Georgetown philosophy professor Quill R Kukla’s most recent book Sex Beyond “Yes”: Pleasure and Agency for Everyone is a much needed treatise on sexual pleasure. Sex, for many sexual subjects, is afflicted with a variety of contemporary concerns. Specifically, trauma, abuse, guilt, shame, and moral confusion are part and parcel of many a sex life. […]
New Book Gives Insight into Sex Work Decriminalization in New Zealand
Using the techniques of oral history, Cheryl Ware’s recently published book Untold Intimacies: A History of Sex Work in Aotearoa, 1978-2008 (Auckland University Press) tells the engaging personal stories of female and male sex workers in the periods both before and after New Zealand became the first country to effectively decriminalize the practice nationwide in […]
Sink your teeth into Slutty Cheff’s new memoir
There are lots of parallels between sex and food, and I’m surprised the two don’t cross over in the news more often. For one, both require an appetite, and appetites need to be sustained. Slutty Cheff is an anonymous chef from London, England, who writes about her experiences in the restaurant industry – the Orville […]
1 out of 5 people born with a uterus will have it removed
Get It Out: On the Politics of Hysterectomy by medical sociologist Andréa Becker is out this month through New York University Press. Although hysterectomies are common worldwide procedures, they are not a mainstay topic of public discourse. Considering the droves of subjects that are affected by hysterectomies, they should be! This important project explores the […]
Sex work is work!
Womxn: Working is a recently produced documentary that examines sex work activism in South Africa. Sex work is still criminalized in the country and this important work assesses the damage these archaic laws continue to deal sex worker communities, denying them their rights and freedoms. Directed by Shanelle Jewnarain, the film applies an important feminist […]
Have you ever considered a sex sabbatical?
The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex was recently published in June. In it, Melissa Febos, a professor at the University of Iowa, chronicles her year of intentional abstinence. While sex can be extremely nourishing, it also can sap a subject of a great deal of emotional and physical energy. […]
That’s Prince Faggot to you!
Canadian writer and theatre maker Jordan Tannahill’s off-broadway production of Prince Faggot has been extended for a second time through to August 3rd at The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in New York City. The show, directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, is a co-production of Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep. The provocative piece centers queerness within the monarchy and takes […]
Here we go again speculating on young people’s sex lives
Hot off the press! Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future explores Gen Z’s sex lives (or lack thereof!) and dissects some of the social, political, and psychological factors that may be contouring young people’s sexual subjectivity. Journalist Carter Sherman compares the different brands of sexual speculation that cyclically plagues each new […]
Another BDSM story is making its mark
If you’re a film buff you are likely aware of Pillion, a film that just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18. The film stars Henry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard. It’s about a gay BDSM relationship, and Skarsgard plays the motorcycle-riding dom character, a fact that will surely please many of his fans. According […]
12 Virgins get sent to an island…
Channel 4 – a British public-service broadcaster out of the United Kingdom – has produced a new reality TV show that follows 12 virgins who get sent to an island to face their virginity and tap into their desires – aka: get laid. Therapists, intimacy coaches, and other “professionals” are available to help the virgins […]