Physicians express concern about the growing popularity of penis enlargement procedures, which, despite the enthusiastic claims of some practitioners, the relevant professional societies regard as “experimental” due to the lack of sufficient safety and efficacy data. An opinion piece published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine recommends careful psychological screening of patients prior to receiving […]
Women Less Heterosexual than Men
LGBTQ+ identification has more than doubled since 2012 according to a recent Gallup poll. 28% of Gen Z women identified as LGBTQ+ compared with 10.6% of Gen Z men. In an in-depth piece, The Conversation brings together an interdisciplinary team (psychology, social work, and gender studies) to look at this national trend and ask if […]
Why Do Fathers Commit Incest?
A recently published study based on in-depth interviews with six UK fathers convicted of abusing their own children or step-children gives insight into the common characteristics that put men at risk for this profoundly damaging behavior. These include dysfunctional family environments in their own upbringing, an instrumentalizing attitude toward having children (i.e. doing it to […]
Sex Toy Education in Pornography
A team of three women from the University of New Brunswick has studied the use of sex toys in 100 mainstream heterosexual pornographic videos. They found that the toys (including vibrators, dildos, and butt plugs) are most frequently used by the male partner to enhance the pleasure of the female partner, but are often also […]
World Cup and Babies
Do major sporting events, such as this year’s World Cup, influence the sexual behavior of fans and cause a significant change in local birth rates and sex ratios? A review of 4 different studies indicates that the answer is “maybe”. These studies looked at birth rates and/or sex ratios in live births 9 months after […]
How Many Gay Subcultures Are There?
It has long been known that there is no one type of gay man and that generalizations about their appearance or behavior are hazardous. A newly published “scoping review” (i.e. a search of published scholarship) in the journal Psychology & Sexuality identifies a range of different subcultures that have been the object of scholarly interest. […]
Half of Gen Z Frenchwomen Think Sex is Unimportant
The French Institute of Public Opinion surveyed 1,011 women aged 18-29. Only 38% felt that sex was very important, compared to 62% in 1990, and half said it was not that important in their lives. 62% of women aged 20-24 said they sometimes felt bored during sex, compared to only 42% in 1996. The authors […]
Sex Isn’t Real?
In Sex Isn’t Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary, Beans Velocci argues that biological sex is not a natural fact or stabile category, but a socially and historically constructed classification system congealed via powerful cultural discourses. Velocci explains that scientific ideas about sex have always been entangled with racism, colonialism, eugenics, and efforts to […]
Teen Boys and Their AI Girlfriends
Hard Copy has previously reported on the rise of AI “dating” and “relationships”. Researchers and academics are reporting that teen boys are increasingly turning to AI “girlfriends” for companionship. Experts warn that if young people start replacing real relationships with AI interactions, they may end up building fewer real-world connections. These real connections are important […]
The Resurgence of “Telegony”
The pseudo-scientific concept of “telegony” (the idea that a woman’s first sexual partner leaves a genetic imprint that influences later offspring with a different partner) has been resurrected in some circles, including manosphere ideology of female sexual purity, right-wing esoteric movements in Russia derived from the so-called Slavic-Aryan Vedas, and alternative medicine or energy-healing beliefs […]