Monday, November 20, 2006

tagged: “single nyc female graphicdesigner bottom brunette nsa hiv- hpv+”


filed under: Design for Sex by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Regina Lynn’s Wired piece on the future of sexually transmitted infections, stigma, and the technology of notification systems…

SxCheck, which launched this month, is the latest contender in the movement to change how we think about STIs. It’s a joint project between Stanford graduate student Doug Wightman, 23, and the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, or AIM, offering the general public an STI testing service based on one the adult industry has developed over a decade.

Doug believes that by making STI testing routine, and the results easy to show to potential partners, SxCheck will have a profound impact on social behavior.

…points to the possibility of reducing shame by way of… tagging (?)…

Doug envisions us embedding HTML in our online dating profiles to share test results and the date of our last screening, and he’s already working on making results accessible (securely) by mobile phone. That makes information available when you need it, without the social awkwardness of carrying a lab slip folded up in your back pocket “just in case.”

…which opens up a lovely Pandora’s box of privacy and ethics quandries.

There’s already a few pilot notification projects in place around reporting results back anonymously to one’s partners (programs have been active in San Francisco and New York since the early part of this decade), which allow for public health to take precedence over fear, stigma, and shame, allowing us better disclosure through technology. This all seems like a sane, compassionate step towards the future of sex.

An alternate approach would be the sort of proactive, profile-based tagging system. Seeking our partners for adventure and then some online already forces us to articulate our desires with the tools available, to put our wishes into an interface we don’t really have a role in determining. To out yourself as a leather top on Alt.com, for example, takes far less initiative — just check the box — than on Consumating, where one has to own one’s tags for what they say.

Where there’s little room for sexual secrets in a mating game ruled by database queries, and there’s also a high potential for abuse in a system where anyone can tag anyone anything, applying one’s health and safety concerns to any IA is going to have emotionally significant drawbacks. The reality is, sexual health is more dynamic than who puts what where covered with what, and who was tested for what and how and how long ago.

So for the moment, I’ll just tag myself “nosexissafe.” Flexible, an opener for conversation, and yet still conveys the point.

Think of something better? Or want to join me? Comment with where you’re deploying your sex tags, and how, and who you get.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Blogging the Sex Classroom


filed under: State of Sex Ed by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

These human sexuality students at George Mason University are keeping a group blog “devoted to the thoughts, feelings, and insights” during their class experience together this Fall. With the semester nearly done, there’s lots to read back on.

Some favorite quotes, why not, to give us a little faith in the small revolutions in sex ed going on each day, somewhere in America:

From Mimi:

“So I REALLY had a great time doing the experiential activites. I ended up choosing a lot of the activites that allow you to discuss certain topics with your partner: like enhancing sexual enjoyment, birth control options, and how to be a better partner.”

From student A:

“From reading chapter 13 it is interesting to read about childhood sexuality. I learned that about childhood masturbation. I had no idea that is was so common and is very natural.”

From Miss Scion tC:

“One activity had me view myself in the mirror and in doijng this activity I relaized that I havea lot to improve on and that I do want to improve myself.”

Okay, so they could use some minor revolutions in spelling, too, but how heartening is the message.

I’d love to keep tabs on more sexuality education blogs. Links, please!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sex Estate Sale: ‘How Do You Work This Thing?’


filed under: Retrosexual by Melissa Gira | 2 Comments

Saturday morning estate and tag sale browsing would be far more exciting if the scope of one’s searching were as wide as eBay. As I was hunting antiques this morning online, I found this wonderful specimen of sex culture from bygone days. Begging the question, ‘how do you work this thing?’ I give you four choices:

a) affix it: to a lover’s jaw with a convenient wood bit to bite on as an Industrial Age piss gagb) lash it: on a wrought iron bed (see, attachments!) as a vintage breath control device for thrashers

c) water it: get a leg up and fill it as a French autoerotic enema adminstrator

d) solder it: back together as a brand new d.i.y. toy, because it’s obviously none of the above

And to the winner, the spoils: a link to the item in question.

Sex Estate Sale: How Do You Work This Thing #1

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Saturday Afternoon Video: Inside a Purity Ball


filed under: Strange Bedfellows by Melissa Gira | 5 Comments

Relax into the pillows, spoon a bit longer, or better yet, just flip your lover and have some extramarital sex in jubilant defiance of all that is the epitome of not-smart sex (which doesn’t keep these jokers from getting federal funding, of course), ‘The Purity Ball.’

(via ana voog, via Feministing)

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