sex and sexuality

Rape or “Bondage Session Gone Haywire”? Rape Apologists Speculate.

by Cara July 20, 2011

Trigger Warning on post and links for graphic descriptions of sexual violence against sex workers, including sexual torture; rape apologism This past April, a woman who was doing sex work was picked up by one John Hauff and driven to his home to engage in a pre-negotiated sexual encounter. Hauff requested some bondage elements in [...]

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Study Finds 10% of Teens Who Say They’ve Never Had Intercourse Test Positive for STDs

by Cara January 4, 2011

A new study purports to show a disturbing discrepancy between the number of teens who say they’ve “had sex” with those who test positive for STDs. Of those who supposedly said they’d been abstinent, 10% tested positive for at least one of the three common STDs (chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis). As such, researchers and journalists [...]

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Girls’ First Sexual Encounters Are More Likely to Be Unprotected. How About We Ask Why?

by Cara November 9, 2010

Trigger warning for discussions of sexual violence, victim-blaming. This morning I came across a post at a CNN blog about a new study (which has not yet been peer reviewed) on teen sex and sexual health. The aspect of the study making headlines both at CNN and elsewhere is this: “Girls take more chances during [...]

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U.S. Continues to Discriminate Against Sex Workers, Deny HIV Prevention Funding

by Cara July 27, 2010

Last Friday, Titania Kumeh wrote an excellent blog post at Mother Jones about the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and the over 100 sex workers and advocates who protested outside. The protest was about how U.S. funding to fight HIV transmission explicitly and deliberately excludes sex workers, even though they are one of the groups [...]

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Group Suggests Age Appropriate Sex Education? Time to Freak Out.

by Cara June 17, 2010

Well, here we go again. Every few months or so, some public official or organization makes a common sense observation that sex education is largely useless unless we start it early, and thus expresses support for age appropriate sex education for kids as soon as they start school. Cue the outrage, as a variety of [...]

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New Report Examines Reproductive Health of Urban Native American Women

by Cara May 12, 2010

A new report has been released on the reproductive health of American Indian and Alaska Native women (referred to in the report as AI/AN women, a term I will thus also use here). The full report, Reproductive Health of Urban American Indian and Alaska Native Women, can be found here (pdf) and the executive summary [...]

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13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Classmates Spread Nude Photos

by Cara December 2, 2009

Trigger Warning for discussions of suicide, descriptions of non-consensual sexual conduct, victim-blaming and slut-shaming The Tampa Bay St. Petersburg Times has printed the truly gut-wrenching, tragic story of a 13-year-old girl named Hope Witsell, who committed suicide after a photograph of her breasts, which she sent to a boy’s cell phone, was forwarded all over [...]

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Support Sex-Positive Sex Education

by Cara November 13, 2009

Scarleteen is, in my view, the absolute best sex education website out there. And while I can’t claim to be entirely impartial about that assessment — I know Heather, Scarleteen’s founder, and also received a free sex education training through the site this summer — I can say that it’s an assessment I’ve held since [...]

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On Gender and Sexual Insults

by Cara May 18, 2009

Yesterday, a piece by India Knight about the breakup of Katie Price and Peter Andre appeared in the Times Online (h/t Gauntlet).  It seems that these two are reality television stars in the UK.  I’ve never heard of them before in my life.  So let’s just get it out of the way that I have [...]

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Abstinence Counselor Charged With Sexual Assault of Student

by Cara May 15, 2009

A man who counsels teens on how to remain sexually abstinent has been arrested and charged with sexual assault (from further descriptions, seemingly rape) of one of his “students”: The girl told officers that Hoheb sexually assaulted her in his car in the parking lot of a Trumbull gym where he had stopped while driving [...]

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