What is more obscene: Sex or War?

Bombing For Peace Is Like Fucking For Virginity

Scene from The People vs Larry Flynt

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I try to make my rants on here as educational as possible by throwing in the odd statistic or society shocking must read book. But this week I’ve decided to skip most of the “did you know” part and veer more towards amusing (although I’m sure if you take the time to watch the ‘Killing Us Softly’ Video you will learn something).
Enjoy

The Good…. Messages Worth The Air Time

The Bad…. Killing Us Softly (Advertising and its effects on women)

And The Funny???…. Sex in Advertising

Petals

Axe wound, bearded clam, catcher’s mitt, cunt, tuna taco, snatch, twat… all these words are common North American slang terms for the vagina. Funny? Possibly. Disturbing? A little. So what do they all have in common?

A negative connotation to a beautiful body part.

Why must most vagina referrals be negative? Why has our society attached shame and repugnance to a part of the body that not only brings pleasure, but life itself?

Well I can sit here and ponder the origins of our sexual distain… blame the church, our patriarchal system, the Victorian era etc however the past can’t be changed, regardless of its origins. So, the future is what I look to.

How do we change these beliefs into something more positive? Well, we start with art.

The book Petals, by Nick Karras, is an amazing body of work which contains nothing more than the pure, untainted black and white photos of women’s vulva’s. As up close and personal as an eye can get, Karras captures the essence of true feminine form and diversity in these stunning images. No names, no faces, just raw uncensored genitals in their entirety.

I was moved when I first saw Karras book. Not because I was shocked by the images (although the diversity of the vulva is much greater than porn leads us to believe), but because I knew how difficult it must have been for the women to take off their cloths, release there inhabitations, break down the shame many have attached to their vaginas and spread their legs for the world to see.

That courage and pride in their true feminine form is – in my opinion – something worth spreading. So… I spread it (pun intended). Karras new book, Petals 2, is a color version of his original and yes, I am honoured to say I’m in his new artful masterpiece. Of course I’ll NEVER tell which photo is mine, however I’m still proud of the fact that I was able to embrace my pulchritudinous vulva and spread my legs for the future societal path towards vaginal beauty.

So I leave you with this….. love canal, slice of heaven, honey pot, grassy knoll, jewel box, crack of heaven.

The “O” Face

Video of Beautiful Agony: The O Face
The “O” Face – made popular by the film Office Space – is the facial expression one makes just as they are reaching orgasm. For as long as I can remember this face has been joked about in TV and media but has never actually made a move into the mainstream with any real erotic validity. Until now…

The website ‘Beautiful Agony’ has pushed the boundaries of the “O” Face by presenting viewers with just that; the raw face of an orgasm, nothing more nothing less. Not cluttered by words or descriptions, the site takes us on a journey of pleasure from one face to another. There are no actors, no editing and no faking. Just real faces of those brave enough to share their “O” Face with the world.

My view of the site? Brilliant.

It’s about time we sexualized more than fake breasts, large penises and Debbie’s travels through Dallas. In my opinion the site is also doing a great service to the pro-masturbation campaign of our time. Now although “masturbation” is not one of the seven forbidden words that have been banned from our airwaves by the Federal Communications Commission (those words in case you were wondering are piss, fuck, shit, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits) it might as well be considering the rarity with which it is spoken or seen of within our society.

By spreading the good word about sites like ‘Beautiful Agony’ and ‘IFeelMyself’, we are helping to dispel the negative connotations surrounding masturbation and creating a sex-positive space with which our youth can live. So please, help spread the “O” Face love, and show our generation that erotica can be simplistic, artistic and realistic.

Pornography for the Blind

In a society bombarded with sexual imagery and pornographic undertones, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could live among us and not see its presence. However when we step outside our egocentric box and look around us, we see that there are a large number of individuals that have yet to experience just this.

Who are they?

They are the porn industries forgotten clientele….the blind.
Most books are meant to be looked at and read only with our eyes, however Canada’s own Lisa J. Murphy has decided that that category is far too limiting. Murphy has written a book entitled the Tactile Mind, in which she takes the idea of written pornography to a 3D level. Inspired by the void of availability of erotic books for the visually impaired, Murphy has created a work of art that contains explicit soft-core images raised from the pages and accompanied by Braille text and photos.

Now I’m sure many would question Murphy’s consumer market, or lack there of. However few realize that there are currently more than 836,000 Canadians living with significant vision loss, therefore the market for the Tactile Mind’s 3D effects is greater than one might think. Creating this masterfully crafted book for consumers is however, a far more problematic process, as each book can take between 40-50 hours to create and is between 13-15 centimetres thick when shut! With all the man hours put into producing each copy, its asking price of $225 is therefore a somewhat reasonable price.

So, if you’re in the mood for some interesting 3D pornography grab a copy of Murphy’s Tactile Mind. Sure you may have a hard time understanding the Braille…. but really, no one buys porn for the articles anyway.

College Students Urged to Trade in Their Bibles for Playboy

The Atheist Agenda, a student group at the University of Texas in San Antonio, is urging students to trade in their holy books (Koran, Bible, Vedas) for pornography. The group feels that ‘religious texts are so appalling, you’re better off having porn’.

The ‘Smut for Smut’ program, which has drawn widespread attention during its campaign, has apparently done fairly well. Riding on the idea that the program presents a fair trade, group member Brian Talker states, “[Religious texts] are so full of genocide, misogyny and ludicrous ideas that far overshadow any banal common-sense platitudes like loving thy neighbour, that you are better off having porn, which isn’t nearly as smutty.”

Although many question the groups tact, the students profess that ‘Smut for Smut’ is an excellent way to draw attention to religious leaders and the hypocrisy of their condemnations of pornography. “They’ve been going and rallying against pornography for the longest time,” the unidentified student said, “and the disgusting, depraved acts that are within the Bible, Koran and Vedas completely outnumber any [faults] of any pornographic image.”

Christian groups have risen up against the program by establishing anti ‘Smut for Smut’ websites (drawing thousands of members) and by giving away anti-pornography literature in a booth situated across from the Atheist Agenda. As of yet, neither group has backed down and both continue to campaign for their cause.

Although I have always lobbied for freedom of speech, even I know better than to venture my unsolicited opinion on this topic. So I will simply say that I think it’s important to fight for our opinions, but not to believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth. And that we ought to always entertain our belief with some measure of doubt – a point I still struggle with – as I wouldn’t wish people to dogmatically believe any philosophy…. not even mine. So instead of inserting ______ Teesha’s thoughts here _______ I will simply leave you with the facts and let you decide whether you’re offended by this story, or you find gentle amusement in its progressions.

Loving the Porn, Maybe… Living the Porn… Probably Not

During my schooling I have been exposed to and watched more pornography than most do in their entire lives. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Studying how the porn industries “Money Shot” has transformed throughout the years, is a lot more entertaining than any previous academia I have be exposed to. That being said, I have noticed throughout my sexual studies – as I’m sure many others have before me – that the porn industry portrays many things that are at best, a far stretch from reality.

Now most of us can ascertain the fact that the majority of ‘regular’ women aren’t a size 0 with perky double D breasts, and most ‘regular’ men aren’t 8 inches long and can sustain an erection for two hours. However I think there are many other factors portrayed in mainstream pornography that aren’t as widely understood as ‘fiction’.

For example, when watching your favourite porn, does the man usually ‘pull out’ right before he’s about to have an orgasm and then proceed to ejaculate on the woman’s face? Does the women not only enjoy, but also have an orgasm, in every position the man ‘puts’ her in? Does fellatio usually result in a forceful pushing of the woman’s head and gagging? Is anal sex a given? Is the women ‘ready to go’ within seconds of being touched on the genitals? I could go on and on but you get the picture.

I feel that in our society we lack proper in-depth sexual education and therefore many youth are driven towards pornography for this information. The problem? I get many people writing to me asking why they can’t achieve an orgasm quickly enough, why they don’t enjoy anal sex, why they take too long (10 minutes) to become aroused, and why they can’t last for more than 30 minutes in bed.

Just the other day I was told of a woman who was getting together with a younger man for the first time. They had been dating for a few weeks and really hitting if off. So one evening they decided to move things to the next level. Everything was going fairly well (except for the fact that he kept spitting on her vulva when they had lubrication by the bedside), when he suddenly ‘pulled out’ and tried to ejaculate on her face. Lucky for him, she was able to express her sexual distain for this behaviour in a mature fashion, but for a lot of women I know, that would have ended things abruptly.

Now I’m not picking on the men, women are just as susceptible to this new age ‘porno-thinking’. My point is simply that porn is somewhat like a Hollywood movie. Just because you saw it on TV, doesn’t make it true. Don’t believe everything you see in porn, and remember… communication (not penis size or thrusting speed) is what will make you a fantastic lover!

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My Meeting with the Legendary Porn Star Annie Sprinkle

Only one woman could combine live masturbation shows, cancer erotica and bronze casted used underwear into the same day… that lady? The legendary Porn Star, Annie Sprinkle.

I met with Annie today and it was nothing less than awe-inspiring. She spoke about everything from her one woman shows, to her battle with breast cancer. She shared details of her production of ‘Public Cervix Announcement’, which involved using a speculum to show thousands of people her cervix… live…. on stage.

Other shows involved her masturbating to orgasm in front of the audience, lying naked on stage while being covered in dirt, and recreating her history of bad fellatio experiences with multiple dildos. Annie doesn’t just ‘perform’ however; she lives the life she presents. Not too long ago she was faced with breast cancer. Contrary to what you may think, this didn’t stop Annie in her sexual path. Instead she faced the cancer with such humour and vitality that I was inspired. With her partner, Elizabeth Stephens, Annie made the first cancer erotica that was photographed and displayed for many to see. During the ‘sexual session’ the pair shaved off all of their hair together, while becoming even more sexually connected.

I sat and listened to Annie and her partner attentively, as the stories progressively got crazier and the pictures juicier. I wasn’t just blown away by Annie’s history however; I was blown away by her current work. Annie and Elizabeth are on a quest to help save the earth from pollution and destruction, and have chosen to come at the issue from an unusual position.

Their belief? To look at the earth as your Lover, not your Mother. To become Ecosexual in your love for the earth, by honouring and cherishing it until death brings you closer together. I was captivated by this idea and vowed to become ecosexual as well… afterall you know what they say don’t you?
Recyclers do it twice, and twice as well!

Annie’s message was clear and inspiring, so I thought I would do my part in spreading the news. Please recycle your old sex toys (www.sextoyrecycling.com) and support causes such as ‘Fuck for the Forest’ (www.fuckforforest.com). If you’d like to know more about Annie Sprinkle you can check out her website.