Pray the Fraudsters Away
Even though the American Psychiatric Association scrapped homosexuality from the list of disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973, it took a judge in New Jersey to rule that "curing" homosexuality is consumer fraud.The ruling, issued earlier this month by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr., is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed on behalf of four men who say they were subjected to humiliating treatments by therapists affiliated with Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a gay conversion therapy referral service based in Jersey City. Bariso also stated that consumer protection laws prohibit conversion therapists from advertising success statistics "when there is no factual basis for calculating such statistics."
"Purveyors of this quackery are lying to the public, lying to their clients in order to peddle their theories and their false methods on unsuspecting vulnerable young people," said David Dinielli, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which represented the men in the lawsuit. "Ours is the first lawsuit that has used the consumer fraud laws against people who practice these methods. I would not be surprised if it's not the last."
Mother Jones has more details on the lawsuit.
Suck-ulent Penis Cuisine
In most parts of the world every bit of an animal is used for consumption. Is including the penis in table fare taking things too far? Apparently not for the family that owns a chain of four penis restaurants in China. If you plan on taking a trip to Beijing to check out one of the restaurants, make your reservations a couple of weeks in advance. The elegantly appointed eateries are quite popular even though reviews say that the penises in the restaurant’s dishes range from tasteless to revolting. (There's no mention that they taste like cock …err… chicken.) If you can’t make it to Beijing, there’s also Deulmusae in Bucheon, "Porn City", South Korea and Bar Turrisi in Castelmola, Italy. Penises aren’t on the menu, but they are everywhere in the décor, more like tributes to the big D. Check out the details of all three of these restaurants in Ayzad.Oh, and for the adventuresome home chefs among you, GQ UK has a recipe for Stag Penis Soup - if you can find anyone who didn’t toss out the deer dick while processing their prize hunting trophy.
Search Terms Don't Lie
How truthful are people about their sex lives? Not very, according to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, an economist and contributing writer for The New York Times. Both men and women lie about how often they have sex and their condom use.How did Seth come upon this information? By doing research on online sex-related searches as a graduate student three years ago. Despite findings that many people are liars when it comes to their sex lives, another of his conclusions is a lot more encouraging.
"Google also gives us legitimate reasons to worry less than we do. Many of our deepest fears about how our sexual partners perceive us are unjustified. Alone at their computers, with no incentive to lie, partners reveal themselves to be fairly nonsuperficial and forgiving. In fact, we are all so busy judging our own bodies that there is little energy left over to judge other people’s." (So get some body confidence already! Read 6 Steps That'll Help You Love Love Love Your Naked Self.)
A Mini-History Lesson on Sex Toys
While millions of people are buying their first sex toys, it’s obvious that sex toys were never mentioned in books they read and movies they saw in their history classes. Party Amore provided some interesting and provocative continuing education in a blog this past week. The author mentions that dildos have been found that date back to the Paleolithic era. They were made of siltstone and polished for added pleasure. Even back then, size mattered - some of them were up to eight inches long! Wealthy Chinese men with too many wives gave their wives dildos to keep them occupied so that they wouldn’t resort to lesbianism. No mention was made on what wives were given to steer clear of other men.Analyzing Rape Fantasies
I love it when adult entertainers come forward and share the differences between sex on screen and sex in the real world. Kudos to Kitty Stryker for addressing some of the differences in her latest post on rape fantasies: Your Fave Fantasy Is Problematic. She does an excellent job of playing devil’s advocate on this subject and includes one gay man’s point of view."He was pointing out to me that it was a world of bottoms and no tops when it comes to rape fantasies. 'It’s OK to want to be taken,’ he said, 'but to admit that you want to be the rapist? Who would do that? That’s creepy.’"
