“Throat cancer,” he said, tracing the scar that ran from his ear to his windpipe.

It was sort of breathtaking, sitting in an office with a view of the lake in winter, talking to a man in a suit who was making a motion like he was slitting his own throat.

I used to think that Porn Valley was extreme. Now I think cancer is extreme. That’s the real hardcore stuff — the business on the inside, going deep into the muck down below.

One of my favorite bloggers was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was the reason I started a Twitter account. The reason I started a Tumblr account, actually. 

thenewinquiry:

A Dangerous Method taps the allure of sexual dysfunction

by Kartina Richardson

David Cronenberg’s new film A Dangerous Method opens with the ominous notes of a cello, that, leading out of the opening credits, give way to a horn and string crescendo and the disturbing first scene: Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) arrives screaming, restrained by men, in a black carriage drawn by black horses, at the Burgholzli Clinic. And as our stomachs vibrate from the bass and the violence of the scene just past, a calm Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) greets his new patient in a beige paneled room with dark parquet floors and bounced light. This is Zurich. It is 1904. Sabina suffers from mental hysteria (with spontaneous orgasms provoked by humiliation), and she and Jung eventually begin a sexual relationship.

In these early meetings between Jung and Spielrein, conversation occurs in total silence — that is, without any background atmospheric noise. No cricket or ticking clock gives the stillness form. This is a pure and unnerving silence. Chirping birds add texture to the air, without which the infinity of time and space weighs down upon you so that it is unthinkable to sleep without the whir of a fan. Hyperconsciousness promotes a focus of such stimulating intensity, it quickly becomes erotic, and at the end of the long road of observations that occur in the first moments of a movie, you find yourself contemplating the details of faces and bodies with growing arousal.

You realize that there are three lines decorating the expanse of Fassbender’s forehead. And as you admire the precision of those lines and the glorious precision of his upper body, the precise subtleties of his performance and how each tooth in his head lies precisely against the next tooth, you think increasingly of Keira Knightley and her humiliation upon first unveiling her character on set, not because her performance was weak (it was strong), but because, rather strangely, it is all about her vagina.

Not as glistening pussy, but vagina ungroomed, as anatomical fact.

Read More

As usual, include your sex, age and orientation for entrance to the castle. Include your zodiac sign and the location you lost your virginity at for added bonus points and unlimited access to King Philip’s Golden Suit of Sexual Pleasure.

A Canadian porn star appearing in India’s biggest reality TV show is causing a stir in the mostly conservative country where sex is taboo and open displays of affection are still frowned upon. (via Porn star causes a stir in India | Greatenjoy)

Not all Trans Women are Porn Stars or Cam Models

rkb:

My comment in response to this comment by whrosen at “Why The Porn Business Isn’t Misogynist” by Susannah Breslin at her Forbes blog Pink Slip:

Very much on the money (shot).

The psychologist and writer Warren Farrell refers to romance novels as female porn. He notes that it occupies the same niche in women’s psyches, simulation of the central fantasy of romance, love and marriage.

My comment:

I don’t know, though…is that phrase ever meant to not sound pejorative and dismissive? I’d never heard of Farrell until just now but a quick search brought me to something that sounds as ridiculous as anything I’ve ever read about the evils of porn or romance novels (both of which are highly, highly vilified, and I might venture to say that porn is way more accepted in pop culture today than romance novels are; check your stereotypes, please, about users of each): “Hustler Magazine and romance novels provide complementary images of death: hers through a meat grinder for male pleasure, his via terrorists for female pleasure.” (quote via http://warrenfarrell.us/TheBook/index.html) As someone who’s read many, many romance novels, clearly not the one Farrell has, I cannot say that male death is a major plot point. See Sarah Wendell’s books and website http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ for nuanced, informative critiques and celebrations of romance novels. I also love being told what occupies my psyche; don’t you?

The company behind major porn sites including YouPorn, PornHub, Brazzers, Xtube and Playboy.com have been joined by adult industry powerhouse Digital Playground to file an anti-monopoly lawsuit against ICANN over the dot-XXX TLD. Luxembourg-based Manwin and Digital Playground are suing both ICANN and the company that created and manages dot-XXX, ICM Registry. ICANN is the non-profit that, among other things, oversees the management of the top-level domain name space. Manwin and Digital Playground want an injunction to stop the .XXX TLD and require its re-opening with competition and “reasonable price constraints.” Aside from that, if their allegations against ICANN are anywhere near true, I think this case could impact the entire domain name system and how it is run.