A Lotta Links for Your Weekend: Playboy, MEL, and more!

female sex tech founders by Tara Jacoby on LynseyG.com
Image by Tara Jacoby, via Playboy.com

Just in time for you to zone out at the end of your work-week, here’s a whole lotta links to enjoy! (Or rage out about, or be grossed out by, as may be appropriate in some cases. Hey, it’s a lotta links! I like to give options!)

Stuff I Wrote

  • Over at Playboy, I asked, “Why Won’t Silicon Valley Invest in Women’s Sex Tech?” It’s a damn good question! Especially when these sex-tech companies are trying to draw us a road map out of the post-#metoo swamp of skeevy sexuality. A snippet:
    “A cadre of female sex-tech founders share a vision of the future where sex is better understood and therefore less scary for everyone….These women are passionately devoted to creating companies that open up human sexuality, but they have all had an incredibly difficult time getting funding to put their visions into practice.”
    Learn more about them, their companies, and the struggles they face at Playboy.com!
  • At MEL Magazine I connected a bunch of experts with parents who asked, “What Do I Do If My Very Young Child Starts Masturbating?” It’s another excellent question, since sexual shame has led many of us down dark paths. So, I asked a sex-positive pornographer, the co-founder of SmartyMommies, a sex therapist, and an early masturbator for their thoughts. A highlight:
    “Make it clear she’s not restricted from exploring her body at the right times and places and understanding how her body works. Masturbation isn’t bad! In fact, it’s an important part of positive sexual development and a healthy sex life. You just want to give her the chance to understand when it’s socially acceptable to touch herself and to explore her body on her own before she moves on to adult toys.”
    Read the rest at MEL Magazine!

Stuff Others Wrote

  • Here’s a great dive into the media’s treatment of the Stormy Daniels situation from UNLV professor Lynn Comella. It’s deeply needed; Trump just admitted on Fox & Friends that there was indeed a “crazy Stormy Daniels deal.” The story just keeps unfolding, delicious-er and delicious-er… But most media outlets have no idea how to handle it, after decades of pointedly looking in the other direction when sex workers show up. Now that one is dominating the news cycle, and she’s articulate, intelligent, and self-empowered, everything is a mess. Go read all about it at the UNLV News Center.
  • Here’s an oldie but a goodie from the early days of the Stormy Daniels controversy from badass sex worker Arabelle Raphael. A nibble:
    It doesn’t matter what else might be taken from the story, like Trump’s susceptability to blackmail or the similarity of Daniels’ account to the women who’ve accused him of sexual assault. All that matters is the quasi-pornographic titillation of watching the most salacious elements play out in public.”
    Read the rest at The Outline!
  • An important read on the repercussions of FOSTA/SESTA on sex workers. This gut-churning legislation, BTW, was recently signed into law by Trump. E.g., the very president who just low-key admitted that he paid off a sex worker during his campaign. The law is meant to “protect” people from human trafficking, but prevents sex workers from utilizing online platforms to advertise their services, support one another, or keep themselves profitable and safe. A taste:
    “’We can no longer discuss business practices with each other. Its become illegal to talk about…Now that it’s not only illegal for sites to advertise us, but *simply by sharing information* about safe places to work, methods, and exchanging client information, people are going to fall through the cracks, isolated and ignorant. What we’re already seeing is people moving to street work, which is always more dangerous, and less paying. Especially for those who struggle the most: trans people, PoC, houseless, disabled and neurodivergent sex workers.’”
    Read the rest, then support sex worker communities in your area, or online.
  • Meanwhile, the ever-articulate Ms. Naughty writes from Australia about how these laws may affect those who do legal sex work:
    “Over the last couple of years I’ve felt like I’ve been drowning in a puddle of slowly creeping censorship, watching social media platforms absorb all the traffic and then set about hiding and banning anything remotely sexual, while Google gives all its porn traffic to piracy sites. It’s hugely exhausting to keep plowing on in this environment. It’s also really frustrating to be an Australian and at the mercy of the US government.”
    Read the rest if you value porn.
  • For the nitty-gritty reality, I rely on the amazing Violet Blue to lay it all out:
    “It’s dubbed the “anti-trafficking” bill for the internet, but it’s really an anti-sex sledgehammer. The bill removes protection for websites under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and makes sites and services liable for hosting what it very, very loosely defines as sex trafficking and “prostitution” content. FOSTA-SESTA puts into law that sex work and sex trafficking are the same thing, and makes discussion and advertising part of the crime.”
    Please, read more at Engadget.

A Fun and Funny Video (for balance)

  • Also, hey. Check out this video that talks a lot about octopus sex. Because we can all use a laugh and some science facts these days, amirite? And, btw, octopus sex is fascinating.

Anyway, hey. It’s not all bad. Try to enjoy this whole lotta links! Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy having your dreams haunted by octopus sex! (It’s better than Trump-Stormy-Daniels dream-haunting, right? Uh oh, now I wrote it down and it’s too late. Sorry, everybody.)

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