Hello, my darlings! Thank you for your patience in between posts! I’m on the mend, I think, and am feeling much better than I was at this time last week, but there’s still a long way to go. I have a few things I’d like to post about this week and hope I’ll have the energy to get to them, but hey, it’s the Fourth of July week, so I won’t push too hard!
In the meantime, here are some fabulous links to get your brains going on this sweltering first-workday-of-the-month Monday. Please, do enjoy!
1) This bizarre story came to me from the people at apexart: “Man plagued by porn-induced headaches.” I knew someone who had a strange disorder in which he could induce migraine-level headaches during actual sex. Basically, if he got too excited, they’d be triggered. So he had to learn to “zen out” during sex and not get too crazy. But the man in the above article seems to only have the headaches when watching porn. I hope they figure this out and tell us all what caused it, because this is interesting.
2) From from Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, a much-needed and well-worded call to the media to stop mislabeling rape/assault/harassment stories as “sex scandals.” Not that the media will heed her sage advice, but the point she’s making is very important. We all know that the word “sex” in a headline gets more attention than the word “crime,” but the acts she’s referring to–rape, assault, harassment, etc–are not sex, they are crimes. By lumping rape in with consensual sex, molestation in with adult sexual behavior, and so on, we are further tainting the idea of sex with overtones of violence and coercion, and lightening the gravity of crime with the sweetness of sex. We’re muddling the clarity of two very distinct definitions, and that is very, very dangerous when people’s safety is involved. IT IS INVOLVED.
3) I have very high hopes for the new webisode Blue starring Julia Stiles. I’ve always admired her work and her bravery, and I hope that she can put that to good use on this show, which is about the life of an escort/mother/accountant. Stiles says, “You get to see a full, well-rounded person. She’s a mom, a daughter, a friend, an escort, and an accountant.” I really hope this rings true. Sex workers get a bad rap, but the realities of most forms of sex work are far more complicated than the mainstream culture wants to believe. I hope this show is well-written enough to give Ms. Stiles enough air to really breathe into this topic.
4) I’ll be telling a story at Spill! True Stories of Queer Sex, Desire, and Romance at Fontana’s on July 17! I’m terrified! Come support me!