Studies
News
Naked News: The Right’s War on Women/Porn/Ethics

photo via Flickr Santorum’s final nail in his own coffin: his promised war on porn… …Because the only thing the Bible Belt loves more than God might be straight and gay porn. Another anti-choice male Republican politician who really gets women: Pennsylvania Governor Tim “Just Close Your Eyes” Corbett. Yes, there really is a bill in Kansas that would […]

TV
Why Is Sex Fun?

The Discovery Channel is in the middle of airing a series called Curiosity. Current and upcoming episodes include “What Sank the Titanic” and “Is There a Parallel Universe?” Not sure how we missed the last one, “Why Is Sex Fun?” hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal. We couldn’t find any upcoming airings listed in our Tivo, but you […]

Research
The Media’s Pornification of Women

Here’s a fascinating but not all that surprising study from the University of Buffalo: they recently analyzed more than 1,000 images of men and women on Rolling Stone covers over the course of 43 years (they chose Rolling Stone since it’s a well-established, pop-culture media outlet) and found the following: In the 1960s, 11 percent of […]

Confessions
Comment of the Week: More on the Orgasm Gap

image from nDevilTV Clandestine, commenting on a study that showed women orgasm about 80% as often as men do in close relationships but only 32% as often in first hookups: I’d suggest that a broader explanation [for the orgasm gap] may be that our definition of sex is very intercourse-focused, and we conventionally define sex […]

Pop Culture
The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences

One of our biggest pet peeves is our society’s automatic acceptance — the giddy embrace, even — of the theory that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, with nary a space shuttle between them. We’ve written before on the lazy scientists who are suckers for a sexy headline about the “innate” differences […]

Research
Anal, Orgasms and Advertising

photo by rhys alton One of the most popular and commented-on posts is about strap-on sex. It’s not exactly a point of pride for us. We’re much more about the happy feel-good feminist relationship posts. And we worry that this prominent butt-sex mention is what keeps the advertisers away (of course, it could be the […]

Research
The Power of Teenage Love

photo by Pink Sherbet Photography A study by Bill McCarthy of the University of California and Eric Grodsky of the University of Minnesota found that teens in romantic sexual relationships have similar school experiences to virgins. Meanwhile, students who engage in NON-romantic sexual activity (hook-ups, friends with benefits, etc) were found to be more likely […]

Research
Kids of Lesbian Parents May Fare Better Than Their Peers

photo by daspaz A new study analyzing long-term data on kids from birth to adulthood just came out that suggests children of lesbian parents do better than their peers. According to Time: The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers – whether the mother was partnered or single – scored very similarly to children […]