Inside Gloria's Mind

The New York Times Does Erotic Spanking

When Different Loving came out in 1993, the New York Times adamantly refused to review the book or attend the press-laden book signing party that Random House held at an SM club because, well, as they snootily implied to our bodaciously brave publicist, Sharyn, they were the New York Times and BDSMers were perverts.   End of story. 

Yesterday my oldest scene friend emailed me the link to this candid confession by a spanking fetishist, A Spanking Fetish Is Not Revealed Easily,  just published in the "modern love" section of the Times.

Wow.  Kind of amazing we've come this far.  And yet...Kind of frustrating we haven't gone further.   I mean it's very sweet that a young woman who is fearful of rejection chronicles her anxiety and ultimate relief in coming out to her lover.   I heart her. 

Still,  I hope one day the Times will publish articles by people who have overcome all their shame and anxiety and can speak powerfully and meaningfully to the experience of BDSM, and not just their fears about being sexually different.   Then I'll feel like we're having the kind of public dialogues about kink we should be having.

 

 

The NYT Does Porn, plus Sprinkles

Recommended -- and with comment -- by Annie Sprinkle.

via Annie Sprinkle ·

One of my best friends from my porn star support group Club 90 (30 years and going strong) is in the NY Times today debating if porn is good or bad with 7 'experts.' Its so interesting to see how people can't quite put their finger on it all. That's what makes it so interesting. That's what makes it so interesting. It's all still a mystery to so many! There is so much moralism, stigma, complexity, bodyphobia, as well as naiveté, misinformation, even over-positivity and well... its just complicated! That's the beauty!

 

via Does Pornography Deserve Its Bad Rap? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

All My Loves are Flowers #victorianporn

Natural Woman #victorianporn

Flesh Dancer #victorianporn

The Bird-Lover #victorianporn

Frolic in Nature #victorianporn #stereocard

Rose Hips #victorian porn

Round Womanly Reflections #victorianporn

They Liked Them Thick In the Day #victorianporn

I adore specialty niches in sexuality.  It always speaks to the sweet variety that makes sex so human and so real.  Thus today I bring you a show of some of the full-bodied ladies who moistened your great-great-grandparents' underwear.  

Although there are many Victorian fairy girls and nymphs who posed nude too, some of them look so terrifyingly underage (the Victorians did not think 12 was too young for prositution!) that I will not publish them here.  But another genre of Victorian porn is devoted to voluptuous grown women, a category we'd call "MILF" today, except that today's MILF so often tries to look like a kid, while the Victorian matrons were anything but.  Big curves.  Big bottoms, big bellies, big breasts, and eyes that have seen the world.  They are strange and beautiful and haunting.  I think everyone should look at them and meditate a little on  how standards and aesthetics shift and how differently we see the things that other people in other times and places found maddeningly HAWT.

 

Great Day to Get Naked: SF Nudist March

via San Francisco Nudity Protest: Nudists Take To The Streets (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)/HuffPo

May All Your Dreams Be Sunny

Floating in Paradise #nsfw

The Public Backlash against Public Nudity (cartoon)

I've never thought children could be corrupted by seeing adults in the nude.  A little freaked out,  but not corrupted.   Nude sunbathing is an accepted part of summer fun throughout Europe.  Why not here?

Sandusky's Secret Ingredient: Pathological Narcissism

via Jerry Sandusky sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison - The Washington Post

As a therapist, I have been waiting (and waiting) for someone to talk about the obvious fact that Sandusky and likely his wife are mentally ill people who functioned at a high enough level to maintain high-profile lives filled with achievement and all the perks of success. I wrote about it when he was first going to trial: it's patently clear that Sandusky is some brand of pathological narcissist who cannot empathize with his victims and who genuinely deeply believes he is the victim in all this. In other words, he is a textbook case of pathological narcissism, and the latest revelations -- that he believes the charges are all manufactured by a conspiracy of victims -- should be treated not as "ooh, Sandusky says" but rather as what they are: the ravings of a madman.

What I'd like to know is how many of the people who worked with and for him knew all long that he was sick, and how many shrugged it off as "oh, that's just Jerry" or "shut up, he's making us shitloads of money."   As for his wife, she would hardly be the first submissive housewife to build walls of delusion around herself so thick that there's only room for a few porcelein dolls and a hankie to blow her nose.

If you haven't already, I recommend journalist Jon Ronson's, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, a hilarious examination of how deeply disturbed people can and do rise to the tops of their fields, while those who surround them protect them and either pretend not to notice or are equally as troubled.

Revolutionary Sex: A Glimpse of IASHS Graduates

featuring the outspoken sex radicals, academics and activists who received degrees from IASHS:

 

via www.youtube.com

 

Brief explanation: regular readers may recall I participated in a film shoot while in SF last summer.  This was that shoot, for a supremely fascinating indie called Revolutionary Sex by gifted filmmaker, Robert James.  The film documents the history of the sexual revolution in San Francisco through the eyes of the IASHS's beloved founder,  Rev. Ted McIlvenna.

Have you ever seen a purple girl?

I never saw a purple girl
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one. cf.

 

Coney Island, NY, late 1940s-early 1950s

Let's Swim Like Mermaids

 

Real Life Mermaids In Florida Aquarium (VIDEO)

Fornicating Fundies (vintage tabloid)

Skin Mags Are Our Religion

Two Generations of Victorian Prostitutes

Possibly a mother and daughter -- so many anatomical similarities and --fascinatingly!  - almost identical feet.  Pictures speak in a silent language but I wish this one could speak and tell me the whole story of these women's lives. 

You'd rather be at the Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse, Paris, 1956, via www.burtglinn.com

Let's Return to Traditional Values

 

Every Kind of Love is Real Love

You get to define it, not others.

 

I heart Bettie in bondage (#BettiePage)

Bollywood Does Pussy Tightening: must watch vid

 

CAVEAT EMPTOR: I put this ad here for its entertainment value. I do not endorse this product. If you order this product, you do so at your own risk. My advice: if you are concerned about poor muscle tone in your vagina, speak to a physician. There are safe remedies to the problem, and you won't have to dance the flamenco to get them.

Have you registered yet? Sexual Freedom Summit 2012

I'm proud to be on the Board of the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.   The WSFA is the world's only organization working to make sexual freedom recognized as a fundamental human right. And once a year, we pull out all the stops and host our annual Sexual Freedom Summit in Washington D.C.

If you are a thinking person who likes to think about sex; or a non-thinking person who just loves sex (ahem)...well, hell you MUST COME to the Summit. I'll be there. And, really, some of the most amazingly enlightened, entertaining, and friendly people in the world will be there too. No drama, just fun, games, and the most deliciously delightful intellectual stimulations you could ever hope to find. I promise. Register now and I'll hope to see you there!

Sexual Freedom Summit 2012 Registration - Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance

juicy bits from the Program

 

 

Start your weekend off on Friday night with “Popcorn and Porn.” Woodhull Board members (and consummate porn-makers in their own rights) Buck Angel and Nina Hartley, host this rollicking variation on more conventional movie nights and meet and greet events, with good food, good conversation, and good (and bad!) porn as well as a very special appearance by Porno Jim!

Saturday our work begins in earnest with a jam-packed educational program, our Sexual Freedom Institute. Expert panels and interactive workshops explore a full range of sexual freedom issues in the context of “Prohibition Politics: The Assault on Sexual Freedom”. Confirmed speakers include Diana Adams, Buck Angel, Ajamu Baraka, Eric Berkowitz, Melissa Sontag Broudo, Brandon Lacy Campos, Kelly Cookson, Rev. Beverly Dale, Kate D’Adamo, Alison Gardner, Hardy Haberman, Judith Lynne Hanna, Amber Hollibaugh, Anita Wagner Illig, Luke Lirot, Eva-Marie Malone, Robin Mandell, Dan Massey, Reid Mihalko, Susan Miranda, Jill Mizell, Esther Perel, Christopher Ryan, and Lawrence G. Walters.

Saturday night, a VIP reception with the Woodhull Board of Directors precedes our Vicki Award presentations hosted by Maria Falzone. Celebrate this year’s sexual freedom heroes and stay for the party! “Liberty, Libations and Libido” is our evening party and annual fundraiser hosted by Nina Hartley, Diana Adams, and Gabrielle Penabaz and features our fabulous DJ, Friar Tuck.

AND….as if all of that wasn’t enough, on Sunday we are delighted to celebrate Sexual Freedom Day on Victoria Woodhull’s birthday with our Authors’ Roundtable, featuring noted authors, Eric Berkowitz (Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire, Amber Hollibaugh (My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home ), Esther Perel (Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence ), and Christopher Ryan (Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships ).

 

 

 

via Gloria Brame

Let's Dream Together, you and I (#nude)

People should have fun together

Ladies, please watch your asses this weekend