Promises Should Be Kept: World Aids Day 2006

Today is World AIDS Day, and the theme this year is accountability. In 2000, heads of state around the world made a pledge to stop the spread of AIDS by the year 2015 -- are they keeping their promise?

New reports by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that, as of 2006, the epidemic continues to spread in every region of the world. By now more than 65 million people have been infected with HIV and well over 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981, 2.9 million in 2006 alone. At this rate, the WHO predicts that in the next 25 years another 117 million people will die, making AIDS the third leading cause of death worldwide.(From a World AIDS Campaign press release.)

This year, World AIDS Day is calling leaders to account for what progress has -- and has not -- been made.

I'm away for the weekend for some inspiration (send me a message if you're in Northampton and you want to hang out!), but I would like to leave you with this link: the trailer for The Bi Apple, written-produced-directed by the amazing Audacia Ray. Congrats, Dacia! Get excited for this one, kids, it's gonna be good.

EDIT: Clearly, when I said today I meant Friday December 1st, not Thursday November 30th. That's what I get for preparing a post ahead of time!

Circumcision as STI Prevention?

The New Zealand study which found that circumcision reduces the risk of STI infection in males has been showing up everywhere. When I first saw I thought about blogging it, but I couldn't quite gather my thoughts enough to be coherent.

Generally speaking, I've had better luck with circumcised men. Since my most serious relationship was with a Jewish man, I spent years assuming that my little baby boys would be circumcised. I gave some thought to it at that point -- what it meant as a sign of the covenant, whether it made sense even if the children wouldn't be raised Orthodox -- but since then I haven't had the opportunity to reevaluate my thoughts on the subject. The only way it enters my consciousness now is when I hear about anti-circumcision activism, which often likens the removal of the foreskin to female genital mutilation. That kind of rhetoric terrifies me. They're not comparable. Period.

So when a close friend told me this afternoon that his sons would never be circumcised, I was surprised. And nervous. I asked why, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer. If he said anything about FGM, I was going to be pretty upset. Instead, he shocked me by offering an incredibly sensible argument against circumcision:

There was a recent study published that uncircumcised men are more likely to end up with STIs and I fear that parents will run with that. If your son knows how to protect himself he doesn't need to lose his foreskin for it. And if he's taught how to clean he'll be clean. And if he's taught that it's ok for his to look different than his classmates' he'll be ok with that, too. It doesn't make sense to change someone's anatomy for your own comfort.

And suddenly, my entire perspective shifted. He's right! Sure, circumcision can reduce the risk of STI infection in men. But using a condom can too, and if we would just instate comprehensive sexuality education maybe we wouldn't need to perform genital surgery on infants. How silly does it seem to surgically alter the bodies of our children rather than just educate them about safer sex?

Sugasm #56

This week’s best of the sex blogs from the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasmer participants. Want in Sugasm #57? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form.

This Week’s Picks

Same Time Next Year (http://nocloudnine.blogspot.com)

“She nodded again, grabbing the doorframe as she pushed against the finger.”

Fuck me- it’s friday. (http://dirtylittlecockslut.blogspot.com)


“I won’t pretend to be coy- because I know what I want.”

Sexual Things You Don’t Know About Me (http://www.taratainton.com)

“My own erotic inner self has been piqued these last few days by a wonderful fantasy; maybe I can help pique yours by sharing.”

Mr. Sugasm Himself

Happy Thanksgiving (http://sugarbank.com)

Editors’ Choice

Fast and Furious (http://edinerotica.blogspot.com)

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“Next-gen vibrator gives everything you and your partner need to enjoy music

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Even works with a Zune ”

More Sugasm


Join the Sugasm

Sex News & Reviews

Lesbian Sadomasochistic Schoolgirls for PlayStation 2 (http://adelehaze.com)

Q: Can non nude porn be hot? (http://ylovesporn.com)


Remote Control Wireless Vibrating Egg Review (http://stilettodiaries.blogspot.com)

BDSM and Fetish

Happy HNT - Classroom paddling (http://darkside-journey.blogspot.com)

A Nawty Story: Kitten’s After School Special (http://anawtymouz.blogspot.com)

And One for Luck (http://www.spankingwriters.com/blog)

Working late, Part I (http://www.betweensheets.net)

Erotic Writing and Experiences

100 Things I Want To Do Before I Die (http://perverselypoly.blogspot.com)

clIMax for breakfast (http://junohenry.wordpress.com)

Home cooking, part 3 (http://erotischism.blogspot.com)

Hotel (http://slutissimo2.wordpress.com)

The Other Side of Jen (http://drtycplinva.blogspot.com)

Throbbing Cunt… OH I Need An Orgasm! (http://totalsensuality.blogspot.com)

What I did to Devil in a Blue Dress (http://dirtytalk.wordpress.com)

Sex History

Instruction And Advice For The Young Bride (http://bratmaster.co.uk)

Sexy Humor

Chicken Man (http://radicalvixen.com/blog)

Those sexy italians (http://hard-and-fast.blogspot.com)

NSFW Pics (& videos)

Alison Angel - Christmas (video) (http://hotboxbabe.thumblogger.com)

Black and White Erotic Photos by JS Hicks (http://www.ddgirlsblog.com)

Half-Nekkid and Begging to Be Asked (http://www.TarasNaughtyShop.com)

Happy Thanksgiving! (http://kitchen-girls.blogspot.com)

Shay Laren Masturbates (video) (http://myhotbox.blogspot.com)

Sex Work

PSO’s Thanksgiving (http://sabrinainstockings.com)

Thoughts on Sex and Relationships

Craigslist Personals (II) (http://pornster.blogspot.com)

Soft Porn is Greedy (http://www.teen-porn-site.com/blog)

Sex & Politics

A National Addiction to Porn? (http://fullfrontalpolitics.com)

Sex Positive Feminism: A Statement of Beliefs (http://sexualevolution.blogspot.com)

the other side of the camera

I'm not photogenic. It's that vicious cycle: I don't photograph well, so I hate having my picture taken, so I wince whenever someone points a camera in my direction, so I photograph terribly. There's a line in an ani difranco song, "it took me too long to realize I don't look good in pictures 'cause I have the kind of beauty that moves." I'd like to think of it as my photographic motto, but I'm really sure it's true. All I know is that my "mirror face" (which is very cute) does not translate to pictures.

But I love being on the other side of the camera. I don't know a lot about photography, but I do have a general sense of what makes for an interesting photo. And... I just love it.

In an attempt to use my love of photography to become more photogenic, I've been taking a lot of self-portraits the last couple of months; some of them on a timer, some of them at arms length. They've mostly been terrible. Today I got fed up. I decided that it doesn't matter if I make a funny face if you can't see my face.

They came out okay -- not amazing or original, and kind of blurry, but they're pictures of me and they don't make me want to cry. And that's a step in the right direction! I'm not posting any actual nudity here, because (call me inhibited, but) there are too many people reading who know me personally and who, I'm sure, can do without nekkid Amanda.

A Thousand Tiny Sexes

Have you read Anne Fausto-Sterling's The Five Sexes? Written in 1993, it discusses intersexuality and the ways in which our Male/Female system of sex-categorization is insufficient. I was only 10, so I can't tell you how radical a notion that was at the time, but I can tell you that theorists and activists and scientists -- including Fausto-Sterling herself -- have taken the building blocks of The Five Sexes and used them to continue to evaluate and reimagine the way we think about sex.

A Thousand Tiny Sexes is a book project whose aim goes way beyond just five sexes. From the website:

To imagine that there are only two sexes - M & F - is an absurdity. There are at least 1000 sexes. The daily lived reality of transgender and intersexual people (and gay, lesbian, queer and all other people, for that matter) proves this over and over again, yet many people continue to operate as if 'M' and 'F' are the only sexes, the only options, the only expressions, the only goals, the only way ("the way it is").

The ideology behind A Thousand Tiny Sexes is quite radical. They're not just talking about gradiations of female and male; they're looking for submissions that "entirely reimagine sex as a biological, cultural, political, and social category." Really interesting stuff; I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Image: "Found Sex #1" by kanarinka, one of the editors of A Thousand Tiny Sexes.
Via sexblo.gs.

Pornographic Relief for Comics Nerds

Good lord, I'm tired of posting about politics. Are you sick of reading it? I like sex, I started a blog to write about sex, so where is all the sex?

Well, here's some. I've never really enjoyed photo spreads -- the kind you see in magazines like Penthouse, I mean. There just isn't enough action in them for me, or enough expression, or something. I'll take a grainy, slow-to-load free web clip over a glossy photo spread any day.

But now, Xmics have brought action back into the overlit photographic bedroom! I have to admit I kind of dig this site: they take photo spreads and turn them into comics by inserting speech bubbles and narration, so you can imagine what the models are thinking and feeling without actually having to imagine it. Sounds good, right? Plus, it's free, and there are a ton of different themes and episodes. They're able to make it free because each comic links back to the paysite that provided the photo spread. (Via Fleshbot. What would I do without Fleshbot?)

Burglar alerts police to massive child porn stash

This is very nearly unbelieveable. And really funny, except for the whole child porn part. From the Montreal Gazette:

A local man has been jailed after an outraged burglar spotted massive amounts of child pornography on his computer and called police. William Mitchell was charged in October 2005 and pleaded guilty. The RCMP had received an anonymous tip saying someone had broken into Mitchell's residence and taken a video camera. The camera, the tipster said, had images of child pornography and would be left on the steps of a church. Police retrieved the camera and, following the address printed on the burglar's note, seized computer equipment containing about 60,000 images of children in various stages of undress.