SUNfiltered
News
What the Dutch Can Teach Us About Sex

photo via flickr And no, we’re not talking about the relative appeal of sex in clogs. We have long sung the praises of Holland’s approach to sex — and, in particular, its approach to sex & pregnancy education. Because Holland has results that we can all agree are worth aspiring to (even bat-shit-crazy Michele Bachmann): […]

Pop Culture
The Science/Poetry of Kissing

We once heard an interview on NPR with Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of the book “The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us.” (It was was timed perfectly to come out about a month before Valentine’s Day). The question came up: Are we the only species that kisses? To which Kirshenbaum answered: …Well, scientists have […]

How To
Vagina vs. Vulva — There’s a Difference, People

A while back we here at EMandLO.com conducted a poll called “Vulva or Vagina?” Readers had two options to choose from (natch): Vulva – If we’re talking about female external genitalia, this is the anatomically correct & accurate term. (Plus, it sounds nicer.) Vagina – That’s what EVERYONE calls it. It’s common practice, common knowledge. Nobody calls it […]

Pop Culture
Top 10 Funniest Sex Scenes of All Time

  Funny sex scenes — at least, those that are meant to make you laugh — are often the best kind. Ironically, they tend to portray much more realistic on-screen sex than their serious, sultry counterparts. In funny sex scenes, you get weirdness, kink, awkwardness, jealousy, fantasy — oh yeah, and condoms. For some reason, […]

Pop Culture
The 20 Most Disturbing Sex-Themed Movies

We were going to do a top ten list but there are so many disturbing sex themed movies made, we had to bump it up to 20. Let us know if there are any others you think should have made the cut. Irreversible If you can get through the first ten minutes of hard-core sex […]

Pop Culture
Top 10 WTF Sex Scenes

All top ten lists are, by their nature, subjective, but this one is especially so — because one person’s “WTF” sex scene is another person’s monkey spanking material. (Exhibit A: we’d qualify a lot of porn as WTF.) A few qualifications: David Lynch probably deserves a place in this list (okay, David Lynch definitely deserves […]

Pop Culture
Rosemary’s Baby Could Have Been Made in 2012, 2016…

You hear a lot these days about Republicans rolling back women’s rights all the way to the ’50s and ’60s: vowing to defund Planned Parenthood; to allow employers to decide whether or not their female employees can have their contraception covered; to put the rights of an embryo above those of a woman via the […]

Movies
Top 10 Pop-Culture Gender-Benders

We’re not going to focus on the negative portrayals of transsexuality, like in PSYCHO and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and last year’s thankfully cancelled WORK IT television sitcom. And we’re not focusing on the history of transitioning stories that takes us all the way back to the 1930s when an intersexed, Bohemia-born Zdenka Koubkova went from female running/jumping champion to male […]

Pop Culture
Top 10 Secretly Feminist Movies

No filmmaker in their right mind would advertise the fact that their film has feminist ambitions — we’re pretty sure that’s box office suicide (sad, but true). Despite that, some films have pretty obvious feminist heroes — think Thelma and Louise, G.I. Jane., Jodie Foster’s character in THE ACC– USED, and Erin Brockovich. And then there are […]

Movies
Top 10 Reasons Why SECRETARY Is Better Than FIFTY SHADES

You’ve got to give the Fifty Shades of Grey books credit. The erotic trilogy by E.L. James has single-handedly made BDSM mainstream (now everyone knows what a safe word is), been a boon to the sex toy industry (hello, love beads!), and improved the sex lives of many a long-married couple (a chapter a day will keep […]

Pop Culture
Top 10 Sexiest Foreign Films

American exceptional-ism? Phooey! Countries across the pond have better food, more civilized health care, and way sexier films (what a buzzkill a Puritanical national origin can be). And our friends at the Sundance Channel aren’t afraid to embrace their frisky foreign friends: check out their line-up anytime, and chances are you’ll find a cool film […]

News
Naked News: Sperm Just Ain’t What It Used to Be

photo via Flickr Cell phone use and fatty food consumption is increasing; sperm quality is declining. Old maid, schmold schmaid: Older women no longer prioritize marriage. Calgary sexual health center wants you to get informed…by painting a woodie. What was that about sticks and stones? Words definitely hurt LGBT kids. Don’t just trust GLEE: extensive new survey on American […]

Pop Culture
Janeane Garofalo Wants to Make Love to Bob Dylan

The right soundtrack can transform a so-so sexual encounter into something memorable (just ask Hollywood producers). And the wrong soundtrack? Well, that can really screw things up, as it were. Imagine: you’re feeling all lovey-dovey and want to hold your lover’s face while you make sweet missionary love… and then your partner puts on some […]

Toys
The O Awards, the Oscars of Sex Toys

AVN’s Novelty Expo (ANE) is coming to the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas this September 10th through the 12th, where manufacturers and retailers of sex accessories come together (probably in more ways than one — after all, this is Vegas and these are sex toys we’re talking about) to promote and pick up new products. Hopefully […]

Pop Culture
Top 10 Tangled Love Triangles in Film

The tangled love triangle is such a cinematic trope that we could probably put together a list for every year (or a list of Top 10 love triangles with bad ’80s haircuts… or Top 10 love triangles starring Reese Witherspoon…). We decided to limit this list to love-triangle films we actually enjoyed (and not in a guilty-pleasure kind of way) — […]

Vids
A Dinner Table Debate Over Gay Marriage

photo by Stuart Isett for The New York Times With all the backlash over “legitimate rape” vs. illegitimate (sic) rape last week, another great debate got a little lost in the shuffle: the one over gay marriage between sex columnist and married gay dad of one adopted son, Dan Savage, and the president of the National Organization for […]