photo by ingalatvia

• DC is to become the first city to distribute free female condoms — in beauty salons, stores, and high schools — in an effort to fight HIV.
• According to Cellphones.org, 15% of Americans have interrupted sex to answer a cellphone call.
• Speaking of modern life messing with our booty, apparently Americans are too tired for sex almost 25% of the time, according to a new study by the National Sleep Foundation.
• The Ontario Court of Appeal is hearing a case of sexual assault wherein a woman slept with her friend’s identical twin assuming him to be her occasional lover. Also, “General Hospital” is suing the identical twin for stealing next week’s plot-line.

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photo by je@n

Go ahead: try to answer that question. It’s tougher than you might think. Does it mean intercourse? Then how do gay people “have sex”? Does it involve penetration? Then what about those who only climax from external stimulation? Does it involve orgasm? Then what about all the women who’ve had sexual relations with a second party but never climaxed? Does oral sex count? Not since the Clinton days. Well, the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University recently studied this gray area and found no consensus. So what do you think? What does “having sex” mean to you?

Read more about this study on SUNfiltered

photo by Charleston’s The Digitel

• Not only does Jenny Sandford not stand by her man, she writes a tell-all memoir about his “hiking the Appalachian Trail” that’s due out this Friday.
• Tell CBS to pull the lame anti-choice ad they’re running during the Super Bowl.
• Scientists have finally solved the mystery of how one tiny creature has flourished for up to 50 million years without sex.
• Reason prevails! Sort of. A dictionary with an entry for “oral sex” will be put back in use at a California public elementary school after being removed due to demands by some ridiculous parents. BUT, kids will need a freaking permission slip to use it.

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photo by Marina(im.back)

You might have seen the headlines this week that read “Rise in Teen Pregnancy Rates.” Of course what’s missing from that title is the fact that these are not real-time figures they’re talking about. The 3% rise in teen pregnancies among 15-to-19-year-olds increased between 2005 and 2006 — the first jump since 1990. We’re sure there are multiple causes for the jump, but you cannot discount the impact of 1.5 billion dollars worth of abstinence-only programs pushed over the past 10 years, especially during the two Bush terms — programs that have been proven time and again not to work. This should be a wake-up call to Americans to accept the fact that many post-pubescent teens are going to have sex…

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OkCupid.com is a free online dating site (with, btw, a weirdly all-male staff, save for the one woman on their about page whose title is, even more disturbingly, “office chick”). They cataloged over 7000 photographs (with average attraction ratings and aged 18 to 32) on their site, analyzing 1) facial attitude (Is the person smiling? Staring straight ahead? Doing that flirty lip-pursing thing?), 2) photo context (Is there alcohol? Is there a pet? Is the photo outdoors? Is it in a bedroom?) and 3) skin (How much skin is the person showing? How much face? How much breasts? How much ripped abs?) — and they found some interesting, myth-busting things. It’s actually a fascinating article with cool charts and graphs that’s worth a look, but here’s the quick gist of the data:

• Women with photos flirting directly at the camera get more messages than those smiling
• But flirting away from the camera is the worst thing a woman can do for generating responses (same goes for men)
• Men’s photos are most effective when they look away from the camera and don’t smile
• Surprisingly, self-shot pics (e.g. with phone or web cam) are more successful than average for both men and women (but especially women)
• If young guys have hot bodies they do well with responses if they show them off, i.e. go shirtless (they don’t do so well if they are dressed up in the photo)
• Women’s cleavage shots get a lot more responses than average, especially if they’re older (i.e. A 32 year-old woman showing her body gets only 1 less message a month than the equivalent 18 year-old; an older woman not showing off gets 4 messages less)
• But pictures that involve the subject engaged in something interesting result in many more “conversations” (back and forth exchanges)
• You don’t have to show your face, as long as you “substitute in something unusual, sexy, or mysterious enough to make people want to talk to you.”

• This post is a part of Sundance Channel’s Naked Love Blog
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photo via IMDB

A recent study by the Pew Research Center, comparing marriages in 2007 with those in 1970, found that husbands whose wives earn more than they do jumped from 4% to 22%. This is partly because, for the first time ever, in the under 44 age group, more women than men have college degrees. Make no mistake, women still earn 77c to the man’s dollar, so things aren’t exactly coming up roses. But still, plenty of women are bringing home the bacon while hubby contributes a few Bacos. So what does this mean for marriages? It depends who you ask. Vera Farmiga’s mid-30’s character in the movie Up in the Air tells a twenty-something woman that it’s “a recipe for disaster” if he earns more than she does. This is in the context of a speech about how you learn to settle as you get older — she says she doesn’t need the whole package anymore, just a good guy with a nice smile and, hopefully, a bit of hair. But definitely a big paycheck. Her character is clearly a high-flying (literally), big-earning career gal, and we are to assume that her sex (or love) life has suffered as a result.

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photo by MACSURAK

• Oh man, we love behind-the-scenes hotel dirt. Like this recent report from the Novotel chain, claiming that one of their employees was hit on the head by a sex toy thrown over a balcony by an angry husband. Also, apparently hotel guests have left behind items including a $16,000 necklace, fake limbs, sex toys, a snake, a nun’s habit, a riding crop, and a baby (?!).
• A study finds that some women may have lower sex drives because they experience guilty feelings about being sexually aroused. If you thought libido was a tough problem to fix, try guilt…
• Katy Perry says she loves her fiance Russell Brand because of his expansive, er, vocabulary.

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photo by liz_noise

If you believe the screaming headlines this week, it turns out that after all these years — drumroll please — the G-spot does not exist. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the hunt is off! According to the U.K. Daily Telegraph, “Researchers at King’s College London claim there is no evidence for the existence of the G-spot – supposedly a cluster of internal nerve endings – beyond a woman’s imagination.” In other words, please put down your G-spotters and go home.

Except. The so-called proof in this study is that they asked 1,800 women, all pairs of identical or non-identical twins, if they had a G-spot. Because identical twins share all their genes (while non-identical share only 50%), they figured that if one identical twin reported having a G-spot, then her sister was more likely to report having one two. But, um, what if one twin had a better G-spotting toy than the other? What if one twin had never tried out intercourse positions that stimulated the G-spot?

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Orgasm diagram by Daquella Manera

We’ll be the first to admit that “science” is a generous word to use when it comes to some of the sex research out there — and that if a sex study sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t kernels of truth to be found in even the flimsiest of surveys. So here are our top 10 new year’s resolutions inspired by the year in sex research.

1. Do more housework – both of you.
2. Do your homework and buy decent condoms.
3. Take up yoga.
4. Invest in a better mattress.
5. Don’t worry so much about what you’re driving – she certainly isn’t.
6. If your mate’s spending habits drive you nuts, try to remember that it’s just fate. And that what drives you crazy is the same thing that makes you crazy for each other.
7. Second-guess your chivalry — though this is by no means an excuse to be an asshole.
8. Speaking of: Don’t tweet after sex.
9. Trying to get knocked up? Work on your “daily sperm liberation.”
10. Don’t blame it on the beer goggles – science no longer has your back on this one.

• This post is a part of Sundance Channel’s Naked Love Blog
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photo by TheNaughtyAmerican.com

• Have we succeeded in scaring you off? According to the latest research by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair mag, zero percent of people aged 18-44 are likely to kiss a co-worker at their office holiday party.
• A study finds that a penis-numbing spray can help prevent premature ejaculation and may hit the marketplace soon. There is currently no FDA-approved prescription treatment for this condition, which affects up to a third of U.S. men aged 18-59. Great news, so long as this numbing spray doesn’t have a knock-on effect on the vagina…
• Hugh Hefner tells the U.K. Guardian, in response to the question What is the closest you’ve come to death:
  “There was a moment when I was having sex with four Playmates and I almost swallowed a Ben Wa ball.” Guess we’ll have to expand our definition of “safer sex.”

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