Gloria's Oversexed Mind

GLAD needs your help: tales of gender discrimination

From this morning's mail.

GLAD is collecting stories about people’s experiences with health insurance coverage related to gender transition, to help us determine how we can best address legal concerns in this area.

If you have a story to share, please complete our brief survey at:

http://www.glad.org/health

Please note: because GLAD's work is focused in New England, we are specifically interested in stories from people in the six New England states. If you know of others who may have a story to share, please feel free to forward this post.

All information will be kept confidential.

Sex Clubs in the City

Great round-up of current New York City venues for sexually adventurous adults, beginning with one which should be on every pervy tourist's list.  The list isn't limited to Manhattan, so even locals may want to check out what's available in the surrounding boroughs.

The Body Archive Gallery
Whether the fetish du jour is scarification or rope bondage, this is one art gallery that never shies away from the controversial or sexy. Gallerista Steven Speliotis has several projects in the works, including an exhibit featuring the photos of Efraim Gonzalez, famed for his candids of old-school transvestites and prostitutes. 9 Ninth Ave between Little W 12th and 13th Sts (no phone)

via newyork.timeout.com

Historic first study of gay marriage

First of its kind: a demographic analysis, based on new Census Bureau data, comparing statistics on married same-sex couples, unmarried same-sex couples, and married different-sex couples.

The Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA Law issued a report today analyzing newly released data from the US Census Bureau. The study examines data from the 2008 American Community Survey (ACS).

For the first time, the Census Bureau has released data in which same-sex couples who refer to one another as "husband" or "wife" are differentiated from those who refer to one another as "unmarried partners." This study is the first to examine the difference and similarities among same-sex couples and married different-sex couples in the ACS.

read the press release

read the full report

BDSM suckers. WTF'n'F?

Gotta hand it to my buddy, Mike. He always finds the most cognitively dysfunctional stuff on the Net.

A concept by Moscow-based creative firm Firma, the Chupa Chups 18+ Lollipop is a new interpretation of the popular lollipop for adult boys and girls. With the new funky, audacious and intimate design, the three newly design 18+ lollipops are given name such as BDSM, Fetish and Toys- truly represent the shape of each corresponding lollipop.

Now the well-known lollipops recall whips, collars and other not childish entertainments. Will be a hit if go into production. And probably like beer, only adult can buy it.

via designyearbook.blogspot.com

Smut seller, ca. 1930s

A rare and naughty bit of sex industry memorabilia. It appears to be a fold-out brochure for a 1930s "novelty" shop -- i.e., an early version of today's adult store. Love the cut out.

Bottom of the stack: vintage lingerie ads

My last of the day. Hope you enjoyed all the funky old ads.

Starting with bloomers, once sold as the perfect gift for your dainty sweetheart.

Hard to believe, girdles were once an absolute fashion necessity for the modern woman. Girls were indoctrinated into wearing them in their teens.

Women were led to believe it would transform their bodies.

Never mind that wearing a tight girdle is TORTURE. Or at least it was for me when my mom made me wear the awful things under fancy dresses. Just remembering the burning biting red welts of my adolescence gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Fashion magazines made women feel they couldn't be beautiful without restrictive garments.

Of course, some independent souls opted for comfort over beauty. Especially when they caught whiff of that new-fangled trend so popular with the young folk: comfortable underpants.

A brief evolution of bra ads: 1900-1970

A very brief glimpse into radical shifts in advertising (and cultural thinking) about brassieres in the 20th century.   I'm arranging them chronologically (from 1902 up to the 1970s) so you can see trends in attitudes about what bras do and how they do it.

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Although women have worn one form of breast support or another for well over 2000 years, Victorians seized on the contemporary health crazes by advertising brassieres as medical devices.

Sometime in the 20s and 30s, bra ads stressed their value as beauty enhancers.

By the 1940s, it was all about the sexy busty sweater girl.

In the 1950s, the bra came out of the closet. Women were allowed to be overtly sexual.

Those old bras were uncomfortable as hell.

In the 60s, manufacturers found an exciting new marketing angle: preying on the insecurities of small-breasted women.

And in the 1970s, well, what can I say? Everyone was doing a lot of drugs.

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Visit All about vintage bras for basic information on the history of brassieres, along with super-helpful information on how to get the all-important right fit for your body (whether buying a vintage bra or a new one).

Vintage postcards: sex worker humor

I'm planning to run a meaty show next week on antique images of foreign sex-workers -- have an interesting assortment of original and some staged photos of harem denizens, Geisha houses, French pros, and other documented sex-workers around the early part of the 20th century.

While searching for images, I came across a selection of vintage postcards produced in the West featuring sex-worker humor. When was the last time you saw a postcard making light of prostitution? Kind of interesting that it was once an apt subject for postcards you'd send to your friends and family.

Working girls priced according to their charms, beginning with a hooker offering her diseased, pimply ass.

This French card is one in a series about working girls. At the bottom of each a joke classified ad makes naughty puns about the image. In this case, it's an English diplomat seeking French conversation lessons.

From a series of French postcards (probably meant to be collected, not mailed) which tell the tale of a country bumpkin who seeks his fortune in the big city and is quickly seduced by a clever sex-worker and her agreeable mother, who get him drunk and steal all his money.

This remarkable card is from a series devoted to "transvestis" (transvestite and transsexual) prostitutes. The large gloved hand and awkwardly large feet are the only give-aways that this isn't a biological girl.

The baker, the publicist, the pervert and her websites

Going where few media whores have gone before, HuffPo this week follows a BDSMer to work.

Last week, as part of this series of the nature on work, we met a couple whose passion led them to start a cupcake bakery/original T-shirt emporium (which Aerosmith's Joe Perry dropped into last week!) and a man whose childhood passion for books inspired his freelance career as publicist who uses 21st century media to promote authors and books.

Today, we meet Mollena Williams, a woman whose passion for kinky sex led to her dream career as the "Executive Pervert" for the alternative lifestyle dating sites bondage.com and alt.com .

How did she get there? As a teenager, Mollena discovered she liked sex that felt good. As an adult, she discovered she was a "DS": a lover of discipline and submission.

Sharon Glassman: What is Work? Kinky Sex and a 401K

Race. Class. Power. Sex.

This cabinet card -- date, artist, unknown, but guessing 1880s-1890s -- speaks volumes on those subjects. It's the most sociologically meaningful photo I've ever seen.