“Of course it’s great when you can turn people onto some scientific information or break through a religious charade of sexual dishonesty. Very worth it. I’ll always be happy to share the basics. But so much of sexual life is determined by politics, which not enough people get involved with— or by hormones and electrical brain impulses, which, let’s face it, you can only say you’re along for the ride.” - Susie Bright, “When Sexual ‘Self-Help’ Is the Problem“

Now that we’ve got some analysis of the sex survey results from the men who click over at men.style.com (spoiler: methodology, what methodology?), what other beloved online publications would we like to see incredibly scientific sex polls from?

• Talking Points Memo
• Ars Technica
• Pitchfork
• The Awl (not the biggest sample)
• Kottke

A rare little bright wet spot in media coverage of teen sexuality, sex ed, and the internet: Scarleteen and the Midwest Teen Sex Show get fair mentions in this ABC-Chicago “special report” (remember when those used to come on the late evening news and you just knew they were going to be about bad things?). Also awesomely rare: coverage of teens protesting abstinence-only sex “ed.”

Amazon buys Zappos. No, you cannot get free returns on Amazon purchases you just “tried on once” at home.

Typical is a scene in which we see the young Mr. Zuckerberg, determined to swipe the ­member pages of a Harvard student house, sneak into the building intending to plug into its local network. But then he has to hide with his laptop behind a piece of furniture as an amorous couple begins cavorting nearby. “We almost hear the James Bond theme ­running through the kid’s head,” Mr. Mezrich writes, in what reads like an aside to a screenwriter.

- Paul Boutin, on the new barely-reported Facebook expose, The Accidental Billionaires, for the Wall Street Journal

Fifty years ago today, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Grove Press’ right to distribute Lady Chatterley’s Lover — “A novel, no matter how much devoted to the act of sex can hardly add to the constant sexual prodding with which our environment assails us,” argued Grove’s lawyers — striking down obscenity laws and opening the way for a half-century of really terrible erotica. (Related: UK’s Black Lace erotica imprint folds, authors attempt to blame the rise of the stripper memoir. Also related: a survey of the stripper memoir at The Rumpus. Not related: “I can’t imagine any modern writer not to owe a debt to Lawrence!” which would have been a video clip if my DVD of Henry and June which I bought were not so scratched from abuse. Anyway, go Grove Press. Buy some books.)

“It’s not romantic to have an iPhone in the bedroom. Brian once said that every time he goes online, he feels like he’s meeting a bunch of friends. Well, I don’t want a bunch of friends in our bed.” - Lisa Katayama, the new boingboing gadgets Advisor. (see also: American gals love creeps!)

From a 19 year old fan on her sex education before finding The Midwest Teen Sex Show (who are now off in Los Angeles shooting a pilot for Comedy Central): “[sex education in middle and high school] consisted of little more than being shown pictures of STI-infected genitals. It taught me that I really, really don’t want chlamydia, but not much else.” Bringing smart sex ed closer to the mainstream is a huge part of the show’s success — the moo-cows and all the writhing-in-a-cornfield in the opening are there to say “not just for indulgent coastals!” according to director Guy Clark. But series writer and star Nikol Hasler also notes, “Creating something that meant something to me was so much fun, so important. I want people to know, girls especially, that they can do something for themselves, no matter what avenue they come from.” Here’s hoping Comedy Central lets the stupendously popular web show lean more Colbert and less girls-on-trampolines.

On a little visit to LA morning tv, Dita deftly turns the conversation away from why she’s not “offended” at people thinking she’s a stripper and towards how much success she’s had taking inspiration from naked girls in history. Her new Cointreau-sponsored show debuts in Hollywood on Wednesday, July 22.

Sex Positive, a documentary on the life of safer sex educator and activist Richard Berkowitz in the early days of AIDS, is out now in Manhattan. The Times calls it a “sad, useful film,” with Berkowitz possessing “the aura of an army veteran who served on the front lines in a war that took the lives of countless comrades.” The San Francisco premiere is July 3.

Miss Calico, a BDSM porn performer and sex worker advocate, points to a adult film director Ernest Greene’s reponse to the coverage of a reported HIV case among US porn performers. When it comes to porn, notions of privacy, confidentiality, and rights get secondary play over outdated and just flat wrong figures on how hugely profitable porn is (isn’t), and fearmongering over porn actors “infecting” the “general public.”

Among the concerns from the industry named by Calico and Greene that aren’t making it to the press: pressuring AIM, the professional clinic that tests performers, to release names of the HIV+ performers is a breach of their rights; relying on current OSHA standards to regulate the porn business without tailoring them to porn industry could result in more danger for performers; and I’ll add one more from indie porn director Tony Comstock: what’s with printing these major studio directors’ assertions that the “right” not to use a condom is something performers actually would privlege over their own health without asking performers themselves? (Update: Thomas Roche on what’s really contagious in Pornlandia: “bullshit.”)

(via kottke / archive at geekologie)