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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Protester Wears A Slut Gag


"My lips are sealed!" Image source: Toronto Life website.

Here's a nice image from the Toronto Life website, part of a gallery of images that include quite a few wild and wacky and sometimes almost naked people expressing the sentiment that no means no and that slut shaming should not be part of our response to rape and sexual harrassment. Check it out!

I'm totally down with that. A woman SHOULD be able to walk down any street at any time of day or night and nobody should be able to harass her, much less rape her. Women's freedom is everybody's freedom. Good on the lot of them!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Fifty Shades of Second Life Gor


Yeff, Chriffam ... I meme, yeff, maffah!" Image source: me.

Well ten million people have bought Fifty Shades of Gray ... hmmm. That means that if even one percent of those ten million people decide they want to do some kinky sexual roleplay, that's ... a hundred thousand new sexual roleplayers, which is TWICE the current population of Second Life Gor roleplayers by even the ROSIEST estimates.

That's why I wrote 50 Shades of Second Life Gor, a blatant attempt to recruit 50 Shades of Gray readers into roleplaying in Second Life Gor. If they're coming, might as well let 'em know what they're in for ... which is to say, tons of kinky, sexy fun! If you're into that sort of thing.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

50 States of Gray

I've decided to take down the bulk of this post, which was about Rafe Marinetti, because he has taken down his blog. No content to link to, so there's no point to it. Sorry 'bout that! I am leaving up the bit about the 50 States infographic, because it's info-tastic!

Just to get rid of some of the 50 Shades of Gray news that keeps piling up in my bookmarks, the Goodreads book review site has created a nifty infographic showing which states are buying the most copies of 50 Shades of Gray, and which states like the book the most. They are not the same states, not by a long shot. Interesting!


Albabama likes it! Alabama likes it a LOT! Dirty, dirty Alabama! Image source: Sex and Submission.com.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Breaking News: Am I Being Mainstreamed?


Fox "journalist" S.E. Cupp has gotten this blog closer to the mainstream than its ever been before. Which, granted, is not close at all.. Image source: the InterWebs.

So, The Young Turks has done a story about the scandal surrounding one of Larry Flynt's pubications/websites/whatevers creating a photoshopped picture of Fox news commentator S.E. Cupp with a cock near her mouth.

I can understand the appeal of the story for The Young Turks, it gave them the opportunity to tut-tut about the awfulness of such behavior while giving their fan base a little salaciousness. But it didn't work out quite the way the Young Turks thought it would, because the really interesting story here is in the comments. Kasparian was so outraged that she thought the practice of photoshopping celebs should be illegal, and Cenk came along with her. The Young Turks fans did not follow along with them however. "Dislikes" were a sizable majority over "likes" (roughly 850 dislikes vs. roughly 750 likes, at the moment) which is unusual on any site that has a large fan base, and the Young Turks have one of the largest. Granted, their fans are an independent bunch, being progressives, but clearly, Cenk and Ana are zigging while the majority of their followers zag.


MacKenzie Lee or Ana Kasparian? It is REALLY hard to be sure, except of course for the nakedness thing. Image source: the InterWebs.

But the interesting thing was that my site was indirectly mentioned in the comments section several times. That's because if you Google Ana Kasparian along with nude or naked or bondage, the VERY first result you will get is an image from this blog. It's not a photoshopped pic of Ana, or even a pic of Ana at all, but a pic of McKenzie Lee, her celebrity clone, from this article on the blog. One commenter described McKenzie Lee as Kasparian's "porn star doppelganger" as if that were at thing, which was nice.

The fact that the comments section of progressive news program on Youtube is my closest approach to mainstream fame might SEEM to be the very DEFINITION of obscurity. But that's how it starts. One day you're filing the serial numbers off an obscure bit of Twilight fanfic, the next day you're on every magazine cover, TV show and blog on Earth. My site will perhaps be the harbinger of the next new wave in porn: funny porn.


Clumsy photoshop jobs? Who needs them, when you have a celebrity clone? Image source: Whipped Ass.com.


Thursday, May 24, 2012

OMG!!! Actual Bondage In A Fashion Photo Spread!


It's never porn when it's in black and white. Image source: the Fashionising site.

Fashion loves bondage, we all know that. I run across story after story that my poor, indiscriminate flying monkeys bring home that I have to discard because it's about fashion bondage, which is to say, not bondage at all. I've written about this phenomenon before.

So you can imagine my delight and surprise when I came across the article on the Fashionising blog, which is a real fashion blog, not kinky at all, which had images of a naked woman actually tied up with rope. It was about the beauty and grace of japanese shibari bondage, which CAN be powerful bondage imagery, but can also be, well, just decorative wrapping over the body. But in most of the photos on the Fashionising spread, the model's hands are actually tied.


But not all of the photos. It IS fashion, after all. Image source: the Fashionising site.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Sibel Kekilli: Not A Celebrity Clone

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

At Last: Crowdsource Funding For Porn!


With porn, they don't just crowdsource -- they crowdsource your brains out! Image source: Wired Pussy

As we all know ... because we've been told SO FUCKING MANY TIMES!!!! ... porn is a multibillion dollar industry. Why, to hear the mainstream media tell it, all you have to do is take a picture of whatever happens to be lollygagging in your pants and post it to the internet and wait for the tens of thousands of dollars to come your way.

My experience as a writer of erotica, a pornish blogger and website builder, has convinced me that this is not always the case. Even attractive young women willing to give their all to the non-discerning eye of a webcam can find porn less than rewarding. I remember reading the harrowing tale of a pretty young lady in the local "Creative Loafing." She decided to become a webcam girl, dutifully bought a webcam and did all sorts of naked, sexual things for anyone who would pay her $10 a month, and eventually managed to make a staggering sixty dollars a MONTH!

So I was not surprised to see an article about a new crowdsourcing fund for adult enterprises on TNW - The Next Web site. TNW is not about porn but about innovation in the web, and this DOES seem like an innovation. It's already got 26 adult projects almost or completely funded, according to the report, which means ... more porn! Possibly more weird porn! Can my long-delayed sexy space opera, "Dancing Slave Girls Of Mars" be far from completion? Perhaps not!

However ... a close reading of the article indicates that the REAL reason for the site's existence is to establish a patent on the IDEA of crowdsourcing for adult websites and then suing the shit out of anyone who tries to get in that business, or at least getting a little protection money from them ... excuse me,"fees." This patents-as-protection-racket has become a huge problem in business nowadays ... it's become an industry. If that's what they're up to ... and it's kinda of clear that it is ... to hell with them.

Friday, May 18, 2012

The LURID Story of Slaves In Bondage


Forget about it, Jake ... it's bondage town!

My flying monkeys found this tasty bit bouncing around the web thanks to Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine site. It's a trailer for a 1937 exploitation classic called "Slaves In Bondage." I've not seen the whole film, but it would thoroughly surprise me if there was any actual bondage or slavery to be seen anywhere in the film. However, it probably was a bit of a howl. It surely INTENDED to be lurid, but the date, 1937, is a giveaway that it could not have been. Hayes Code territory, no actual nudity or sex to be seen, thought of, referenced or in any way alluded to in any US film to be shown in movie theaters. (I may be exaggerating a LITTLE .. but not much.)


Here's what the film would PROBABLY have looked like without Hayes Code censorship! Image source: Sex and Submission website. (OK, I might be exaggerating a LITTLE here, too ...)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Cosplay And Bondage: A Natural


"So, big fella, what say you and I see if we can't do our part to reverse the Japanese people's negative population growth?" Image source: Simply Otaku website.

Here we have an image of Japanese cosplayer and model Hanamura Misaki dressed up as Akemi Homura from the anima Madoka Magica, and tied up with red ropes as seen on the Simply Otaku website. As anyone who's ever watched echhi and hentai knows, bondage is a big feature of Japanese adult cartoons. I've covered the topic at length on my Hentai Review website, with plenty of vidcaps to clearly show who did what to whom and how bondage-y it was.

The website that this image came from is devoted to the sexier aspects of female cosplay, but the sexy aspects do not override the cosplayer's attention to detail ... the clothing, hair and makeup shot great attention to detail, the hallmark of otaku. Most of the shoots do not involve bondage, but there's some nudity and there's nothing wrong with that. Check it out!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

USA Today Assures Us That America Will Not Get Kinky! Gawker Mocks USA Today!


Kinky sex will NOT be happening in America's bedrooms! Because ... it just can't!" Image source: Fucking Dungeon.com.

There's nothing like the mainstream media engaging in some major frolicking in the biggest river in mainstream media: Denial. USA Today has gone all-out with an article that reassures us all that all those kinky fantasies that women are enjoying in 50 Shades of Gray will NOT be appearing in bedrooms in America.

Bold talk from a hotel room doormat!

Gawker had some fun scoffing at the article, and it's freaking hilarious stuff, nailing the absurdities and the intent of the original article with some really topnotch snark. Plus, a pic of a woman who is actually tied up, something you don't see much of in mainstream media coverage. So get thee hence!

Second Life Gor Evolved By The Book


"Well, I WAS going to roleplay baking some poison-laced cookies for a black caste assassin today, but he IS much better at pointing and clicking his mouse than I am!" Image source: Fucking Dungeon.com.

The original split in Second Life Gor happened about seven years ago, maybe six years. Second Life Gor was in its early stages first characterized by the growth of sims featuring Gorean roleplay, mostly involving cities. Almost as soon as that happened, outlaws, pirates and panther groups arose. Their natural opponents, other than each other, were the cities of Second Life Gor. Because the outlaws, panthers and pirates were more prone to fight, by the nature of their groups, than the cities, which had all kinds of peaceful roles (scribes, merchants, bakers, candlemakers, administrators, etc.) the outlaw groups tended to win fights most of the time. Eventually, they began to win almost all the time.

The problem was exacebated by the tendency of male players to enjoy combat more and for female players to enjoy roleplay more, and the tendency of the pirates, panthers and outlaws to ally to attack the cities. And there were also Xenas, players who disliked Gor and who played Gor, became outlaws, pirates or panthers and expressed their feelings by thoroughly kicking the asses of the big, bad Gorean Masters in the cities, in game. The end result, to hear some tell it, was that cities got rolled over on an almost hourly basis by wave after endless wave of hordes of fighting outlaws, panthers and pirates, making roleplay impossible (ninjas were apparently the only holdout here, though I did hear a rumor that such a raid did occur once).

Eventually, the cities enacted rules on their sims that female outlaws with bows (the most effective weapon in SL Gor you will recall) could not visit their cities, as such women were not seen in the Gor novels. Also, panther bands could not attack cities in large numbers because in the books panther bands and outlaw bands were small, weak groups that could never have matched the warriors who guarded a city in numbers or military prowess. Since in SL Gor it was the outlaws and friends that had the numbers and the fighting prowess, so the Gorean city sims just used their banning powers to kick out anyone who did not play on their terms.

Since the Gorean city roleplayers claimed that they were expelling the outlaws on the grounds that they were not "by the book" (I have a lot of reservations with this claim) such city sims because known as "by the book" Gor. The bow-toting female outlaws and pirates and panther girls called themselves Gor Evolved, I guess in the sense that they felt they had evolved into something beyond by the book Gor. (I personally think that it's quite reasonable to assume the existence of female warriors and large bands of outlaws and pirates that might take over a city given the way Gor's culture and level of civilization is described in the Gor novels, so I see no need to add the term "Evolved" for accuracy, though it works just fine as a descriptive term so I use it because it's what everyone uses.)

And you might figure that since I play in Gor Evolved (GE Gor) I might be completely on the side of Gor Evolved, but I'm not. Mainly because I see the roleplayers' point: if you are intent on building up any kind of story type roleplay, being captured and forced to do hostage/prisoner/captive/slave roleplay all the time is a huge pain in the ass (possibly literally, if rape/torture roleplay is involved, as it sometimes is). Bakers and scribes and such probably did not constantly get captured even in as warlike a place as Gor is. And cities probably were able to fend off outlaws gangs most of the time, else they would not be cities for long. If you are trying to build up a complex character with a complex storyline, you can see how it would be annoying to have your roleplay constantly interrupted by someone who feels he had a right to take over your storyline because he (or she) has practiced playing Second Life Gor as an arcade game more than you have.

Some Gor Evolved advocates claim that the real reason that cities outlaws femlaws (female outlaws armed with bows) is that the by the book Gorean warriors were just butthurt over getting their asses kicked repeatedly in battle, which, let's face it, is kind of supported by that particular prohibition about female outlaws using the most powerful weapon in Second Life Gor roleplay. Others call by the book Gor "tea party Gor," which implies that by the book Gor is basically a dress-up tea party using the best dolls ever. There may be elements of truth to both implications, especially "tea party Gor" since cities tend to attract female players to a much greater degree than male players so much so that some female players have played male warriors, not because they found it appealing, but so that the other female players would have male warriors to interact with. Guys just don't want to play in that tea party.

I'm not an advocate of either of these views, Gor Evolved works for me because raiding is the MOST FUN EVAH! And I find that the downtime between raids is great for the other parts of Gorean roleplay, which in my case is doing funny stuff. Sometimes, funny, raunchy stuff, but mostly I enjoy parodying the hell out of the heroic Gorean warrior. My character is greedy, self-serving, loves to claim credit for what others achieve and vain, though he does fight bravely enough, not out of valor, but just because he thinks fighting is fun. Often all it requires is bragging artfully after a raid ... or during one. Easy enough to do between raids, and fun, fun, fun!

I wish the split between by the book cities and Gor Evolved outlaws were not so binary, and it's not really, because here's the dirty little secret of Second Life Gor: practically everyone has alts, that is, they have more than one avatar (Second Life allows players with free accounts to have up to eight avatars with different avatar names). So it's very possible to have a male warrior alt, a panther girl alt and a paga slut alt, if you want to do that. You can play in by the book Gor, Gor Evolved AND anything else you want to, if you have the time.

Wait a minute. Male warrior alt AND panther girl? Sure, I SAID some female players do that. I've even heard they are supposed to be tremendously good at playing male warriors, so much so that slavegirls players fall in love with the character. Which leads us to our next topic: OOC and IC.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Experiment and Have Fun With Bondage, College Editorial Advises


"I feel vulnerable, but in a GOOD way!" Image source: Fucking Dungeon.com.

You KNOW an article that begins like THIS is gonna get swept up by my flying monkeys:
If you’ve ever asked a lover to tie you up before he has his way with you, you know what it means to be vulnerable.
Oh, yeah! Two things about this article: the source and the tone, and the quote itself.

First of all, it's a quote from Chico (California) College's student website. College kids have been all about sexual experimentation for a long time, but it's kinda weird to see an article ENCOURAGING sexual experimentation in a student website. Most colleges are nervous as a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs about what appears in student publications. I'm thinking that whole "in loco parentis" thing that made colleges crazy about student goings-on has relaxed a bit. And the lead is "try some bondage!" Gotta love it!

Next, the line about vulnerability. See, here's the thing that a lot of guys don't get. A woman who enjoys ordinary vanilla sex has to make a decision to let someone who is in most cases bigger than her and much stronger than her, stick part of his body into her body. That's vulnerability! The tying-up part emphasizes and increases the vulnerability, but the thing is, women who have vanilla sex ALREADY know what it means to be vulnerable. It's not a brand-new thing with them when you haul out the ropes, though it may jump the feeling up quite a bit.

That's why they are so much better at figuring men out than men are at figuring women out. They have to be.

50 Shades of Gray: The Media Silliness Just Keeps on Happening


Now imagine another picture that is exactly the same in every respect except it is a guy tied up on the table and a woman standing next to him. Would it be exactly the same in terms of its appeal to you? Well, Hollywood apparently thinks it would be! Image source: Fucking Dungeon.com.

I'm TRYING to ignore the media tsunami that is "50 Shades of Gray" but it's hard, man. Really, really hard. And my flying monkeys brought me in a story on the Hollywood Reporter website that I just can't resist. It has the worst headline EVAH! It reads: 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Rides Hollywood's S&M Wave.

The story is about two new TV shows that will feature kink: the series "Whipped," to be aired on the FX Channel, is based on the book "I Was A Teenage Dominatrax," and the series "The Box," now being considered by Showtime, is based on the real-life experience of "the famous Mistress Raven." (I've never heard of her, but then, I don't watch much HBO outside Game of Thrones.)

There are so many things wrong here. The headline has it exactly, totally wrong. "50 Shades of Gray" is the wave, these two series that I have never heard of outside this article are tiny bits of flotsam being carried along by the "50 Shades of Gray" tsunami, which continues to swamp my flying monkeys no matter where I send them (i.e., no matter what search terms I use for my Google news agents.) There IS no "Hollywood S&M wave" there's just "50 Shades of Gray" tearing it up everywhere it goes, and a lot of people trying to catch that wave.

But it's not just the headline. It's the tone deafness of the story. "50 Shades of Gray" is a story about a maledom/femsub relationship (and how Ana and Christian negotiate it into a more ordinary romantic relationship). But it's obvious these two stories are about femdom/malesub sex, and no indication it's about the personal relationships involved in that sex at all. It's as if someone said, "Hey we got a real popular book about a man and a woman who dig the hell out of vanilla sex with each other, so there's an obvious sex wave going on here, and let's ride it by making a TV series about two men who love doing vanilla sex with each other! Everybody will love it!"

See the problem? I'll grant you, gender preferences in terms of sex go a lot deeper than gender preferences in terms of dominance/submision, but it's still real damn important to a lot of people. Yet you see this REPEATEDLY: Hollywood types make no distinction between maledom/femsub and femdom/malesub, and try to emulate the success of maledom/femsub stories with femdom/malesub stories. It's freaking RETARDED! And, apparently, inevitable.

Finally, a large part of the success of "50 Shades of Gray" is the way the author portrays the relationship between, Christian and Ana changing and growing. I don't have ANY faith in these two series managing any such thing. Maybe I am just projecting the idiocy of the Hollywood Reporter onto the series ... but I doubt it.

And if you check out the comments on the article, I let the readers of the Hollywood Reporter know what I thought of their "story."

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Anna Hutchison, Jenna Lind & Gwendoline Taylor: Spartacus Loads Up On Hottie Slave Girls


Images that are not TOO far from this have already appeared in Spartacus, with slave girls bound, but not having sex, and slave girls forced to have sex, but not bound (though sometimes collared). So there's reason for guarded optimism. Sooner of later SOMEBODY may figure out that the fact that women enjoy "50 Shades of Gray" MIGHT mean bondage imagery will draw viewers. It's just that ... so many filmmakers and TV people have been SO stupid about bondage imagery ALREADY, it's hard to believe they can see their noses in front of their faces when it comes to bondage imagery ... Image source: Wired Pussy.


So, I found an article on an entertainment website about a trio of hotties being hired for Spartacus to brighten up Season 3 with some slave girl sexiness.


Jenna Lind has done some nice nude sex scenes, so its very likely she'll be bringing some slave girl heat to her scenes. Image source: vidcap.


Anna Hutchison has also done some nice nude sex scenes, so its very likely she'll be bringing some slave girl heat to her scenes as well. Image source: vidcap.


I could find no images of Gwendoline Taylor nude or in bondage in a quick Google search, so she probably hasn't done any. She is an actress and a model, however, and models typically are not shy about their bodies. This could be a first for her, I don't know. In the meantime, here she is modelling in a fetishy school girl outfit for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art website. Image source: Dr Sketchy's website.


An actual image of a naked slave girl being used by two guys at once from "Spartacus Blood and Sand." I was not kidding when I said the series was not far from Sex and Submission style imagery. This is what Jenna Lind, Anna Hutchison and possibly Gwendoline Taylor may be up to next season. Huzzah! Source: vidcap from "Spartacus: Blood and Sand."

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bondage Fantasy Toy Now Recommended On Mainstream Women's Blogs


Of course, some may prefer a more hands-on approach! Image source: Public Disgrace.

You've read the story before: the submissive is challenged by her dominant to go out in public wearing a vibrating device in or on her vagina, inserted or strapped in or both, and her dominant has a set of remote controls that let him turn it (and her) on at will. And the poor submissive must try to maintain her composure knowing that at any moment, and probably the worst POSSIBLE moment, the vibrator will come to buzzy life and she will find herself fighting not to reveal her predicament as the buzzy device drives her to throes of orgasm. It's the old public sex fantasy.

I was somewhat surprised to find this fun toy recommended on a mainstream women's website, Women 24. Things are moving fast, people, kink is mainstreaming so fast that vanilla as the only acceptable flavor of sex is already three quarters of the way into the dustbin of history. Can ponytail buttplugs advertised in Cosmo be far behind?


I think we all know the answer to that one! Image source: unknown.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Why 50 Shades Of Gray Is So Popular Now


"Oh, yeah! I feel so safe, secure and do-able!" Image source: Hogtied.com.

There have been many theories offered about the success of 50 Shades of Gray, and of course I have one, and of course no one has offered anything like it to date, so I figure I better get it in there so it can be ignored by the mainstream media in favor of lame vaguely WTF articles.

It's always been my feeling that culture is ultimately more important than politics in determining what happens in society. Culture is not obvious, it does not have spokespersons, it is not something that people do because they THINK it is right, but because they FEEL it is right. Culture is more like the subconscious of a society, while politics is a conscious phenomenon. What is argued out tediously by political hacks, operatives and suchlike is in politics is often decided without discussion in culture ... it is only noticed after it has occurred, with the political hacks and operatives squabbling about it after the fact.

This is EXACTLY what has happened with regard to 50 Shades of Gray. The book became popular without any marketing campaign, there was no publisher pushing it on the mommies who liked it, it just took off all by its lonesome.

Now why did this happen? Here's where I get theoretical. I think it happened because the women who enjoyed the bondage and dominance themes in 50 Shades of Gray felt safe in enjoying the fantasies. Comfortable, even. And that's because the respect for choice for women has finally trickled down to middle class women, and they feel safe from being FORCED to do the things enumerated in 50 Shades of Gray. Because it's not fun if you are FORCED to do the things enumerated in 50 Shades of Gray. Not having a choice takes the fun out of just about everything.

Now, granted, women may never have legally been REQUIRED to put up with being tied up and spanked, but for much of US history, for all practical purposes, their husbands COULD do that, whether they liked it or not. And that takes the fun out of it unless you're REALLY into it, and maybe even then, for many women.

And the thing is, women need to FEEL safe to enjoy the fantasies in 50 Shades of Gray, which is a whole 'nother thing. And I think what 50 Shades of Gray means is, regular middle class women finally DO feel safe about bondage fantasies.

This is wonderful news, great news, and not just for bondage fans, but for everybody. Because it means that the psychological freedom that feminism has long fought for has trickled down to middle class and probably a lot of lower class women. And as I said in my article on The Feminist Sex Wars, consensual bondage can only thrive in an atmosphere of freedom, where men and women honestly feel that they are making choice when they say "No" to rape or "Yes" to bondage, or vice versa. If sexual bondage is not consensual, it's just thuggery, and the rub for men is, women have to FEEL that sense of consensuality, you can't just TELL a woman she has a choice, because she has to FEEL that she has a choice for it to be valid.

Well, nobody MADE 50 Shades of Gray a success except its readers. That huge swell that political types felt passing under their feet (but could not understand) while they squabbled in ideological terms about 50 Shades of Gray was millions of women feeling safe enough in their personal lives to enjoy fantasies of being bound and dominated. Because they felt free. A great thing for us all.

And you can tell from the puzzled, angry reactions of some feminists that they feel betrayed by the woman who have embraced 50 Shades of Gray. "We fought for your freedoms as well as our own, we helped make your right to choose possible, and THIS is what you choose? How COULD you?" Well, that's the way it is when you give people freedom ... they don't always choose in ways that you would like. But so long as they retain the freedom ... it'll be all right, eventually. Wait and see.

Written this tenth day of May, 2012, so that now and forevermore, I shall be able to say, "I told you so."


"Now THIS is exercising freedom!" Image source: The Upper Floor.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Cute Canadian Female Judge In Bondage?


"Now THAT'S what I call a judicial restraining order!" Image source: Hogtied.com.

Ah, those wacky Canadians! From Manitoba we have a tale of judicial restraint that would make a Lifetime Movie of the Week so lurid that it makes "50 Shades of Gray" look like the Bible! It seems that Alexander Chapman of Winnipeg is alleging that Jack King, husband of Manitoba Queens Bench Judge Lori Douglas, tried to pressure him into have sex with Douglas in 2003 and 2004.

And the reason this is an appropriate story for Politics and Sex is, King, who was hired by Chapman to handle his divorce, is accused of showing Chapman photos of Judge Douglas in bondage, in chains, performing oral sex and playing with sex toys as part of his pressuring Chapman to have sex with Chapman. And Douglas is not bad looking, if the photo that ran with the story in on the CBC News/Manitoba website is any indicator.

The case is still in the "allegations" phase, a hearing will occur later this month. Should be an interesting case!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Kinky, Kinky Genes


"It's a good thing I'm genetically programmed to like this ... otherwise, I might feel a little silly ..." Image source: Whipped Ass.com.

So I found an article online which considered the notion that dominance and submission behavior might have a genetic origin: a "sex fetish gene" was the way it was phrased in the headline, though the phrasing in the article was at the same both vaguer and more specific: "wired for dominance and submission."

I've always been kind of leery of these claims of genetic origins for sexual tastes. That's because the gay community long ago adopted the notion that gayness was genetically determined way back when. They claimed it was a result of early childhood feelings of gayness, etc., but there was an obvious social agenda item there: if gayness was genetically determined, people did not become gay because they were "converted" to gayness by other gays, as many cultural conservatives have maintained. (I.e., gays are awful sexual predators by nature who must be kept away from our innocent young men through harsh, stringent laws.) It was kind of a "vampire" model of sexuality, and claiming that gayness was genetically determined was the gay community's silver bullet of a response to that claim.

Only problem was, there was no scientific evidence that it was so. In fact, there's a huge scientific objection to it, in the form of evolutionary science. See, the way evolution works in the case of most traits, is that over hundreds of thousands of generations a trait that has a tiny, tiny evolutionary advantage ... say, it gives individuals in the species a one percent advantage in survival ... will eventually be present in 100 percent of the species. It's that slow grinding over thousands or even millions of generations that does the trick, and of course, the greater the advantage, the faster the change takes place.

This is also true for traits that have an unfavorable effect on reproductive success, except that instead of spreading throughout the population, they vanish over thousands of generations. Do you see where I am going? If there was ever a genetic trait that would have a drastically negative effect on reproductive success, it would have to be being sexually attracted to your own gender. No babies there!

I've heard a number of counter-arguments to this point: gayness may be a recessive trait that is carried along by a survival-enhancing dominant trait, gays tend to have children in primitive societies due to overwhelming pressures to do so whether they want to or not, gayness in siblings may have an advantage in that the gay siblings help raise the children of their straight brothers and sisters, etc.

None of it strikes me as a sufficiently powerful argument to deal with the stumbling block that evolutionary theory imposes: the thoroughness with which evolution deals with traits that have very tiny effects on reproductive success makes the overwhelming disadvantage imposed by genetic gayness seem, well ... impossible to overcome. Even if ALL of those factors combined reduced the reproductive disadvantage of gayness from, say, -90 percent to, say, -10 percent, that's still a HUGE disadvantage.

So my own personal feeling is .. I don't know, and I've not seen anything convincing enough to make me "know" that gayness either is or is not genetic.

Now in relation to bondage kink, John Norman back in the 80s took a hell of a lot of flack for claiming that women were submissive and men dominant in the "order of nature" which sounds kinda genetic. I never bought that either, but not on evolutionary grounds, after all, dominance and submission behavior could well be neutral in terms of reproductive success as it occurs in heterosexual couples and I've not seen any arguments, much less convincing ones, that it affects reproductive success at all.

I rejected Norman's line because it claims that since human beings may have certain natural tendencies towards dominance and submission, that every relationship between men and women must be determined by those tendencies. Now this might be true of chimps, baboons and monkeys, which are mostly instinctual creatures, but human beings engage in behaviors that are WAAAAAAY more complex than other great apes and monkeys. We play the banjo. We write computer programs. We write blogs! We don't do any of those things instinctively. By far the majority of human behavior is learned. Being human is mostly about engaging in learned behavior.

It is very evident that in respect to the learned behaviors that define human beings, women are pretty much the equals of men in every way, and should be treated as our equals, even if we did have a natural disposition to dominate them, which I don't necessarily buy anyway (not enuogh hard evidence). This does not mean we can't ENJOY dominance and submission feelings in our sex play, ramping up the differences between the sexes to ramp up our enjoyment of one another. But we don't have to behave like baboons just because we evolved from a species of ape much like baboons. We're humans!

So in my mind, the jury is out on the issue of kinky genes of every description. Maybe overwhelming evidence will come along some day, but in the meantime, I advocate tolerance and kindness. Seems to work out well in lieu of certainty.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Damsel In Distress Video



Found a fun little video on Youtube, shot entirely with a still camera and created as a stop motion video. It plays in a mildly wicked, skewed way with the old Damsel in Distress tied to the railroad tracks meme. Enjoy!