Inside Gloria's Mind

listen now: "Bondage is Erotic"

Jen and I go where few people have ever gone, talking both about our personal experiences with bondage, our favorite toys, and in-depth discussion about why some people confuse erotic bondage with the nonconsensual kind.   I say "intentionality" is everything in sex.

Get It From the Woman Who Studies Duck Dicks Herself #sexscience

My commentary yesterday about why I'm happy we study the sex lives of snails prompted my pal Dyadya Abdul to share this really awesome piece on Slate, affirming the value of sex study and correcting the myths and dumb-assery being spread by right-wing media sources. Highly recommended!

 

Why I Study Duck Genitalia, By Patricia Brennan

In the past few days, the Internet has been filled with commentary on whether the National Science Foundation should have paid for my study on duck genitalia, and 88.7 percent of respondents to a Fox news online poll agreed that studying duck genitalia is wasteful government spending. The commentary supporting and decrying the study continues to grow. As the lead investigator in this research, I would like to weigh in on the controversy and offer some insights into the process of research funding by the NSF....continue reading

Related articles

Snail Sex Study Funded With Your Tax Dollars FTW!

Snail Sex Study Funded With Your Tax Dollars FTW!

(CNSNews.com) –The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails and whether that explains why any organism has sex.

via www.niagarafallsreporter.com

 

I am SO happy to hear that our government is spending money on studying snails to gain insight into the biology and evolution of sex. I still wait for the day when they openly support the scientific study of human sexuality but if we have more intellectual freedom with other species for now, so be it. Drown us in weird facts PLEASE!  We need all the science on sex we can get.

But if you follow the link above, you'll realize they're trying to spin this as a waste of money! Huh?

Why does right-wing media continually jump on sex studies as if the devil himself is stealing your tax dollars?   Simple: the scientific study of sex leads to new ideas, new insights, an affirmation of evolution, and proof of sexual diversity.    That would be completely counter-productive for political agendas that want to promote ignorance, hatred, and fear.  So they try to control the minds of the zombies they wish to enslave by acting as if spending money on arguably one of the most important aspects of human life is a waste of tax dollars. 

Yes, it's true: education and knowledge cost real money.  But in the end, ignorance costs infinitely more, not just in dollar terms but in terms of human health and happiness. Read this little gem about how abstinence education contributes to the pandemic of STIs in the US for one of the many social consequences of keeping people stupid about sex.

 

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Want to know more about the science of sex and my opinions on evolutionary biology, and sexual intelligence? READ Vol. I of my trilogy -- the final section of the book is a guide to smart, ethical and evidence-based sexuality.

 

 

Related articles

10 Best Sex and Dating Experts | DatingAdvice.com

Study: Educated Urbanites Stay Taller than Dumb Rednecks

I don't know why the reporter on this piece felt it necessary to list Western medicine's ideas of "lifestyle factors," because this study out of China is SPECIFIC to level of education and local environment, not health habits. And in that respect, the study suggests the education somehow influences height loss! Weird and fascinating.

 

They found, for example, that completing primary school was linked with 0.9 centimeters less in height loss, compared with people who can't read or write. And people who lived in urban areas also were less likely to decrease in height with age than those in rural areas, researchers found.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

 

Related articles

Will you shrink as you age? New USC study says, maybe

Vaginal Cleansers and Lubes Raise STI Risk

But do it the natural way. In my new book (coming by June!), I have a section where I talk about using lots of clear water instead of artificial cleansers and potentially toxic chemicals to keep your genitals fresh and sparkly.  

Though we all want to believe that over-the-counter products are safe for use, the facts show otherwise.    Pulling things off the shelf based on what the box says is not enough.   When it comes to personal health, you should google it and research products before you shop.  This new study confirms my own concerns that lots of the drugstore products sold to women simply are not safe.

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Two thirds of women in a new U.S. study reported regularly using cleansers, lubricants or petroleum jelly intravaginally - and some of the products were linked to a higher chance of common vaginal infections.

Those mundane yeast and bacterial infections, and the inserted products themselves, can damage vaginal tissue and raise a woman's susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases, such as herpes, chlamydia and HIV, researchers said.

via news.yahoo.com

 

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If you're new to googling info on drugs or treatments of any kind (from sex lubes to cosmetic surgeries), here are my tips

1. To get info on a product, type the product's name and the words "reviews complaints." For example, "Vagisil reviews complaints."

2. If you are looking for a product, type exactly what you want, as if you were talking to a sex-positive druggist, for example, "I need a good sex lube." 

3. If you have a pre-existing condition or allergies, add your individual concern to any search you run.  For example, "sex lube diabetes."

Welcome Back to My World: The Gloria Brame tonight

OMG, the technical difficulties.  Don't ask.  But here we are, at long last, and we were awfully happy to be back!

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Gloria's back and she's bolder than ever.  Listen now Dr. Brame and the inimitable Jennifer Bangs dive in to duck sex, ponder golden moles penis size preferences, tear a whole... See More through monogamy, and steamroll into human sexual diversity and Gloria's new book! (sorry 'bout the music -- we'll fix it next week)

 

Future Science: figuring out connections

I think the future of research about identity (who we are, why we act the way we do, what makes us happy) is in genetics and brain research, where new data will continue to challenge old assumptions and yield new info on both the connections and the normal variations in human identity.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest genetic study of mental illnesses to date finds five major disorders may not look much alike but they share some gene-based risks. The surprising discovery comes in the quest to unravel what causes psychiatric disorders and how to better diagnose and treat them.

The disorders — autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia — are considered distinct problems. But findings published online Wednesday suggest they're related in some way.

"These disorders that we thought of as quite different may not have such sharp boundaries," said Dr. Jordan Smoller of Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the lead researchers for the international study appearing in The Lancet.

via Huge study: 5 mental disorders share genetic links

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.

Today is Brought to you by the Permanently Erect Penis

Alligators use bizarre, permanently erect penises that pop out of their bodies and are sucked back in just as quickly. CREDIT: YouTube View full size image

Unlike many other reptiles and mammals, alligators sport permanently erect penises that hide inside their bodies, new research reveals.

The reptiles sport fully erect penises made of tough, fibrous tissue that shoot out of their bodies and get pulled back in just as quickly, according to the study, which is detailed in the March issue of the journal Anatomical Record.

"It is really interesting and really bizarre, very different from anything we've seen in vertebrates," said study author Diane Kelly, an anatomist at the University of Massachusetts.

via www.livescience.com

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Fascinating Factoid for February

Rampantly promiscuous squirrels make a nutty appearance in The Truth About Sex 

Today's Show sponsored by the Disposable Penis

 Sea slug's 'disposable penis' surprises/www.bbc.co.uk

Tonight's Radio Show: Dr. David Ley, "The Myth of Sex Addiction"

 

 

have you read The Truth About Sex ?  Let Gloria open your mind to evidence-based standards of normality. 

 

Dr. Ley's books

     

 

 

Oh Odorous Effluents, oh Hedonic Categories! (sex science)

“Gas-chromatography analysis of 90 samples of vaginal secretions from 10 women revealed that at any given sample time the perceptible vaginal odor of each individual women was composed of numerous separate odorous effluents. Almost 2,1000 odoriferous effluents were observed. This corresponded to 16% of all recorded peaks on the 90 gas-chromatograms. The odorous effluents were assigned 34 characteristic odors in three hedonic categories (neutral, pleasant and unpleasant). This information supports the contention that the olfactory signature of an individual is complex, highly individual and composed of many “mini odors”.”

via The odors of the human vagina. | Discoblog | Discover Magazine / blogs.discovermagazine.com

Sex Life of Tree-Frogs: the little ones are sneaky!

Smaller tree frogs are more likely to "cheat" their way to a mate, French scientists have found.

They found that smaller males lurked near the sound of an attractive call, rather than calling more frequently than their larger rivals. Research suggests that "cheat" tactics are mainly caused by the intrinsic disadvantage of being small.

The scientists wanted to learn more about what causes animals to use "parasitic tactics" rather than "bourgeois tactics" during the mating season.

"Bourgeois" or "classic" tactics involve a high-energy investment and competition for reproduction, whereas "parasitic" or "sneaking" tactics involve exploiting the energy invested by another male.

via Size matters for 'sex cheat' frogs / www.bbc.co.uk

 

 

Why do I love sex??  Because there's ALWAYS something new to learn about sex.   "Bourgeois" v. "parasitic" mating tactics just gave me a whole new way of looking at a bar scene, for example.

Prevention Does NOT Equal Promiscuity

It's a popular myth to claim that providing people with adequate education about sexual diseases, and the tools to prevent them, turns them into gibbering fuckaholics.

What actually happens when you protect people from getting a disease is, simply, that they don't get it. New data support support reality.

via HPV Vaccine Does Not Increase Signs of Sexual Activity, Study Finds - abcnews.go.com

Tonight we revisit the big dick debate (alas!)

Damn, really?  I wish they'd never done this  study in the first place,  but I shall wax eloquent, and certainly vehement, on the new data and what it means.

 

According to a new study, penis size does matter … kind of. And only for some women and for certain types of orgasms. The study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, found that women who have frequent vaginal orgasms are more likely to do so with men who have larger penises. The same goes for women who say they prefer penile-vaginal intercourse over other types of sex.

The study asked 323 women to recall their past sexual encounters and answer questions about how important penile-vaginal intercourse and other sex acts were to them, along with whether or not penis length affected their ability to orgasm through vaginal stimulation. They also asked the women if they were more likely to orgasm vaginally with a longer- or shorter-than-average penis. (For those of you frantically looking for measuring tape, they defined average as between 5.8 and 6.1 inches long—about the size of a U.S. dollar bill, for handy measuring purposes.)

via Does Penis Size Matter? Scientists Have an Answer.

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.

Who Gets to Define Normality?

Let Me Talk Dirty to You....

It's never too late to listen -- tonight Jennifer and I got down and verbally dirty, talking about the importance of talking about sex,  and how to use language to rev up your sex play.  With great comments and questions from listeners to spice it up, and a fascinating interview on the state of sexual freedom in the US with First Amendment activist Larry Walters at the end.

 

 

 

If the interview with Mr. Walters drops on you (apologies - we had some technical issues on this end), you can listen to it in its entirety in this stand-alone podcast.

We Should Talk About Sex #gloriabrameshow

 

No, really, we should.  In  The Truth About Sex , I observed the crucial connections between talking about sex and being a more mature and hotter sex partner.  This past week, a study came out backing up that observation: talking about sex in itself is positive for relationships and increases the possibilities for pleasure.   

Tonight, on the Gloria Brame Show, I'm going to talk about talking during sex too.   I think learning to spice up your sexual repertoire with "dirty talk" (or, as I like to think about it, verbal encouragement during sex) is a key skill in any hot lover's bag. 

(I have a lot of verbal encouragement techniques to teach to Jennifer Bangs.... *evil cackle*)

ALSO!  SPECIAL INTERVIEW with attorney and First Amendment activist, Larry Walters, talking about the state of sexual freedom in the US!

We'll be live at 10pm et, and available for download later tonight.

 

"Penis-Fish," or, "wow, nature is a mind-fuck, isn't it?"

Male phallostethids have a unique complex copulatory organ, termed the priapium, under the throat (thus the fishes of this family are commonly called "priapiumfish"). The priapium is a bilaterally asymmetric organ for holding or clasping onto females and fertilizing their eggs internally; following internal fertilization, phallostethid females do not give birth to live young, but instead lay fertilized eggs.

Scientists don't yet understand the evolutionary origin of the unusual placement of the fish's reproductive organ.

via 'Penis-headed' fish discovered in Vietnam," news.mongabay.com

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

Sex fantasies of heteros studied

Seems like a broad claim that the fantasies are the same when it seems the study goals were a bit broader, and they only studied straight people, not ALL men and women.  

Interesting nonetheless and I'm really glad to see they specified the study group. Too often, researchers neglect to mention whether LGBTQ were considered in results. Here, they are clear that they focused on patterns in hets. Now let's see such a study in queer populations, please!

 

Study Shows that Men and Women Have the Same Sexual Fantasies | ScienceBlog.com

A study conducted at the University of Granada have demonstrated that there are not significant differences between men’s and women’s sexual fantasies. The fact is that both sexes have intimate and romantic sexual fantaies involving their partner or loved one.  In addition, men have more sexual fantasies (positive and negative) than women, which would confirm the old believe that men think more frequently about sex than women.To carry out this study, the researchers took a sample of 2250 Spanish people (49.6% mend and 0.4% women) aged between 18 and 73 years, who had maintained a heterosexual relationship for at least 6 months....

The results obtained suggest that near 100% of men and women have experienced a pleasant sexual fantasy in their life, while about 80% of the interviewees have experienced a negative or unpleasant sexual fantasy sometime in life.

via scienceblog.com

 

Hmmm.....Really?....

 

Designer Genitals: the great snipping debate

Elective cosmetic surgery to enhance genitals are becoming fairly standard in medicine these days.  Tons of people are opting for it and tons of others are going "ewwwww."   The rest of us are in the middle, trying to keep an open mind about it.

As with all kinds of plastic surgery, I tend to lean towards the conservative position:  if it ain't broke, don't fix it.   When it comes to genitals, it's possible  that the very thing you believe to be a flaw is something your partner loves about you.   People who love us aren't just forgiving of our quirks, flaws, or even our extra nipples (many people have them).    Sometimes they love our little weirdnesses and variety precisely because it makes us unique.  Which is, in a nutshell, why I prefer the natural body overall.  For me, it's a body of truth.   Freaky labia?  Crazy anus? Supernumerary breasts? OMFG.   I want to see.   Isn't biological diversity FASCINATING?!

I support people who make physical changes through surgery that they feel will make their lives better; I still like to know, though, that they are choosing to make those changes for self-affirming reasons.   Hope you'll listen to these women discuss why they chose labiaplasty and tell me whether you think they made the right choices.

 

 

I think the results of all such cosmetic surgeries are destined to be emotionally unpredictable, because the underlying issue (of feeling ugly or flawed by nature) is not something a scalpel can fix. If you spent 20+ years of your life feeling freakish, will one surgical procedure simply erase your history of anguish?  Unlikely.  People whose belief that they are imperfect stems  from self-loathing, alienation, or complexes (such as body dysmorphia, a condition which causes people to literally hate their own looks or body aspects) are at high risk of dissatisfaction after surgery because they see their own bodies through a very dark, self-hating lens.   Case in point:  the woman who compared her post-surgical pussy to a pig snout.    An entertaining comparison, granted, but there was pain in her voice and I wonder if she will ever find happiness with the way her genitals look.  My guess is she will only find it when she can love and accept herself as she is -- something that she could have worked on before looking for medical solutions.

On the other hand, a person who genuinely believes that they are pretty cool but suffer some anomaly that sets them apart or impairs their function, is more likely to feel satisfied, even when results are not perfect.     

As one of the interviewees noted, once she felt she looked more normal, she was able to enjoy sex more and her self-confidence increased.    It could be a placebo effect; it could be that shorter labia really improved her sex life.  Either way, she was a great candidate for this kind of surgery.  (I hope she did speak to a counselor about those vaginal scarf of death dreams, though.) 

Which, oddly enough, reminds me...  I wonder if and when we'll get to see headlines about "designer balls."  Though it never gets the kind of headlines labiaplasty receives,  scrotum reductions are a relatively common procedure these days too, particularly among Baby Boomers who get surgeons to reduce their sagging ball sacs into the high and tight little baskets youth.    

Would you have surgery to improve the way your genitals look? 

If you've already had some, would you recommend it to others? 

 

 

 

 

Why do animals masturbate? It's healthy.

Fascinating article in Slate on the subject of whether other species masturbate (they do, most enthusiastically). It's a topic I covered in Vol. I of The Truth About Sex.

But my book is more of a "least you need to know" about all the important issues and theories in human sexuality, whereas this piece goes in depth into the subject of animal behaviors, citing a range of studies and sources.

 

Despite this bestiary of autoeroticism, scientists have spent relatively little time on the question of why animals might have evolved to masturbate. At first glance, the behavior would seem to be maladaptive. First, there's all the energy that's wasted on the production of spilled seed—macaques, for example, are thought to devote between 1 percent and 6 percent of their daily metabolism to the production of ejaculate. Second, it distracts the animal from the more important work of finding food and evading predators, let alone mating. According to the literature on horses, a masturbating stallion sometimes takes on "a trance-like, glazed-eye appearance." What could be more inviting to a hungry bear?

via www.slate.com

 

Also a topic I hammer in my book, is how science writers go wrong when they assume that sex is for reproduction.   If they stood back  and examined  the scientific research on the benefits of human masturbation, perhaps the picture would be clearer to them.   

There's a reason the masturbatory impulse is instinctual in most forms of animal life:  masturbation is healthy.   Orgasms extend longevity.   If you think of an orgasm as a kind of full-body wellness exercise --which, on an organic and chemical level it is -- then you can easily understand why animals masturbate.  It easily explains why all species try to have orgasms as often as possible.

If you persist in believing the religious ideology that we were all put on the earth to procreate well, then, you end up treading into some of the muddy fuzzy places that detracts from Slate's otherwise excellent piece.

Get The Truth About Sex.  Really. 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gloria Brame Show for July 1, 2012

In case you didn't hear us live, listen now.

The Isolator (1925) - bizarre sensory deprivation device

Invented to help great thinkers concentrate, perfect for writers seeking that ultimate sense of isolation from the world...but, really, only practical when you want to scare the shit out of a submissive.

 

 

The Isolator, A Bizarre Helmet For Encouraging Concentration (1925) via laughingsquid.com

The DSM and me: tonight on "Seriously Sexual," @11pm (et)

To my mind, the DSM is so intellectually and scientifically outdated on matters of sex that it's almost irrelevant to sex therapists. In my private practice, I've seen way too many patients who visited psychiatrists, received bad, even insulting diagnoses or a fistful of scripts, and show up in my office feeling far worse than if they'd muddled through their sexual conflicts on their own.

This "Bible" of psychiatric diagnoses has always been flawed, sometimes to dangerous, unscientific and harmful levels (such as keeping masturbation listed as a pathological behavior until 1961, and thus offering quack cures throughout the 1950s, including the medical torture and involuntary institutionalization of hundreds if not thousands of trusting patients; and continuing to do the same to homosexuals into the 1980s).

I wrote these words a few years ago, and with recent announcements about a fifth revision to the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (the diagnostic bible of the APA, used by all psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers), my views have not changed.   I still think the DSM's take on human sexuality is all wrong.

Join me and Jennifer tonight at 11pm et on Seriously Sexual radio as I slice and dice it all into tasty wordbytes.  Sex addiction, gender identity, and other politically-charged sex issues will be on my agenda and you're invited to listen in or call up live, (646) 716-4397 between 11pm and midnight tonight. 

Also hot tonight:  did you catch the Dateline special about "Master Bob," the Grosse Pointe MI BDSMer accused of murdering his (vanilla) wife?  We did and we are going to be talking about the story and about NBC's coverage, which prompted an outcry of foul play from the local kink community even before it aired.   (I think NBC manipulated the story in some spectacularly annoying ways that were designed to make BDSMers look crazy, and I've got plenty to say about that too.)

 

 

Are you a busy bee? Perhaps you should be

How cool it is to be a Queen Bee!  How free to be a bee!  Western Farm Press reports that Promiscuity [is] the road to health for queen bees and notes that promiscuity avoids inbreeding and keeps colonies healthy.

By mating with nearly 100 males, queen bees on isolated islands avoid inbreeding and keep colonies healthy.

 

OK -- remember girls:  if you want to keep YOUR colony healthy ask yourself:  to bee or not to bee?  Personally, I like to stay busy. ;)