her liaison with Stern had led her “to anorexia, to her own moral and physical degradation”. She had been “ready to make any sacrifice to satisfy the fantasies of her lover”.

Stern was “a skilled hunter who had spotted his quarry” and his aim was to humiliate his mistress. “He is a manipulator who uses his kindness and his false romanticism. But when she wanted to leave him, he threatened her and stuck a knife in the wall two fingers away from her ears,” Maurer said.

Recorded phone conversations revealed their tormented relationship. Stern told her: “How I love you! My heart is exploding. I didn’t know one could love so much.” He added: “I’m sad that I can’t teleport myself and hold you in my arms.”

In a less romantic message, Stern said: “I don’t trust you . . . I vomit on you. And I’m going to harm you.” He did not take her to parties. “You don’t really think I’m going to spend my life with . . . you,” he said. In another recording he said: “You’d have been one of the bitches in a concentration camp.”

Tight latex and a whole lotta 'tude

Fathers and sons, Daddies and boys

Interesting thought piece by a therapist, speculating about the drive to form adult Daddy/boy relationships.

Hungering for Daddy

Father hunger is particularly relevant for gay men. After all, the first important relationship that serves as a template for future love and intimacy with men is between a boy and his father. Many gay men experience a particularly painful distance from their fathers -- resulting in men who have some of their most basic father needs unmet. Gay men are also more likely not to have masculine role models or to participate in the cultural processes that help them mature into adult masculinity. It's easy, without the intervention of the mature masculine, for a young gay man to become a "lost boy." He finds it nearly impossible to fulfill his promise in the world, and his true gifts often lie dormant. It is not until the internal immature masculine unites with the mature masculine that a man's potential can be realized.

Father hunger is the yearning for mature masculine energy, the intimacy of the father-son bond and the need to be initiated and blessed by the ritual elder. With some stretch of the imagination, one can explore how father hunger seems to appear in some of the fantasies, imagery, role-play and sexuality of gay men.

Doc pays price for privacy violation

As a blog reader recently predicted, this guy's done.

Doctor in penis photo scandal leaves Mayo Clinic

A doctor at a prestigious Arizona clinic who took a photograph of a patient's tattooed penis during surgery is "no longer practicing medicine" at the center, it was confirmed Friday.

Mayo Clinic spokeswoman Lynn Closway would not reveal whether surgeon Adam Hansen had been fired or resigned following the revelations which rocked the Nobel Prize-winning medical center this week.

Intimations of Archives: Erotic Retro Sleaze Fest X

Where do all the images of erotic art that don't make it into my Friday Erotic Art shows go?

Today a whole big batch of 'em are going right here.

These are the rejects/left-overs/didn't-have-room-for's of the pulp and exploitation magazine art shows that I ran a few months ago. Since they are extras, I'm going to throw 'em all together in a big random batch and hope you enjoy the cheesy gems...so without further ado (or any particular order)....

Voila La Sleaze! Bon Appetit!

I'm starting with my favorite story title...

Holiday vacation heads-up

Just a quick note to let folks that I will be on vacation starting next Tuesday (Christmas Day) until Wednesday, January 2nd.

For blog readers: I'm going to try and force myself to stay off the blog. Still working on my book, and want to see what it's like to spend a whole week focused on only one writing project.

For friends and acquaintances: I'll be reading and answering email but will likely be even SLOWER than usual in replying. Thanks in advance for putting up with me :)

For professional queries/requests/favors/permissions etc. etc. etc.: Email always welcome but I will not be answering business correspondence during this time. Please forgive the day - I'll get back to you in January.

For counseling clients:

Consider yourselves in the "friends/acquaintances" category when it comes to email. I'm here and will read but please don't be disappointed if it takes me a while to get back to you.

However, I will only accept emergency appointments during that time (12/25/07 - 01/02/08). See my therapy FAQ for the details and special fees for emergency and on-demand counseling. If you were hoping to speak again in 2007, please let me know ASAP (and I do mean ASAP). A few openings are still available for Saturday 12/22 and Monday 12/24, but they're going fast.

Otherwise, I'll look forward to catching up with you in 2008.

LOVE TO YOU ALL!!

G.

Just say fuck no

I haven't published links to the recent flurry of stories about how abstinence ed doesn't work 'cause I've covered the subject of abstinence ed many times over the past few years, predicting what studies are now proving: that abstinence ed will be a national disaster, that we'll only see greater rates of STD infections and higher pregnancy rates (which we have), and that it will only make kids even more eager to defy authority and experiment earlier (as they have).

Now all the people who supported abstinence ed (or at least mindlessly went along with the government's whacked out dogma) are surprised by the latest studies proving what a hollow sham abstinence ed was in the first place.

Why did we need studies to prove what common sense dictates? You keep kids ignorant, they're going to act ignorant. How much studying does that concept require?

Anyway, one curious paradox does arise. If all the studies are correct, and sex education delays the age at which kids start to experiment....then what about the other study whose results were published by The Washington Post last week which asserts that teens who start having sex early are less likely to be delinquents and may even have fewer problems with sexual dysfunction in adulthood?

If it's healthier for kids to be sexually active...maybe we should leave them in the dark ages after all and let them fornicate the old fashioned ignorant way.

This could be the first argument against sex education that's had real legs.

p.s. What I really think is that we need less studies and a whole lot more common sense about teenagers and sex. We could start by educating not only the kids but their parents. We're never going to raise a generation of sexually healthy kids if their parents are so screwed up they still think abstinence is the answer.

What our pets do when we aren't watching

"Catsturbation"
from
Cute Overload

Hotchat for Monkeys

At last. An explanation for why men like to hear women scream in bed.

Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals.

Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found....

The researchers found that females yelled during 86 percent of all sexual encounters. When females shouted, males ejaculated 59 percent of the time. However, when females did not holler, males ejaculated less than 2 percent of the time.

Link

Meanwhile, here's a career opportunity that I'd never considered. I can see it now. Gloria Brame, Ph.D., MPTC (Monkey Pelvic Thrust Counter). From same article:

To see if yelling resulted from how vigorous the sex was, the scientists counted the number of pelvic thrusts males gave and timed when they happened. They found when shouting occurred, thrusting increased. In other words, hollering led to more vigorous sex.

Counting monkey pelvic thrusts is admittedly "quite weird, but it's science," researcher Dana Pfefferle, a behavioral scientist and primatologist at the German Primate Center, told LiveScience. "You get used to it."

FOUND: Sexism never dies

Ah, those fabulous fabulous '50s. When stereotyping women was almost as much fun as degrading them. Found this montage (part comic, part cheesecake) somewhere and saved it for unknown reasons. It's kinda funny.

But it's kinda sad. The stereotype of the gold-digger, pertly sexy on the outside and coldly exploitative within.

What's even sadder - the stereotype persists. It's launched at virtually any woman who marries a man considerably wealthier than herself. But it isn't limited to women: people are contemptuous of men who marry women a lot wealthier than themselves. One example is the way the less successful husbands of famous actresses/celebs are routinely vilified in media as parasites. WTF? Is there a new social etiquette that if you marry someone with a lot more money you are automatically suspect of marrying them ONLY for their money? That even to consider marrying out of your economic class makes you a mercenary, a whore or a gigolo? Damn, American puritanism is pervasive!

OK, sure, some people DO marry for money rather than love. Sort of depressing to put a price on love. But not exactly a new trend either. It's as old as human history, in fact. Why do Americans get so hostile about it? Like it or not, women, the less-solvent sex, are raised to depend on male wealth. And in most cultures, the richer the husband, the more the woman is admired for making such a desirable match. Yet in America, where we are all obsessed with wealth, people act as if marrying primarily for financial security is vulgar and casts doubt on your moral character. Huh? Is it a question of sour grapes? Wouldn't we all like to be as financially secure as we can, if not for our own sakes, then for the sake of those who depend on us?

Just some random thoughts prompted by this disquieting piece of kitsch.

Lynn Spears: good Christian mother

At least that's how the mother of Britney Spears was planning to present herself in a book to be published by a Christian publisher...until, of course, the world found out her 16 year old daughter's pregnant.

Spears' parenting book off after teen pregnancy

A Christian publisher said on Wednesday it has called off a parenting book written by Lynne Spears -- the mother of troubled pop star Britney Spears and her pregnant 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn.

"We have postponed the book indefinitely," said Lindsey Nobles, spokeswoman for Tennessee-based Thomas Nelson.

Nobles did not give a reason for the decision, which followed news on Tuesday that Jamie Lynn Spears was three months pregnant....

So, to summarize: Momma Spears having a skanky, drug-addicted, truly ignorant egomaniacal daughter who lost custody of her babies because of her uncontrollable narcissism didn't dissuade the Christian publisher from going ahead with this book. But finding out that the sweet 16 year old sister had sex with her long-time boyfriend made them cancel the deal.

The message that this publisher is sending with this is that it is more Christian to neglect your children and wallow in ignorance than to have underage sex.

OKAY..........

Reminds me of my biggest beef with right-to-lifers. They shed tears over unborn babies, but they don't give a damn about what happens to them once they are born.

Tattoos and privacy rights

At first glance, this sounds like a funny story, and one might assume that a guy who had a tattoo like that on his dick might have a sense of humor about showing it off.

Tattooed privates prove not so private

A surgeon faces a disciplinary hearing for snapping a photo of a patient's tattooed genitals during an operation and showing it around to other doctors.

Mayo Clinic Hospital administrators said Dr. Adam Hansen, chief resident of general surgery, admitted taking the photo with his cell phone on Dec. 11. The tattoo on strip club owner Sean Dubowik's penis reads: "Hot Rod."

Unfortunately, in this case, the club owner claims he deeply regretted getting the tattoo and is seriously pissed at the doctor who betrayed his confidence. As well he should be.

Which raises the issue of privacy and what expectations the millions of people out there with piercings and tattoos and other modifications should have of doctors, hospitals, and medical workers in general. We are indeed all vulnerable to insensitive medical personnel who may dehumanize us because they are amused by, put off by, or otherwise judgmental about body modifications.

Having medical personnel carry cameras around people who are naked, unconscious, and in states they would never want publicly seen, is not a great idea in the first place. It's such a voyeuristic world these days, it must be tempting to similarly moronic or immature doctors, nurses, medical techs inter alia to snap indiscreet photos of anomalies to show off to friends. (Indeed, I'm sure many already have.) But there's not much you can do to stop the cameras: just about everyone carries a cellphone, and just about every one comes with a built-in camera. So the only solution is for better training of all medical staff or strict administrative policies that make it clear that all patients have a right to privacy - even if they've got a funny quip inked on their dick.

Seems to me that if you have a tat or piercing in a very private place, you should absolutely be able to count on medical professionals to keep your secrets. It is no different from any other anomaly or condition that a patient may have and which all doctors are sworn to treat confidentially.

If Mr.Dubowik sues the doctor, it'll be fascinating to see if the courts believe that tattoos and all other voluntary body modifications should be treated as confidential information.

FOUND: Death and the maiden

After finding this a few months ago, I'd planned to create an art show on the "Death and the Maiden" theme that has been a favorite of artists, classical and contemporary. I may still do one when I get back to the Friday Art Shows in January. Meanwhile, here's one classical depiction of slimy death leering at a lively maid. Mr. Death looks kind of jolly, doesn't he? And why are the maids usually shown naked? I was planning on speculating at some length about this curious intertwining of sex and death, and probably will if I do a show on this theme.

FOUND: Hairy Beary men

One thing that annoys me, as a heterosexual woman who likes masculine men, is just how damn hard it is to find hot pix of hairy guys. All over the pornosphere it seems men have shaved themselves down to adolescent cuteness. To which I say YUCK. It's one thing to own a slave and shave his balls as a symbol; it's another to consistently see men shaved clean as pre-pubescents.

I have girlfriends my age who think nothing could be sexier than lithe, smooth-skinned lads whose chins are more fuzz than stubble. Whereas I want men who look ready for rough and raunchy sex. Just call me the anti-twink-o-phile.

On the other hand, a lot of the gay bear sites which specialize in hairy men offer up just a little *too* much reality: big beer guts, flabby tits, and Santa Claus beards don't quite make it for me either.

Here are two images I found (and, trust me, it took some looking) for what was going to be (but never came to be) a long lament about the hairless state of the Internet.

Men! With body hair! I want to see more of them!

FOUND: Retro French maid service

I could've sworn I saw them at Thunder....

but I'm guessing this was shot sometime in the 1920s or 1930s.

FOUND: very very friendly god

Can't for the life of me recall where I found him, or what religion he belongs to...but I was so impressed by how, um, happy he looked, I stuck the picture in my files.

Cookie cock-ups

Sez Will: "Clearly they're excited about winning the war on Christmas."

(Thanks to NightHeron for sending the pic.)

Decking the halls with '07's archives

It's time for one of my annual rituals: a dump-out of all the orphan image files I've collected over the past year. Some are things I thought would go into art shows; some are images I planned to blog but never did; most of them were found while I was researching completely different topics and now, months later, I can't remember where I found them or, in some instances, why I kept them.

But now you, yes, lucky you, will get to see all the "almost made-it" images I've been keeping on my hard-drive. If you have any images you've been keeping on file - odd things, hot things, SM things, weird or humorously sexual things - and like me, would enjoy getting them off your hard-drive to make room for a new year of mindless, compulsive collecting, feel free to email them to me and share them with the blogosphere. Just make sure they are in jpg or gif format, since TypePad won't accept other types of image files.

Your daily Republican gay scandal

Gee, I almost missed the case of the Republican law-maker caught in a gay scandal. I mean the married homophobic Republican law-maker... the married homophobic Republican law-maker who voted against gay rights... the married homophobic Republican law-maker who voted against gay rights and loudly denied he's gay...

Hang on...almost there...one...more....try: It's the married homophobic Republican law-maker who voted against gay rights and loudly denied he's gay from WASHINGTON.

YEAH. That one. The one claiming he's being blackmailed. Whew. It's getting harder and harder to keep them all straight. So to speak.

Anyway, the day after Conservative, anti-gay Republican law-maker Richard Curtis denied that he was gay or ever had gay sex, he resigned his office and announced he was being blackmailed into silence about his non-gay encounters.

Okay... But... If he wasn't gay in the first place, how were they able to blackmail him? And why did he resign if it's all a big lie? Everyone knows that if you're accused of being gay and you resign, YOU ARE GAY. People only resign office when there's proof of wrong-doing. They don't resign because shady, pathetic thugs are spreading lies about them. The blackmailers were just charged: their defense is that Curtis stiffed them on the money-for-sex deal they made.

Four men charged in Washington State extortion attempt

Police issued arrest warrants Wednesday for four men accused of trying to extort money from a former Washington State legislator who resigned his post after an affair with one of the accused became public.

Spokane County prosecutors contend in court documents that Cody Castagna and three others attempted to blackmail former representative Richard Curtis in October. Castagna turned himself in to authorities Wednesday night.

Curtis, a Republican, told a newspaper in his southwest Washington district shortly after the story broke that sex was not involved in what he said was an extortion attempt. He also declared he was not gay.

But in police reports Curtis said he was being extorted by Castagna, with whom he had sex in a hotel room in Spokane, where Curtis was attending a GOP retreat. Castagna has denied wrongdoing and contended Curtis reneged on a promise to pay $1,000 for sex.

Photo of Curtis and his comely young accuser from Pam's House Blend, where you'll also find salacious details of the encounter that Curtis says never happened in piece she blogged a couple of months ago. It's got anal sex and cross-dressing and stuff that no one SHOULD be ashamed of doing and yet which some folks are conflicted about that they'd rather fuck up their careers, their reputations, and the lives of their families and supporters than admit the truth about themselves. Not to mention that they take out their personal ambivalence about being gay on out-of-the-closet gays. Creeps!

Meanwhile, check out another fun-packed rumor fest, this one alleging that Trent Lott is gay and that his early resignation was partly fueled by fear of a gay scandal erupting. Though a HuffPo piece tried to put the rumors to rest, Larry Flynt says he's got (or is getting) proof of it.

How do you hide a face like this in Guatemala?

From a story about the fate of Guatemalan gang members. The photo caption on Yahoo says that "Today, gang members with tattooed faces, are either dead, in prison or hiding."

Ummm...How exactly do you hide with tattoos all over your face? Do you leave the house wearing a hood? I mean, wouldn't the hood kind of get you noticed? One wonders if these men resign themselves to never leaving their homes again. Pretty harsh price for joining a gang as a kid.

Pastors pay more for pros: Swaziland

I wonder if the results of this study of sex-workers conducted in Swaziland by the U.N. would be consistent with behaviors elsewhere. Makes sense, in a sad, sick way.

A study commissioned by the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) found that pastors pay the highest fee for sex when hiring prostitutes. It also said prostitutes were offering sex without the use of a condom for E300.

The extra fee is to shut up the prostitute to protect the dignity of the pastor.

The national Programmes Officer for Sexually Reproductive Health at the UNFPA Margaret Thwala-Tembe said the study that was commissioned by the agency had completed its first phase and came with findings such as these.

The study, she said details that pastors pay E1000 for a sex session that would normally cost E50 to any other sex starved man.

Any pros - or pastors - reading care to comment?

Domme rapist cold case hot again: UK

Apparently, this crime occurred almost 14 years ago but the justice system has finally caught him.

Rapist jailed for attacking dominatrix

When I first saw the headline, I wondered if it was some thug who had posed as a submissive. That would be pretty weird and scary. Maintaining the physical safety of the prodomme, who naturally sees a lot of unknown entities, and who will be eliciting sometimes powerful and irrational responses from said entities, is of no small concern to all of us in the kink communities. They may have all the whips and toys, but professional dominatrices are vulnerable to male violence, if only because they are alone in a private setting with a sexually aroused stranger who is likely to be taller, heavier and stronger. Indeed, what's amazing is how few such crimes we ever hear about. May it stay that way always.

This fellow was NO client. Just a robber and thug who broke into her flat and then raped her. Still a horror, of course, but perhaps not quite as worrisome as the idea of criminals pretending to be consensual SM partners and targeting prodommes. (Which would make for a good SM mystery/thriller plot but a nightmare reality for sex-workers.)

And, naturally, media coverage had to highlight that she was a dominatrix and make mention of her PVC and playspace though clearly none of the above had anything to do with this crime. The details of what she does for a living and what she was wearing only clouds the issue in the vanilla public's perception. It suggests that this was "another SM crime" when it really had zero to do with SM. We don't go around reporting "rape victim was in Victoria's Secret nighty" or "rape victim had really large breasts," because that would subtly suggest that the victim was somehow asking for it. So why is the SM angle important enough to report? Because...it turns vanillas on while re-enforcing the stereotype of SM as sordid and violent?

Fungi fights prostate cancer: Israel

Today will have an international flair, as I've culled several items of interest from around the world - beginning with this fascinating new research which Israeli scientists believe shows that a rare type of wild mushroom long used in Chinese medicine may successfully treat prostate cancer.

Researchers at the university in northern Israel said they found molecules in the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom, commonly known as the reishi, which help suppress some mechanisms involved in the progression of prostate cancer.

"We already knew the mushroom could impede the development of cancer by affecting the immune system. The in-vitro trials we have done show that it attacks the cancer cells directly," chief researcher Ben Zion Zaidman told AFP.

LINK

The perfect stocking stuffer.

Wrapping optional.

Glo-in-the-dark kitties

Wow, if I could feel sure that it's safe for their health, I would give anything to have glow-in-the-dark cats.

Imagine them slinking around a dungeon with black lights. Or walking through the bars on cages, all lit up like that. That would scare the pants off a newbie, alright. I don't think that novelty would ever wear off.

This handout photo released in Seoul by the Ministry of Science and Technology shows a combo of cloned cats that have a fluorescence protein gene and glowing under ultraviolet beams. The technology could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, the developers said.

link.