From Planned Parenthood’s Facebook:
“Oct. 16th, 1916: The first birth control clinic in America opens. Today Planned Parenthood marks its 95th Anniversary! We are proud to be celebrating nearly a century of service to women and families in the U. S., as well as 40 years of service worldwide.”
They then link to this slideshow to show then and now pictures.
I love Planned Parenthood. Back when I was on birth control I went to them for my pills. I still go to them for my under the hood exams. Plus they’re the one medical place that always took my childfree status seriously.
If you’re in the mood to donate to a charitable cause they’re always a good choice. You can do that here.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History, Activism at 7:59 PM CDT
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From The Advocate:
DADT Protesters Arrested at White House Fence
“In a second round of civil disobedience at the White House organized by the grassroots group GetEQUAL, six LGBT service members were arrested after handcuffing themselves to the perimeter fence Tuesday afternoon to protest “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The protesters included Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, who handcuffed themselves, in uniform, to the same fence last month. Pietrangelo was discharged from the military under the gay ban, while Choi’s discharge is pending.
(snip)
A U.S. Park Police spokesman told The Advocate that the six were arrested after three verbal warnings and were taken into custody.”
The image of these men and women is so powerful. They look so strong and defiant chained to that fence. If Obama doesn’t get DADT repealed in his first term I think it’s going to hurt his re-election campaign.
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From Scanner:
At Last: The Ashley Alexandra Dupre Playboy Photos
“It’s the spread you’ve been waiting for ever since you heard about the Love Gov scandal. Hell, we’ve been Googling them constantly all week… and finally hit the jackpot just now.”
Dupre looks great in the photos. I say you go girl! I’d pose for Playboy if they asked.
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From The Sexist:
“Denim Day” Counts All the Ways We Excuse Sexual Assault
“Today is Denim Day, an annual event dedicated to raising awareness about all forms of sexual violence. I love Denim Day’s “No Excuses” campaign [PDF], which illustrates a dozen ways that people manage to excuse sexual assault, blame victims, and ignore that the crimes even happen. The effectiveness of the campaign lies in its relentlessness—it details exactly how we excuse rapes against girlfriends, wives, women who drink, men, prisoners, the elderly, flirts, military personnel, sex workers, women who wear “sexy” clothing, and the disabled.”
I hadn’t heard of this campaign before. I’m very glad to see the group included sex workers.
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Reader Michael sent me this next story.
From Gawker TV:
Sexual Milestones of Old Hollywood
“The debate over how and when sex should appear in films is a prominent contemporary issue. Concerns about common decency and sexual objectification, exploitation, and stereotyping fuel an important discussion on the cinematic depiction of sexuality in today’s society.
But, as much as the discussion about sex in film seems, to us, to be a particularly modern one — surely the explicitness of cinematic sexual imagery newly peaks each year? — the truth is that concern over sex in the cinemas has existed since the dawn of the moving image. People began taping sexual acts almost as soon as technology allowed and objections to cinematic sex followed virtually immediately.”
I love sex history. This was an informative article. Most of the films listed were new to me. Thanks Michael for sending me the link.
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From Feministe:
Clay and Harold: A Couple Forcibly Separated By Sonoma County
“Recently making the rounds is a breathtakingly tragic story of an elderly gay couple that Sonoma County, California allegedly forcibly separated into different nursing homes, before possessing and selling off their property.
(snip)
This story instantly reminds me of one that I blogged about last year, regarding Janice Langbehn and Lisa Marie Pond. As Lisa died, her partner of 17 years, Janice, was not allowed to see her in the hospital. Neither were their three children. While the abuse of Clay and Harold extended well beyond visitation rights, this core part of the story is tragically not unheard of. There are certainly many other couples who had their rights similarly violated but did not make the news.
Last week, President Obama issued a directive requiring hospitals to allow visitation rights to patients’ same-sex partners, as well as to other designated visitors. This action was apparently inspired by Janice and Lisa’s story, and Janice’s persistent activism. Obama even called Janice and apologized to her for what she endured. It’s a noble and necessary action, and one that I certainly hope will be enforced effectively.”
Obama hasn’t repealed DADT but I am glad to see him taking action on this issue. But it’s sad that hospitals have to be forced to honor same-sex partners’ wishes and treat them with respect. This directive is a good start but we have to have a cultural shift as well.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History, News at 11:12 PM CDT
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From MSMBC:
Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rites
BALTIMORE - Today, it sounds like a spring-break splurge on the order of “Girls Gone Wild”: Drink huge quantities of beer, get wasted, indulge in gratuitous sex and pass out — then wake up the next morning with the music blaring and your friends praying that everything will turn out all right.
But back in 1470 B.C., this was the agenda for one of ancient Egypt’s most raucous rituals, the “festival of drunkenness,” which celebrated nothing less than the salvation of humanity. Archaeologists say they have found evidence amid the ruins of a temple in Luxor that the annual rite featured sex, drugs and the ancient equivalent of rock ‘n’ roll.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 11:07 PM CST
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Eighty six years ago today the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. This gave women the right to vote. Being female I want to honor the women that fought long and hard to give me this right. So I vote. I encourage you to do so as well. You can register to vote by clicking here.
I am including a list of links if you’d like to learn more.
Wikipedia’s Nineteenth Amendment
Actual text of the Amendment
Women’s Suffrage Movement
Alice Paul , suffragist
Hunger strikes of the imprisoned suffragettes
Posted by Vixen as Sex History, News at 10:52 PM CDT
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From The Stonewall Riot and Its Aftermath:
On Friday evening, June 27, 1969, the New York City tactical police force raided a popular Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. Raids were not unusual in 1969; in fact, they were conducted regularly without much resistance. However, that night the street erupted into violent protest as the crowds in the bar fought back. The backlash and several nights of protest that followed have come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.
Prior to that summer there was little public expression of the lives and experiences of gays and lesbians. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls for pride and action. In the past twenty-five years we have all been witness to an astonishing flowering of gay culture that has changed this country and beyond, forever.
Wikipedia has a Stonewall entry as well if you’d like to read more. Though Wiki’s entry said the Stonewall was the 28th of July, the press clippings from the earlier link said the 27th.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 9:37 PM CDT
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From Ananova:
World’s oldest condom
The oldest surviving condom in the world has gone on display in an Austrian museum.
The reusable condom dates back to 1640 and is completely intact, as is its orginal users’ manual, written in Latin.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History, News at 11:49 PM CDT
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From the History Channel:
“While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘christianize’ celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.”
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 9:39 AM CST
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I love sex in history articles. This story is very interesting. From UCLA International Institute:
Changing Times for Japanese Sex Workers
In medieval Japan, sexual entertainers and their customers enjoyed great freedoms until a growing orthodoxy stifled their trade, Janet Goodwin tells a UCLA audience.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 7:32 PM CST
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From Discovery News:
Divers exploring a river near a former Roman Empire fort and settlement in Britain have found a piece of pottery that depicts the backside of a rather buff gladiator wielding a whip and wearing nothing but a G-string, according to British researchers.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 9:14 PM CST
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Scientists Find Fossils in Sexual Union
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — This was no one-night stand. Scientists in India say they have discovered two fossils fused together in sexual union for 65 million years.
The findings were published in the October edition of the Indian journal “Current Science,” which said it was the first time that sexual copulation had been discovered in a fossil state, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 1:26 AM CST
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From the Sun Sentinel:
The 70-year-old grandmother had collected fine antiques for decades. And when her son requested that she select a few naughtier baubles for his apartment, Wilzig responded by purchasing a Japanese pillow book or shunga — 25 brilliantly colored pictures depicting the more carnal of delights. “It was historically given to couples on their wedding night,” explains Wilzig. “It contains illustrations of various positions so they would know how to please each other.”
Posted by Vixen as Sex History, News at 3:20 AM CDT
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I’ve been a fan of Annie Sprinkle for several years now. By chance I stumbled across a thesis written about her the other day while doing research of my own. (I was researching hormones for a transgendered client.)
While I thought I was familiar with most of her work Sheila Thomas’ study really opened my eyes to her whole career.
Speaking the Unspeakable: Annie Sprinkle’s “Prostitute Performances” A Thesis by Sheila Marie Thomas is a well documented study. It’s an excellent introduction to those unfamiliar with her; for fans, it’s more of a collective, delving into detail about familiar performances.
Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 12:46 AM CDT
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From The Guardian:
Stone-age figurines depicting what could be the oldest pornographic scene in the world have been unearthed in Germany.
So our ancient ancestors liked to do it doggy style, eh? I enjoy when sexual discoveries like this pop up in the news. It’s like a reminder from our collective past to celebrate sex, to cherish it. Maybe I’m being selectively naïve but I like to think our primal ancestors were extremely sexually liberal before religious dogma got in the way.
Further down in the article I came across this:
Dr Stäuble, who is due to publish a paper on his findings this year, said: “After finding Adonis, we got the team to sieve every speck of soil for a whole month. We were well rewarded because we then found fragments of a female figurine of the same size.”
Oddly enough, I’m listening to Elizabeth Peters’ Lord of the Silent on audio book right now. The above reminds me of Emerson’s insistence that all soil on an archaeological dig be sifted. A man of sound mind that Emerson.
If you’re not familiar with the Amelia Peabody series I suggest you become so. Better yet, listen to it on audio book. Barbara Rosenblat does the best narrations I’ve ever heard and makes me yearn to live in England. The first book I listened to Amelia was on her way to protest for women’s suffrage. I’ve been hooked every since.
Elizabeth Peters creates a strong, independent, intelligent, witty lead female character in Amelia Peabody. She has a solid marriage, a close knit family and is successful at her work. Compared to some of today’s ‘chick lit’ and ‘chick flicks’ (weak female leads who are depressed and so desperate to find a man they are willing to throw away their careers to do so), Peters’ series is a treasure in itself.
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Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 7:16 PM CDT
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Oh, the fluffer girl. Mention her and images of a young looking, skinny blond woman appears in the mind, kneeling before several young studs on a porno shoot. Her job is to suck their cocks, keeping them in a state of hardened arousal until the next scene is filmed.
Turns out though, the fluffer girl is a myth of horny imaginations. Pornblography once again pulls back the curtain on the porn industry and lets us peek behind. No fluffers on the set, the male stars take matters into their own hands to keep their erections performing.
Many of my callers want to be fluffers. The ones that are slutty women on the inside dream of being dressed up and taken to a gathering of men-be it a porn shoot, a frat house or just a weekend gang bang. These sluts of mine suck every cock in the room before taking them all, one by one, in their pussy or ass, milking every male dry.
I won’t reveal the reality of the fluffer girl to them though. Oh no, in some minds the fluffer girl must live on. Perhaps she needs a new title though. Goddess of Eternal Erections seems fitting.
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Posted by Vixen as Sex History at 9:17 PM CDT
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