MetaFilter posts tagged with sex

sex in the park

halekon — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:11:51 -0800

Police set up a sting in a park and men are arrested for lewd behavior. The mens behavior is illegal but should their lives be ruined? He says he was told to plead guilty and did so to avoid a harsher punishment that would have come had Giles pled innocent and then been found guilty. Afterward, his employer fired him. "When I lost my job over it my wife was so upset and distraught and distressed that she had a major heart attack," said Giles, whose wife died shortly after ABC News interviewed him. John Stossel does his report.

Incest: Taboo or not taboo?

electricinca — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:43:17 -0800

I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty. An interesting article in The Times written by a woman who'd had a sexual relationship with her brother that started during their teenage years and continued through to their twenties. Many societies have an incest taboo, but anthropologists have differing views as to how the taboo arose. Claude Lévi-Strauss believed it to have arisen as a method to encourage the practice of marriage outside of one's immediate social group, so that unrelated households or lineages would form relationships through marriage, thus strengthening social solidarity.

science

plexi — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:13:39 -0800

"In humans, the categories of gay and straight are socially constructed. Researchers are now revealing that animals may engage in same-sex couplings to diffuse social tensions, to better protect their young or to maintain fecundity when opposite-sex partners are unavailable—or simply because it is fun. These observations suggest to some that bisexuality is a natural state among animals, perhaps Homo sapiens included, despite the sexual-orientation boundaries most people take for granted

Sexual Surrogacy

five fresh fish — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:26:24 -0800

Sexual Healing. "Sad stories and otherwise freaky tales from Florida's last sexual surrogate." A longish article, and fascinating.

Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life

stbalbach — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:27:27 -0800

'Bad is good as a mating strategy' (NewScientist PDF | plain text). "Nice guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls." Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life according to a survey of more than 35,000 people in 57 countries. (ABC News: Why Nice Guys Finish Last).

The political-economy perspective on women's rights

kliuless — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:48:02 -0800

Women's rights: What's in it for men? - "Women in rich countries largely enjoy gender equality while those in poor countries suffer substantial discrimination. This column proposes an explanation for the relationship between economic development and female empowerment that emphasises changes in the incentives males face rather than shifts in moral sentiment. Technological change that raises demand for human capital may give men a stake in women's rights." also see "A Spontaneous Order: Women and the Invisible Fist"

All of this can happen quite naturally when a large enough minority of men choose to commit widespread, intense, random acts of violence against a large enough number of women. And it can happen quite naturally without the raping men, or the protecting men, or the women in the society ever intending for any particular large-scale social outcome to come about. But what will come about, quite naturally, is that women's social being — how women appear and act, as women, in public — will be systematically and profoundly circumscribed by a diffuse, decentralized threat of violence. And, as a natural but unintended consequence of many small, self-interested actions, some vicious and violent (as in the case of men who rape women), some worthwhile in their origins but easily and quickly corrupted (as in the case of men who try to protect women from rape), and some entirely rational responses to an irrational and dangerous situation (as in the case of women who limit their action and seek protection from men), the existence and activities of the police-blotter rapist serve to constrain women's behavior and to become dependent on some men — and thus dependent on keeping those men pleased and serving those men's priorities — for physical protection from other men. That kind of dependence can just as easily become frustrating and confining for the woman, and that kind of power can just as easily become corrupting and exploitative for the man, as any other form of dependence and power. (Libertarians and anarchists who easily see this dynamic when it comes to government police and military protection of a disarmed populace, shouldn't have any trouble seeing it, if they are willing to see it, when it comes to male protection of women.)

and btw "a book penned by a woman who lived with Roma for a time. The bare threads of Roma society are disturbing," cf.

An Affair to Remember

Four-Eyed Girl — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:34:44 -0800

She was 82. He was 95. They had dementia. They fell in love. And then they started having sex.

Sex, and sex, and more sex (and then write a book about it).

Forktine — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:23:45 -0800

The antithesis of the sexless marriage: 365 days of getting it on, and on, and on. "Let's say you and your spouse haven’t had sex in so long that you can’t remember the last time you did. Not the day. Not the month. Maybe not even the season. Would you look for gratification elsewhere? Would you file for divorce? Or would you turn to your mate and say, 'Honey, you know, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we do it for the next 365 days in a row?'" And of course, how could this be complete without books chronicling all the ins and outs of the experiments? (NYTimes article, may require registration.)

Gay Marriage in 1953

Pater Aletheias — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:30:55 -0800

"Imagine the year is 2053 and homosexuality were accepted to the point of being of no importance. Now, is the deviate allowed to continue his pursuit of physical happiness without restraint as he attempts to do today? Or is he, in this Utopia, subject to marriage laws?" The same-sex marriage debate in ONE magazine in 1953. [via]

Carrie Bradshaw knows good sex*

iamkimiam — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:35:46 -0800

It all started with a NYC writer wearing a tutu, getting splashed by a passing bus...
"It's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes—that's why you sometimes need really special shoes." a 7-parter on the shoes that made the show... Then there was the necklace–an identity symbol, once lost, then found. The Cosmos, the Tartinis, and who could forget the Absolute Hunk? Click here for the inspiration) Follow Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda; a journey through the labels of love.