Monday, April 24, 2006

Another Southern State May Ban Sex Toys

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

"That would be the most terrible thing in the world," said Ms. Gillespie, an employee the Anderson shop. "That is just flabbergasting to me. We are supposed to be in a free country, and we’re supposed to be adults who can decide what want to do and don’t want to do in the privacy of our own homes."

Ms. Gillespie, 49, said she has worked in the store for nearly 20 years and has seen people from every walk of life, including "every Sunday churchgoers."

"I know of multiple marriages that sex toys have sold because some people need that. The people who are riding us (the adult novelty industry) so hard are probably at home buying it (sex toys and novelties) on the Internet. It’s ridiculous."

Sugar ‘N Spice manager Pat Irons says a proposal to outlaw the sale of sex toys in South Carolina is outrageous.

While Davenport’s proposal is probably aimed at shutting down X-rated adult bookstores, Ms. Irons said, it hurts customers of "couples-oriented" stores such as her West Columbia shop, which sells everything from lingerie to bridal shower novelties to lotions.

At Sugar ‘N Spice, sex toys are displayed in a separate room. Buyers include men and women who "need a little help" because surgery or medical problems are affecting their marriage, Ms. Irons said.

"We’ve been selling these sex toys for 27 years," she said Friday. "Even pastors shop in here. They send couples in here they counsel for marriage problems. It’s probably going to hit people like that harder than people realize."

Other states that ban the sell of sex toys include Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas, said Mark Lopez, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Alabama’s law banning the sale of sex toys has been circulating through the courts since its passage in 1998. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith Jr. twice ruled against the law, holding that it violated the constitutional right to privacy, but the state won both times on appeal.

The ACLU got involved in the case, he said, to "keep the government out of the bedroom."
Those Southern men are just scared of the competition. Link from Boing-Boing.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Do You Need A $500 Vibrator? / Short answer: Of course you do. Longer answer: Wait, a what? Are you serious? Where?


Mike Moreford explores the fancy vibrator market.
I am not making this up. A company called Jimmyjane, based right here in S.F., makes a thin, cigar-shaped platinum vibrator that clocks in at a whopping $470 (also comes in gold and steel), custom engraved and silent and waterproof to 15 feet down because oh my God if there's one thing this world needs, it's more vibe-wielding women who dive into the deep end of the pool and emerge 10 minutes later with a huge grin and a soft glow and a craving for chocolate ice cream and a shot of dark rum.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

A Long, Strange Trip to Orgasm


Regina Lynn gives new sex toys a try.
It was clumsy, undignified, funny and left me sore, but I eventually did climax, mostly by bucking my pelvis on the dildo while holding the JHJ still and keeping the Je Joue in place. I even came rather spectacularly, all things considered; I'm not sure I've ever spent that much time masturbating before in my life.

Well, not alone, anyway.

Ultimately, the Jack Hammer Johnson strikes me as the perfect example of something Je Joue designer Geoff Hollington talked about. He says the vast majority of sex toys reveal a male (mis)conception about female masturbation, and that it was obvious to him that women aren't consulted about most designs. With all the advances in technology in the past 10 years, he wondered why the sex toy market is still saturated by two themes: vibration and penises.

Phallic products seem to reflect a desire, conscious or not, for a man to feel responsible for a woman's sexual pleasure. If a woman chooses a priapic toy over one shaped like a rubber duckie in bondage gear, she validates the importance of the penis and therefore of male influence on her orgasm.

Wired Magazine's Sex Columnist Regina Lynn

Saturday, April 15, 2006

What should the Easter Lemming bring you?


What Women Really Want: Customer Approved Sex Toys for Her.

Men want sex, a blow job is always appreciated.

Here is a short piece on sex tips for women. All women really need to know is that there is nothing sexier than a woman enjoying herself and trying to please both herself and her man. Ten things your man really wants in bed starts with enthusiasm.

Men need a bunny or other animals like those at Morey Studio for Easter.

Some love, affection, kindness, appreciation and desire are always good in my basket.

Who wants to be an amputee?


ABC News reports on people who have limbs amputated, by choice.
Karl said his obsession with losing a limb did not end with his double amputation. But he said he finally lost his desire to also remove his left hand after an intense regime of therapy and anti-depressants.

For a man remarkably at home in his wheelchair, there is a hint of regret. There are places the wheelchair can't take him, like to the beach to feel the sand under his feet.

"It's all those little things, like that," Karl said. "What the hell was I thinking?"
This is on sexual lemming because I find it strangely related to the amputee devotees, people with a sexual fetish about amputees, and even other fetishes.

There is more on how to become an amputee fetishist.

Boxing Helena explores this in a bad movie. How much would you like a man or women in a box? Would it be someone to take care of or someone to wheel out when needed? Sick? What about if it wasn't a person but a machine or animal? Is this sicker or better? The movie concludes with a "What the Hell was I thinking?" cliche denouement.

Last year Playboy had their first amputee centerfold in Jennifer Krum after having the paraplegic Ellen Stohl in April 1995.
"My name is Ellen Stohl, I am a model/actress, who three years ago was injured in a tragic auto accident. At first, I had given up hope of pursuing my career, but after a few months and a lot of learning, I realized a wheelchair should not make a difference. Since that realization, I have been working twice as hard to achieve my career goals not only for myself but also to teach society that being disabled does not make a difference. The reason I choose Playboy for this endeavor is that sexuality is the hardest thing for disabled persons to hold onto. Not to say that they are not capable, but rather that society's emphasis on perfection puts this definitive damper on self-esteem. Well, I believe it is time to show society the real story. Anyone can be sexy; it is a matter of how a person feels about himself or herself, and personally I feel great."
HUSTLER in February 1997 had an article about humping stumps as they called it. Based on Playboy and Hustler are all amputees sexy or just otherwise attractive ones?

I had a class in college with an attractive young woman without legs in a wheelchair. I realized how sexy she was and how exciting it would be to go to bed with her. Alas, she had a boyfriend.

What is the line between an attraction and a fetish?

I am attracted to women with wet hair or with their hair in curlers. Is that a fetish? Soapy suds and showers - fetish or not? Red hair, small breasts, smooth skin? White bikinis? Cute smiles, good hugs? No perfume but shampoo and soap smell? No makeup? Intelligence and creativity? Kindness and a sense of humor? Affectionate and touching and more hugs? Quirky and loyal and open-minded? Willingness to experiment to see what kind of orgasms she likes best? Occasionally wants quick sex without orgasms? Wants some mornings of hours of sex play in bed? I have a strong attraction to skin, looking at it and touching it - a fetish, an attraction, normalcy? What about those who don't want people to look? How out of control does an attraction need to be before it is perverted? I like questions - is that sick? Seeing beyond conventional beauty - is that really a good quality? While I reject many Christian beliefs after studying too much about it, I find I am attracted to some good Christians with what I consider strange beliefs. How twisted is that? I was very attractive to someone who lost her legs who was otherwise attractive - fetish or normal?

Texas Teenage Virgins is a UK documentary about what passes for sex-ed in Lubbock, Texas and how it has affected public health and teenagers. The school district had out-sourced sex education to an Evangelist preacher.
The film explores Lubbock, Texas, deep in the heart of the Bible Belt, where teenagers are expected to take purity pledges, promising to remain virgins until they get married. The documentary asks, how hard is it for these teenagers to resist temptation, and what are the consequences if they don't? And, How does the climate of fear and misinformation impact their lives?

Juxtaposed against this "purity ring" ceremony with Ed Ainsworth motivating youngsters to abstain from sex.

Juxtaposed against this "feel good" ceremony were statistics listing Lubbock as having one of the highest teenage pregnancy and STD rates in the nation. Do any of you find this incongruous?

This is sex education, Texas-style, where the only safe sex taught since 1995 is no sex outside marriage. That is when George W. Bush, who was then governor, signed a law making Texas the third state requiring schools to follow an abstinence-only sex education curriculum.

Now President Bush is promoting abstinence-until-marriage programs nationwide, a shift in health policy that has sparked an emotional debate over how to keep young people healthy. Abstinence-only proponents say that teaching young people about birth control is simply inviting them to have sex; advocates for comprehensive sex education say that withholding detailed information leads to dire medical consequences. Lubbock's situation illustrates the limitations of abstinence-only programs.

In the seven years since their schools began teaching abstinence-only, young people here have been anything but abstinent. Teen pregnancy rates in the state remain above the national average, and Lubbock County consistently has one of the highest rates in the state. In addition, the number of Texas youths with sexually transmitted diseases has risen steadily. - from a Lubbock forum.
Isn't this purity-oath mindset a more unhealthy fetish than most? Isn't this similar to disowning or hacking off parts of your body? Isn't this where this post started?

Sharon of Nothing Matters and What If It Did is not responsible for where her link took me.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Monday, April 03, 2006

Sex in videogames: It's time to grow up | TG Daily

At a time when we're told by the industry that the average gamers are pushing 30 rather than 13 how is it that a pair of bare naked breasts and the thought of hardcore sex got more people riled up about Grand Theft Auto than the fact that is one of the most reprehensively violent games out there?

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Lucasfilm announces "Adult" Star Wars Novel Line

Today Lucasfilm announced the licensing of a new line of "Adult" Star Wars novels.

"While the movies were still an ongoing project, it was important to portray all aspects of the Star Wars universe as wholesome family entertainment," said Lucasfilm spokesmen Dirk Merdespieler. "However, now that the cycle of films is done, we can finally broaden the Star Wars franchise into marketing niches we'd heretofore avoided, and adult entertainment is at the top of our list."

One of the first new licenses was awarded to longtime Star Wars novel publisher Del Rey Books, who will be putting out a line of Star Wars adult novels. Del Rey announced that the first book in the line would be Slave Girl of Tattoine by Barry Malzberg and Mike Resnick.

Del Rey's publicist indicated that they were willing to look beyond traditional adult themes, and were willing to pay top dollar for works to fill what were previously considered niche markets. As proof, she cited the hiring of Pulitzer Prize winner E. Annie Proulx to pen Brokeback Falcon, a novel which explores the forbidden love between Han Solo and Chewbacca.

"The Star Wars universe is almost 30 years old," said Merdespieler. "It's high time our fans learned there's more to life than comic books and action figures."