Inside Gloria's Mind

UK deserves crown as Europe's Prince of Prudery

Fresh from my mailbox from author Mark Brendan, this awful news from the UK, where consensual adult sex has been a political hot potato for several years, and where ignorance, prejudice and prudery are winning the day as lawmakers criminalize consensual, normal sex.

 

Hi, Gloria,

 

Weep for Europe and the mother of the free. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9917189/MEPs-to-vote-on-EU-ban-on-all-forms-of-pornography.html, and, incidentally, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9817625/Leveson-EU-wants-power-to-sack-journalists.html. And, in this deceptively imposed, unaccountable superstate, we can do damn all about it!

 

All best,

 

Mark Brendon

Author: Swinging: The Games Your Neighbours Play (Harper Collins) and See You Next Thursday

Consent ALWAYS Matters: consent and #rape

From an article about the outrageous idiocy and cover-up attempts surrounding the rape of a female college sophomore in NC, some words from the outspoken victim  -

 

via jezebel.com

Gambill recently told The Daily Tar Heel and a variety of other outlets about her traumatic experience reporting her assault to the administration. From a December 5th, 2012 article:

"It's incredibly clear that those people had no idea what sexual assault is, what consent is," said Landen Gambill, a sophomore whose assault case was processed by interim procedures.

 

The issue here is CONSENT. We in the BDSM community know all about the importance of mutual consent and how consent alters BDSM from potential assault into potential bliss.

In The Truth About Sex --both volumes, in fact-- I discuss my theories about the central emotional role that consent plays not just in BDSM but in ALL TYPES OF SEX AND EROTICISM.

In a nutshell: consent always matters.  Whether it's someone touching you, kissing you, fucking you or whipping you, unless there is informed mutual consent, any and all of it may feel traumatic if you didn't want it to happen.   When violence, threats, coercion or manipulation enter into it, the growing sense of victimization can escalate to sheer terror.

I wish Gambill good luck in her battle against the ignorance displayed by those handling her case. She's fighting an entire system of bad assumptions about sex and my heart truly goes out to her.  I think she's heroic.

She Pooped to Conquer: weird news

Police say Brenda Schumann, 51, defecated and urinated on the floor, then went on an armed rampage through the house after discovering her husband in bed with another woman, according to a case report obtained by TC Palm.

"I found him in bed with a naked chick what was I supposed to do," she later told a deputy, according to the sheriff's report.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Big Fat Hypocrite Turns Out to Be Big Fat Hypocrite. What's for dinner?

Well, yah.  Ho hum.   I'm counting on regular readers to be as jaded as me about stories of anti-abortionists having abortions and anti-gay'ist cruising men's rooms and gay conversionists being gay rapists.

Could someone please put American society out of its misery and send these sociopaths  to a maximum security facility somewhere so they can all just lie to each other and quit fucking up the sane-i-verse?

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee testified during divorce proceedings that he and his former wife made a "mutual" decision for her to have two abortions, according to divorce transcripts released Thursday.

via Scott DesJarlais Abortion Scandal: Congressman's Wife Had 2 Abortions, Court Transcripts Say

Transgender Day of Remembrance November 20th: honoring victims

from my friend Jane Fae, an activist in the UK working hard on on these issues, a detailed brief on the upcoming international day of mourning for victims of anti-trans hate crimes.

 

On Tuesday 20 November thousands of members of the Trans community and their supporters will gather together at locations around the globe for the Transgender Day of Remembrance  (TDoR).  They will do so to commemorate the hundreds of individuals murdered each year simply for being transgender.

For a background briefing on the day itself, together with outline details of events in the UK and contact details for further information, go to http://janefae.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/background-information-transgender-day-of-remembrance/ .

Intravaginal Massage: not for chiropracters, please

The intravaginal massage can be very helpful to women in their first pregnancy. You really don't need anyone else to do it for you (unless you want him/her to do it).    But if someone wants to charge you for it while pretending it's a wellness procedure, call the cops.

 

A Washington State chiropractor is accused of sexually violating three female patients.

Greg Summers, founder of Summers Chiropractic and Massage in Federal Way, Wash. had his medical license suspended this week after being charged with sexual contact with three female patients and with changing the medical records of a patient, according to MyNorthwest.com.

Summers allegedly told two of his patients that "intravaginal massage," would benefit them because of the "invasion of their personal body space" that occurred when the chiropractor inserted his fingers in their genitals.

via Greg Summers, Chiropractor, Has License Suspended Over 'Intravaginal Massage' Allegations

Give Me All Your Money and An Erection Too

 

A small time thief was about to make off with $250 from an adult store in Dallas when he realized that he had the opportunity to also steal a penis pump -- so he rose to the occasion...

  It remains unclear who the man is or which pump he chose.

 

 

via Penis Pump Stolen By Knife-Wielding Bandit From Texas Adult Store, Zone d' Erotica/ huffingtonpost.com

Penis Prankster Really Stuck Now

A man made almost 6,000 calls to strangers claiming his penis was stuck in a variety of household items.

Gareth Lloyd, 49, used an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone to contact people saying his genitalia was trapped in everything from jam jars to vacuum cleaners.

via Man makes 6,000 prank calls claiming penis is stuck in household items / Digital Spy

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.

Why Non-Traditional Families Matter

Download tonight's show or listen to the player right now.

 

Our usual madcap roundup of sex stories in the news, plus we aired a fabulous interview with LGBT and other non-traditional families advocate, Diana Adams, and talked about why the laws should change to reflect the realities of family relationships today.

 

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

Romney is Pro-Choice!

Or he was. Until he made a deal with the devil that he'd always have perfect hair if he agreed to sell his soul on reproductive freedom.

 

 

via Wouldn't It Be Crazy If We Had Footage Of Romney Denouncing His Own Pro-Life Agenda?

Do you like to look at sex? I know I do

Just saw this and thinking right now that if Romney wins in November,  my sexually free blog -- and possibly yours, if you run any kind of sexual content -- will be toast.  

Mitt Romney has a bit of a disclosure problem. While he refuses to release his tax returns, the Republican nominee has been privately promising right wing culture warriors he will crack down on pornography.

via www.politicususa.com

 

I have no illusions about how truly mentally screwed up most vehemently anti-sex people really are, nor that repressed people invariably fear candid sexual discussion and openly erotic imagery.   They may say, and even believe, it's all about their religious or moral beliefs, but take it from a sex therapist,  it isn't. It is really all about their own internal conflicts with sex and sexual identity.  

In my observation, when adults  persecute and censor sexually progressive or free people,  you can almost count on it that they, on the inside, are a complete mess about sex.   I worry about that mess.  It a mess filled with rage, frustration, self-loathing, self-pity and more of humanity's least attractive traits.  It also has a way of spilling into hatred and violence against those of us who love sex.

 

on this Sunday's show -- male sexual rights

Gonna talk about one of my pet peeves  -- how media plays sexual violence against men for laughs. Specifically, playing down female abuse of male minors, and always publishing tales of penis stabbings and other woman-against-man sexual violence.

There's nothing amusing about adults abusing minors, and those who claim they envy the abuse victims never walked in their shoes.  No adult should get a free pass, no matter how attractive or successful they are.  Making excuses for women who commit the same crimes as men is a clear double standard.

Similarly, media abounds with stories about penis tragedies, often playing them for laughs.  We would never treat sexual crimes against women as fodder for entertainment and weird news.  And we still laugh when men get kicked in the balls and think prison rape is just rewards on top of the legal sentence!  I want to talk about some of these skewed double standards that expose a cultural hatred of male sexuality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Naked Vegas History: topless showgirls

Topless dancing was technically illegal in Las Vegas in the 1970s, but this (unknown) casino cheerfully took the risk.

 

 

Naked News from the 1960s: BUSTED!

 

---

Publicly Indecent Women

from 1922, women busted for flouting public decency laws, and firmly establishing the fine American tradition of women standing up for sexual freedoms by taking off their clothes.

 

 

Today's dedicated to all the glorious old gals who stripped off their girdles and bras to share their natural physical beauty with the world.  We are all better for them.

Woodstocks' Nosy Neighbors: BDSM space under scrutiny

My friend, p., pointed me to a link today which made me cringe:

50-acre BDSM sex camp disapproved of.

Wow, did they have to torture the English language too just to make their point?

A BDSM party space in Pennsylvania has drawn local ire.   According to comments on the original story, it's  a neighbors' spat and shouldn't have merited a story in the first place.  But, you know, it has BDSM in it, and nifty pix the nosy neighbors shot of the interior.   So it's news!!!  (BTW, I hope the BDSMers file a restraining order on that neighbor's ass, but maybe that's just me.)

You know, it's almost quaint that there is still a place in the US that is so fucking far behind the times -- and apparently bereft of an Internet -- that discovering there are kinky spaces in the vicinity could still come as a shock.  I'm surprised the reporter didn't include a few interviews with locals saying "we've lost our innocence" or "we never thought it could happen here," to further make the townspeople sound like rubes.   They did however manage to score this profundity: 

“What goes on up there – I wouldn’t even say on TV,” Leonard Dean said. “I mean, it’s all about sex and it’s all dirty."

 

The only thing dirty in this entire story is Mr. Leonard Dean's mind. 

The next time someone tells you sex is dirty, do what I do: feel verrrrry sorry for them.  They are missing out not just on the juice of life, but on life itself.

Meanwhile, if you identify kinky, fight the past and look towards the future: no more harassment of BDSM clubs and spaces!!  You have  LEGAL resources to combat hate crimes these days.  USE THEM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women Deliberately Lie About Rape to Get Abortions

That's what a senator from Idaho said yesterday.

 

The sponsor of an Idaho mandatory ultrasound bill, state Sen. Chuck Winder, made some highly controversial comments Monday during his closing arguments, suggesting women might falsely use rape as an excuse to obtain an abortion. 

Chuck Winder, Idaho Lawmaker, Suggests Women Use Rape As Excuse For Abortions

I gather  Chuck Winder knows this from personal experience, because I am certain he was not relying on information, education or  any facts.  

Or perhaps he craved the media spotlight, bolstered by the news that, only weeks after  Rush Limbaugh spat out a pound of misogynistic bile, he is being honored as one of Missouri's favorite sons.   Ignoring protests from women who don't think someone who hates women should be installed as a state hero (I know! women are so picky!), the Missouri House Speaker, "argued that the Hall is 'not called the Hall of Universally Loved Missourians.'"

With that kind of logic, I'm just grateful Saddam Hussein wasn't born in Missouri.  

I'm 56: at no time in my life do I remember politicians actually going after women's health issues like this, or verbally insulting ordinary women.  It was one thing to go after the feminists because, well, we were going after the politicians: but this war, here and now, is not against feminists.  It's against all the women of America.  I don't even WANT to imagine a country run by people like Winder and Limbaugh and the dozens of other ignorant, morally bankrupt vipers who have declared an open war on American women.  The implications are just too fucking frightening.

If you haven't yet seen it, I highly recommend an article that appeared in last week's Daily Kos, Sex, Witchcraft and the War on Women for a short political history of woman-hating and misogyny.

The right wing war on women is certainly no new development. Like many, if not most of the primitivist planks in the right wing cultural platform, their fear and loathing of anything sexual (outside of the act of procreation) is tied to their bond with the church. The right wing war on women has been gaining steam and media attention in recent months largely as a result of zealot majorities in many statehouses around the country who have been using their political muscle to put through an historic number of new laws that are repressive to women's sexual freedom rights. But that is simply the current incarnation of a long and glorious history of the church's (read that, men's) repression of women's (but not men's) sexual rights and practices.

 

Goodnight from the 1970s! vintage SNL screencap

When Dennis Miller was still young and Ed Meese was still evil.

I looked high and low for video of Miller's wild rant against the Meese Report (classic Saturday Night Live stuff) with no luck.  If you know a source,  please drop me a line and I'll link it.

Know Your History: The Meese Commission Debacle

While you're waiting for me to return with a tribute to 1970s masturbation magazines, you might want to remind yourself of what brought the free-wheeling pornography-loving swing-friendly free-loving uncensored magazine generation to its knees.   It was, to a very large degree, President Reagan's decision to do what Nixon -- despite his conservatism in other directions -- would not do: go directly after the porn industry.   Thus began a government war on porn that continues to this day, with almost as much success as the drug war Reagan started too.  Appointing Jabba the Meese to head up an anti-porn commission,  the Reagan Administration's "Meese Commission" spent more time rifling through "Big Juicy Jugs" and "Masturbating Housewives" than Ken Starr spent sniffing Monica's stained dress.  Their resulting report remains most notable as a kick-ass guide to 70s porn.

You can check it out on Wiki, and follow links to period commentary about it, including a piece by SM author Patrick Califia.

Or you can head over to an interesting albeit overly concise history of how porn was prosecuted by the same sexually repressed ideologues who persecute the sex communities now:    The meese commission and the sex wars—discourses on pornography.

Luscious Ladies of the Night

 

 

Celebrate #Leather History! LHOF 2012 Inductees

As a member of the Board of Governors of LHOF, it is my great honor and happiness to publish the official press release on our inductees to the Leather Hall of Fame for 2012.

 

Guy Baldwin, Sam Steward and Irving Klaw Selected for Leather Hall of Fame

 

The Board of Governors of the Leather Hall of Fame (LHOF) is pleased to announce the 2012 inductees:  Guy Baldwin, Sam Steward and Irving Klaw . 

Guy Baldwin is a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist, author, activist and educator specializing in issues of particular relevance to the BDSM and leather communities, and more generally in issues relating to non-hetero-normative practices. He won International Mr. Leather in 1989. He is co-founder of an internet-based professional referral resource, the KAP list, now administered by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. He continues to teach at various lifestyle events across the U.S. and Canada.  (Buy books by Guy Baldwin@Amazon)

Sam Steward (1909–1993) was an academic, novelist, historian and tattoo artist born in July of 1909. Steward maintained a card index he called his “Stud File” which documented a detailed account of his sexual experiences in vivid and often very funny detail. In the 1940’s and 50’s, he worked extensively with famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey as an unofficial collaborator. As tattoo artist Phil Sparrow he mentored both Cliff Raven and Don Ed Hardy. He wrote several books of BDSM fiction under the name Phil Andros.   (Get illustrations by  Sam Steward@Amazon)

Irving Klaw (1911-1966) was one of the principal publishers of heterosexual BDSM erotica from the late 1940s to 1964. Klaw produced photographs, cartoons, films, and digest-sized booklets with bondage, fetish, and female domination themes. He drew from the expertise of members of the early heterosexual kink subculture to create materials that he sold, primarily through mail-order, and also purchased work from a variety of talented artists such as John Coutts, Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton. He was subject to periodic harassment from law enforcement agencies and congressional inquiries dating from 1950, and in 1964 was convicted on 65 obscenity counts which, although the conviction was later reversed on appeal in 1965, led Klaw to cease publication of kink materials. The family business that he founded continues today.  (Visit the Klaws at Moviestarnews.com.)

LHOF was formed to honor and preserve the legacy of the extraordinary men and women who have significantly impacted and shaped the history of the Leather/BDSM communities worldwide since 1950. Nominations can be made by anyone in the community, and the three inductees are selected by LHOF Board of Governors. The previous inductees are Tom of Finland, Chuck Renslow, John Coutts, Tony DeBlase, The Satyrs MC, Frank Olson/Don Morrison, The Eulenspiegel Society, Leonard Burtman and Bob Milne. Learn more about all the inductees at the Leather Archives & Museum or at www.leatherhalloffame.com.

The Leather Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies and Brunch will be held at CLAW 11 at the Carnegie  Ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cleveland, OH on Sunday, April 29 2012 at 12 pm. We invite all leather people to join us to celebrate and honor the lives and accomplishments of these great inductees.  Find out more and order your tickets now at www.clawinfo.org.

 

While Guy is, IMO, the most deserving honoree this year, I'm so glad that my fellow Governors voted in Irving Klaw.  I nominated Klaw and have argued for his inclusion, despite questions about whether or not he was really into BDSM (no evidence that he was). My reasoning: not everyone who has shaped BDSM should be held to the standard of consciously building community. This is particularly true for the het side of the SM world: our communities didn't gain steam until about 20-25 years after the gay/lesbian leather communities but many private individuals were shaping BDSM history simply by pursuing their passions.  Most of the vintage BDSM artists and writers never even revealed whether they even did BDSM at home (in fact, at least one -- Anne Rice -- has denied she's kinky, which scratches her off my mental list for any BDSM awards).  So I felt Klaw should be judged by his work (photographing thousands of fetish models, dozens of prodoms, introducing the lovely Bettie Page to the public, publishing John Willie, Eric Stanton, Gene Bilbrew, Jim Coutts, and other talented fetish artists, creating a small BDSM publishing empire) -- and by the federal witch-hunts he endured for publishing and distributing SM-positive magazines and books.  I think contemporary BDSMers owe him a debt of gratitude.

Because I feel Klaw was so fundamental a part of the American BDSM consciousness, and out of total love for my great big extended leather family (not to mention the chance to rub my body against Race Bannon and Guy Baldwin!) , I was doubly delighted to be invited to induct Klaw at the ceremonies hosted by CLAW in April.   OMG, it'll be a double-edged CLAW-KLAW!

I'll be high on leather April 29th in Cleveland, and hope you can join us to celebrate the people who shaped leather/BDSM history.

Girly Magazine (the Sandusky edition)

American Gothic: attack on sex-workers1860

From an 1860 edition of the Louisville Courier, the account of a brutal assault on sex-workers in St. Louis. The article goes on to describe the beatings that victims endured.

 

 

 

Mississippi votes on "personhood" (reproductive rights)

This vote is all about ideology, and yet another depressing example of how religion continues to subvert the law. 

Why Mississippi's 'Personhood' Law Could Outlaw Birth Control

news.yahoo.com

On Tuesday (Nov. 8), Mississippi voters will decide whether fertilized eggs qualify as "persons" under the law from the moment when sperm and egg meet. But while the law is designed to challenge Roe v. Wade and outlaw abortion, doctors say that the wording is also likely to outlaw common methods of birth control.

How to blow a malpractice defense (news)

Lesson learned: It's important to pick the right dentist.

 

Say AHHH! Dentist puts penis in woman's mouth during surgery: Shanghaiist

shanghaiist.com

And by AHHH, we mean a scream of the viscerally disgusting get-it-away-from-me variety. A dentist working at Zhongshan Hosptial in Shanghai's far western district of Qingpu (青浦区) has been detained for sticking his genitals in a woman's mouth during surgery on Friday.

Emblematic of the age: Kiki de Montparnasse (pt. 1)

 

One of my favorite celebrities in 20th century sex history is Kiki de Montparnasse (above), a French street urchin who became the "Queen of Montparnasse," the infamous heart of 1920s Paris bohemian art and cafe society. Her life began and ended in poverty and degradation but oh those lovely years when she was the toast of Parisian society. She slept with everyone, she fought with everyone, she drank with everyone, and she left a miraculous record of photographs and paintings to document her extraordinary excesses, joy and beauty.   More photos after the text and links.

 

Man Ray's muse and Hemingway's friend, Kiki of Montparnasse [nee Alice Prin] inspired countless artists in 1920s Paris. Her life was wild, exciting and debauched....

[She] began posing for the expressionist painter Chaïm Soutine, who christened her "Kiki". Though she lacked the fashionable ethereal look of the period, Kiki didn't care: she revelled in her sturdy, big-featured sensuality. She quickly became a popular model, and was painted, sculpted and photographed by artists including Pascin, Derain and Óscar Dominguez. Moise Kisling's painting Jeune Femme au Decollette (1922) shows a graceful Kiki looking up with huge, moist eyes, while Per Krogh's Kiki Nude (1928) has a raw, fleshy sexuality. But the most memorable image is Man Ray's photograph Le Violon D'Ingres, which shows a naked Kiki, seated and viewed from behind, with two 'f's in her back; a celebration of her violin-curves, and a statement that she was, in effect, an instrument for the creation of art....Kiki and Man Ray were lovers for six years, during which time he made hundreds of images of her, and was hugely influential in the creation of her persona...

By the late 1920s, Kiki had her own cabaret, Chez Kiki, and a table at Le Dome was permanently reserved for her. She had also begun painting primitive, narrative scenes, and, in 1927, had a sell-out exhibition. Two years later, she published her memoir, The Education of a French Model, which was banned in America on the grounds of obscenity. Really, though, Kiki was most famous simply for being famous. Gossip swilled around her, and, even when the stories were apocryphal, Kiki revelled in them. There was the story that she had no pubic hair, for instance - that she had never grown any, or that she could only grow it when in love, or that she shaved it off and chalked it on again when posing for artists. Some women, however bohemian, might have found such speculation upsetting. Kiki didn't.

via www.guardian.co.uk

 

Also recommended:   Kiki: Illustrated Bio      Wikipedia article on Alice Prin   

En francais: Kiki: errance.over

 

 

 

 

(more photos coming in pt. 2)

The Physics of Prostitution: NJ professor busted

I feel so sorry that this guy's academic career, and possibly his life, will be destroyed over so common and ubiquitous a human activity, one that is neither harmful to individuals nor, when legal (as it is in eight European countries),to societies.   It seems insanely uncivilized to me that prostitution isn't even on the table for discussion in the U.S.

 

NEWARK, N.J. -- A longtime New Jersey physics professor who dabbled in scuba diving and harbored dreams of working in the theater had another hobby, New Mexico police say: operating a prostitution website that may have catered to as many as 200 prostitutes and 1,200 clients.

David Flory was arrested Sunday at a Starbucks in Albuquerque, N.M., and charged with 40 counts of promoting prostitution.

The 68-year-old Flory has taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University since 1969 and has been a physics professor there since 1980, according to his website. He also has served as director of FDU's School of Natural Sciences.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

More like Irritated Skepticism

I'm going to catch up on a range of sex stories this morning then drift gently into an afternoon of nudes in nature settings.

Kicking off with this commentary from an Australian who was indignant that a study of sex abuse by U.S. priests that looked favorable to the Church didn't get its day in the media spotlight. 

 

I suppose I should no longer be surprised by the self-righteous cynicism and seemingly wilful ignorance of the media when it comes to reporting on Catholic affairs.

But it was the way that the Australian press allowed the findings of a recent study into The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 to sail past with little more than a perfunctory acknowledgement of its existence, much less a serious engagement with its substance and implications, that has left me bristling.

via www.abc.net.au

 

Wow.  Maybe you should put some cream on that.

Let me explain.  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a thousand times over and everything you touch is fruit from the poison tree. Is that so hard to understand?

When an entity has been proven to lie, deny, conceal and distort information, a study that was sponsored BY the entity in question, with results favorable to that entity, strains credulity.  It's really sad because I suspect the academics did indeed work hard to get the best results.  But undertaking this project at the Church's behest was bound to raise skepticism. 

No study in the world can or will ever compensate the victims for the hell they endured and the Church's seeming lack of remorse, particularly when insiders continue to resist making the safety of children a priority.  Perhaps someone needs to take another look at Proverbs 16:18:  Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.