I bet you thought this title was a joke. You'd be wrong. My favorite post on the subject comes from Elizabeth Pisani:

I'll have a rant about something that is somehow still shocking to me: the lengths to which loopy anti-abortion groups in the United States will go to deprive women of safe contraception and sexual health care. The target, once again, is Planned Parenthood. Over a one-week period last month, men went in to the sexual health service providers clinics in 11 cities, claiming to be sex traffickers seeking services, including abortions, for the underage girls they've enslaved. That would be a really dumb strategy for a real sex trafficker in the US, even more than in Britain, the authorities are under pressure to find the army of enslaved girls that the abolitionists conjure up at every turn.

... Planned Parenthood immediately suspected that no trafficker would be that dumb. Certainly not 11 traffickers in different cities in a week, when such a thing had never happened before. Though it smelled like a hoax, they dutifully reported the alleged trafficking to the FBI and asked for an investigation. Now loopy anti-abortionist group Live Action has admitted, with some pride, to their juvenile prank. They've released two of their undercover videos, to which they added juvenile-prank-style title screens.

The excellent documentary "Orgasm, Inc" -- which was shown for free in 2010 at Chicago's own glorious sex-positive film series! -- will be shown again at the Gene Siskel Film Center starting next week. (I'm a little surprised that they're calling it the "first Chicago run", given that Sex+++ already screened it last year. But, you know, whatever.)

In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. ORGASM INC. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire and that ultimate moment: orgasm.

Showtimes:
Fri 11th: 8:30 pm
Sat. 8:00 pm
Sun. 3:00 pm
Mon. 8:30 pm
Tue. 6:00 pm
Wed. 8:30 pm
Thu. 6:00 pm

Yes, it will be showing on the 14th ... making it a great date movie for sex nerds. Buy tickets here!

Relevant posts on my personal blog:
* Guilt, Failure and a Pre-Orgasmic Feminist

Yup, it exists. And yes, the song is actually called "S&M". I'm not in much of a position to comment on all the references, but one of the MTV blogs sure is:

In the video, Rihanna puts herself in a number of suggestive situations, both as the dominated and the dominatrix. But rather than simply titillate, the clip is attempting to say something meaningful about Rihanna's sometimes-contentious relationship with the media, a topic that many pop stars have addressed in their videos over the years. While "S&M" doesn't make a whole lot of explicit references to images of the past, the roots of the clip run deep and are extremely eclectic.

Perez Hilton: The celebrity blogger appears in two different places in the clip, but the one that leaves the biggest impression puts Hilton on the end of a leash held by Rihanna. Dressed as a glamorous housewife and walking across a perfectly manicured lawn, Rihanna leads Hilton to a fire hydrant, where he mimes urinating, then lowers to the ground to have his belly rubbed. Hilton is a perfect example of Rihanna's complicated relationship with the media, as he has said some negative things about the singer on his blog but will still appear in the video (and in a submissive role, no less).

I like Rihanna's music. I think I've said before that I personally thought the "Russian Roulette" video was pretty hot (and I'm kind of a perverted motherfucker for thinking that, since it's especially heavy on the dark and nearly-abusive emotional imagery). I felt fairly unmoved by watching this video, though. There's this weird thing that seems to happen with a lot of S&M media, where the imagery is all ... surface, and I feel like all the actors are just acting, just creating a pretty picture, not trying to give any images that show us what S&M looks like or feels like for actual BDSMers. This even happens with media that I think might legitimately be coming from someone who's into S&M, or has an interest in representing an actual S&M relationship, like that early-2000s flick "Secretary": it was way more occupied with showing all the CRAZY SHIT THESE PEOPLE GET UP TO than it was with showing a real relationship.

Yeah. Basically, another stereotype showcase. No worse than most of what we already had, but no better, either.

Relevant posts on my personal blog:

* 5 sources of assumptions and stereotypes about S&M

An exciting new post on my personal blog:

(The above image -- a postcard, showing a pinup-style girl with the text "I gained 30 pounds ... & sex has never been better!" -- is courtesy of PostSecret, the community art project to which people mail in postcards featuring secrets they've never told anyone before.)

I often think that good physical health is a widely-ignored element of good sex. I am obviously not saying that people in poor health can't have good sex (and in fact, I certainly hope they do -- more power to 'em). But it consistently amazes me how much my physical health factors into my sexuality, especially S&M. I am by no means an expert on this topic, but here are some examples:

Read more by clicking here.