Mormon Morality Is Complicated
Stories like this have the effect of portraying the Mormon Church as some kind of moral dinosaur. The story is a bit more complicated than that. Natasha Helfer was much criticized within the Latter Day Saints for espousing positions that were directly in conflict with Church teachings, such as okaying masturbation for her clients, or…
Read MoreColton Underwood Illustrates What’s Wrong With “The Bachelor”
The Colton Underwood story illustrates perfectly why the “Bachelor” television show franchise has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world. They go on the assumption that there is such a thing as a “gay” look — and they don’t want it. This assumption goes back to somewhere around the beginning of time…
Read MoreBlasting “Toy” Language in Vibrators
There’s a feeling of portentous solemnity that hangs over this Yahoo Life piece like a shroud. “Antiquated gender-specific and belittling,” referring to vibrators as “toys.” Really? Of course, the Facebook posture is even worse. They won’t promote “sexual pleasure,” as though that were comparable to ageism or sizeism. C’mon, people. Sex is about fun. …
Read MoreFeeling Conflicted About Matt Gaetz’s Sex Scandal
I viewed the New York Times‘ report about Matt Gaetz’s sex scandal with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am glad to see the political career of Gaetz, a despicable figure and “Trump ally,” coming to an apparent end. His toadying, pandering, and posturing on behalf of far-right-wing political fantasies are loathsome, and maybe his…
Read MoreDid the Atlanta Shooter Have a Sex Addiction?
The CNN piece on sex addiction is actually quite well crafted, but doesn’t get at the real reason that psychiatry has persistently refused to characterize “sex addiction” as a disorder: namely, that every male between the ages of 15 and 25 would qualify for it. It is like making “belching after meals” a disorder. To…
Read MoreSex Addiction Allegedly Motivates Spa Shootings
According to NBC News, a suspect in the recent deadly spa shootings in Atlanta, Georgia claims he was motivated by a sex addiction. An abundance of political correctness has made even more baffling several aspects of this tragic story: “Hate crime”? Maybe the perpetrator hated Asians. But it’s also possible that he hated massage-parlors,…
Read MoreSomething Stinks, and It’s Not Vaginas
Full marks to the educators and parents who, according to an article in the Washington Post by Abigail Higgins, don’t want their teenage daughters to feel uneasy about their “vaginal health.” But why would teenage girls and young women feel “uneasy” about this? Needless Anxiety About Vaginal Health Most guys don’t feel uneasy about their “penile…
Read MoreThe Metaphorical Death of Larry Flynt
In the outpouring of obituaries following Larry Flynt’s death, one point has not been made: Flynt was once far ahead of the country. And then the country outraced him. Hustler’s Working-Class Origins Flynt grew up in dirt-poor Kentucky and, after years in the Navy and at factory jobs, he carried within him the sentiments of…
Read MoreMasturbation: Its Purpose and Its Variations
Sofia Barrett-Ibarria’s article for Vice, “How to Enjoy Masturbation,” raises a trivial concept. How to enjoy masturbation more is, in a sense, like asking “how to enjoy a five-mile run more?” Answer: Wear earphones. The essential question is: what is the purpose of masturbation? And the answer is: to extend the sexual imagination, and…
Read MoreMiley Cyrus’s Publicity Ploy
Call me skeptical, but I don’t believe that Miley Cyrus decorates her home with sex toys, despite a Yahoo news report that says she does. The idea is is wildly impractical. How would the logistics work? “This is my vibrator sofa, but be careful where you sit. Oh, sorry about that.” Or does she use things…
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