The US now leads developed nations in teen pregnancy and abortions.

The US now leads developed nations in teen pregnancy and abortions.

Love Advice for Wizards

“Wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them. Some wizards just like to boast that theirs are bigger and better than other people’s.”

—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 415

Alan Moore on Smut

Arthur Magazine recently published online an essay by Alan Moore that appeared in its November issue. Titled “BOG VENUS VERSUS NAZI COCK-RING: Some Thoughts Concerning Pornography”, it discusses the place of erotica in society from cave paintings to today. There’s a lot to take in, but something I found particularly interesting:

Sexual etiquette and even to a certain extent sexual politics could not be mentioned or discussed within the confines of Victorian propriety, which meant that only in a field already banished far beyond those confines could such subjects safely be brought up. It’s by no means unusual to find participants in some chapter-length orgy of the period suddenly declaring half-time during which they will discuss such issues as the gentleman’s responsibility to make sure that his female partner has been fully satisfied by their exchange, or the importance of always acceding to the female partner’s wishes even when deranged by passion. These were matters that could not be raised in Home Hints and were certainly not taught at school or by one’s parents. It would seem that the only sexual education being circulated in the 19th century was within publications that were by their very definition deemed obscene.

This attitude of course continues to today. Society has banned, along with outward depictions of sexual activity, discussions of sexual activity. Schools are hardly allowed to mention condoms at all let alone instruct teenagers in how to use them properly so that they don’t break, and hardly anywhere can you find advice on the *etiquette *surrounding their use. Take a look at Wikipedia’s top 100 pages for any given month. Here’s April 2007’s, but the date parameters don’t really matter. People turn to Wikipedia of all places to find information about intimate activities. They’re not there looking for smut, just information that isn’t available in any other readily available place. I’m not advocating that all manner of topics become fair game for dinnertime discussion, and certainly there are letters columns and the Loveline that get into such matters but I think it’s interesting that while our society as certainly become more depraved, some things haven’t change all that much.

Moore’s piece of course accompanies his own literary contribution to the discussion, which is also worth the read. Some day I’ll write up my thoughts on it, but I need to read it again first. In the meantime, the Arthur piece is worth the read.

Alan Moore on Pornography

Alan Moore on Pornography

Long essay by Alan Moore about sexuality in culture.

sex.com -- a url worth dying for?

sex.com — a url worth dying for?

Man, this thing just keeps going and going.

howto: protect yourself from the craigslist experiment

howto: protect yourself from the craigslist experiment

Sex Baiting Prank on Craigslist Affects Hundreds

Sex Baiting Prank on Craigslist Affects Hundreds

Some guy posted a fake personal ad, then posted all the responses, with photos and email addresses. Waxy looks into what laws might have been broken.

Wipes

I’ve mentioned this in conversation a few times, often to the horror of those listening in. You may be familiar with the star wipe, immortalized by The Simpsons. The Star Wipe serves well whenever you want to transition from one scene to another, and do it with style. George Lucas uses a number of different wipes in Star Wars, though none so fancy as the Star Wipe. Generally, if you use one at all, you use a wipe when transitioning between scenes that take place in different locations, like from a scene on the Death Star to one on Tatooine. But what if you wanted to represent a transition between one reality and another? What wipe would you use to represent that the world is being re-made? To show that the current world fades out, and the new one fades in?

I give you the Vagina Wipe. What says rebirth better than the birth canal? In House of M, Scarlet Witch uses her powers to remake the entire world. Here’s how it’s represented visually:

Doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it?

While we’re on the topic of sexual imagery in comic books, I spent a big part of the weekend re-reading all 40 issues of Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men. Issue 118 causes a stir when it came out a few years ago when people realized that almost every page has the word “sex” on it somewhere. The artist denies it, but that doesn’t always mean much. Some of the alleged appearances of the word are a bit of a stretch, but others are fairly clear, like this one:

This site has them all, so you can judge for yourself. As the author of that page says, the issue is full of sexual imagery, and the Morrison spent a lot of time building up his depiction of Cyclops and Jean Grey-Summers’ marriage as one that had lost its fire, with Emma Frost stepping in to fill that void. More on that in The Unofficial Guide to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, and in Tom Coates’ great piece, “On Cyclops and the Male Gaze”

Texas Teens Increased Sex After Abstinence Program

Texas Teens Increased Sex After Abstinence Program

Next in today’s “Ill-Advised Laws that Had the Opposite Effect Than Intended” category: abstinence education doesn’t work.

Play Safe

Via dangerousmeta via Antipixel: the Play Safe Thong. I think that this might actually succeed in making carrying a condom sexy enough to not be intimidating for girls.

Idiots Never Learn

Fark links to a Yahoo! news article containing the following passage:

Judith Levine, author of Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex, said she, too, questioned using popular culture to convey messages.

“Did Shakespeare ever talk about safe sex? Do comic books?” Levine asked.”

Wow man. It upsets me (but does not surprise) that uptight people actually listen to people like Ms. Levine. Let’s assume that Yahoo! isn’t taking her quote way out of context and that this person really did say the above. Come on! I’ve read my share of Shakespeare, and I’m pretty sure that he was all about condom use and birth control. I’m also sure that he was an upstanding citizen whose work has become timeless because of his responsiblie commentary on society and morals. shakes head I’m also sure that Judith Levine is up on the world of comic books.

But seriously, how can she be opposed to using popular culture as a vehicle for social discussion? Obviously we’d like for all parents to set good examples for their kids, monitor their activities, and make sure that they’re knowledgable about important issues, but that hasn’t happened but like a dozen times, ever, in the history of parenting. So she’s rather Dawson’s Creek not remind kids to use condoms?

Oh I give up.