Sex! Sex! Sex!

[rachelmanija]

[Poll #1799574]

Final paper is looming terrifyingly on the horizon. I have limited time this week, and it is due Monday. I have widely varying knowledge on the topics I listed on the poll, but I would have to do substantial research for any of them. So if anyone has tips like, "This one slim volume is the single best resource on the soul-figure/asexuality/fisting which can be read in a short period of time," please go for it! (These are not all the possible topics. They're drawn from a much longer list, whittled down considerably by factors like lack of interest and the phrase "object relations," which in my very short experience so far tends to point to excessively eye-glazing articles.)

I got so frazzled last week that I misread the due date for the final paper for another class, and madly wrote and turned it in yesterday... a week early. I guess that turned out to be a good thing, all things considered.

Also, I have to register for classes tomorrow and am worried that I won't be able to get into the classes I am most dying to take, now that I know who the best professors are.

Given my current state of stress-driven absent-mindedness, I should probably mention now, since it randomly popped into my mind, that there is a new Sarah Tolerance book out! I have my own copy of The Sleeping Partner: A Sarah Tolerance Mystery, and am saving it for the winter break, when I will have more relaxed time to read. Also, Sherwood Smith's Blood Spirits (Coronets and Steel), sequel to Coronets and Steel, is out! I read it in manuscript, and it is excellent. Both series will satisfy all your "women who fight with swords amidst a background of history and intrigue" needs.

ETA: Okay, I'm doing fisting. I found the Pat Califia essay I had recalled. It's called "Gay Men, Lesbians, and Sex," and it's worth reading. On Google Books. If anyone has further good fisting resources, online or offline, keep them coming!

Comments

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

So many interesting topics; the first three listed and asexuality would probably be my top choices. But given your limited time, finishing a ten page does seem daunting. Good luck!

If you do go with BDSM, I hope you'll look into what I've heard anecdotally and from one researcher^[*]: Apparently, a large proportion (the vast majority) of people practicing BDSM were abused in some form as kids.

^[*] As I recall, she led a discussion after a screening of Secretary, and she mentioned it and/or I asked her about this afterward (since a straw poll on alt.sex.bondage answered this strongly in the affirmative), and she said that was what she was studying. So I asked if she'd let me see a draft or let me know when she was ready to publish; she said yes, and then I never heard from her. Unfortunately, I didn't write down her name.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I've heard that too, but it's a little hard to untangle from the question, "But are people who are into BDSM AND willing to talk about it to researchers also more open to discussing "taboo" sex-related issues in general?" But it's an interesting question. I'll see if there's any actual statistics.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I've heard 'people with highly medicalized childhoods'.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Like Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist?

[neery.livejournal.com]

Apparently, a large proportion (the vast majority) of people practicing BDSM were abused in some form as kids.

Huh, I've never heard that from a kink-positive or kink-neutral person before, although I've heard it from the "Those kinky people are all fucked in the head and need to be in therapy For Their Own Good" fraction, and immediately discounted it because of the source, and because it runs counter to my own anecdotal experience. Interesting!

[neery.livejournal.com]

Telephone survey of 19,000 people, on pubmed:

People who had engaged in BDSM were more likely to have experienced oral sex and/or anal sex, to have had more than one partner in the past year, to have had sex with someone other than their regular partner, and to have: taken part in phone sex, visited an Internet sex site, viewed an X-rated (pornographic) film or video, used a sex toy, had group sex, or taken part in manual stimulation of the anus, fisting or rimming. However, they were no more likely to have been coerced into sexual activity, and were not significantly more likely to be unhappy or anxious-indeed, men who had engaged in BDSM scored significantly lower on a scale of psychological distress than other men. Engagement in BDSM was not significantly related to any sexual difficulties.
CONCLUSION:

Our findings support the idea that BDSM is simply a sexual interest or subculture attractive to a minority, and for most participants not a pathological symptom of past abuse or difficulty with "normal" sex.

(emphasis mine)

I need to go to bed now, so I don't have time to look into the authors' methodology or biases any closer right now, but I will tomorrow - I just figured people here might also be interested in the link.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[neery.livejournal.com]

Possibly also of interest: Paraphilias in adult psychiatric inpatients.

In addition, patients with paraphilias were significantly more likely to report having been sexually abused than patients without a paraphilia

But that's in psychiatric inpatients, which isn't usually a sample that reflects the general population very well. Also, the abstract doesn't define what they mean by paraphilia and the article is paywalled.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I can reach it with my academic powers, if you'd like a copy. Private emails are allowed, and if you just want to know what they mean by "paraphilia":

According to the DSM-IV-TR, paraphilias are defined by persistent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviors generally involving (1) nonhuman subjects, (2) the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one’s partner, or (3) children or other nonconsenting persons, that occur over a period of at least 6 months.... The paraphilias currently include exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism, pedophilia, sexual masochism, sexual sadism, transvestic fetishism, voy- eurism, and paraphilia not otherwise specified (NOS).

[neery.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Can your academic powers reach the telephone survey one, too? Because I'd be much more interested in that one. I find studies that treat "patients with paraphilia" as one group fairly useless, because you end up with a completely inhomogeneous group of people from anywhere on the spectrum between "fantasizes about consensual BDSM with another adult" to "serial child rapist", and that's going to invalidate a lot of your observations.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've got access to that one too. I'll send a copy to the address on your web site.

And for fisting relevance:

Men's likelihood of having engaged in fisting in the past year:
If they'd done BDSM in the past year: 4.6%
If not: 0.6%
p < 0.001

Women/BDSM: 7.2%
Women/no: 0.3%
p < 0.001

And, importantly, how they got these responses:
In the last 12 months have you been involved in B&D or S&M? That’s bondage and discipline, sadomasochism, or dominance and submission.
...
And in the last 12 months, have you been involved in fisting? (Interviewer note: do not explain. Includes both receptive and insertive, vaginal and rectal fisting, if respondent asks.)

[neery.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you!

And in the last 12 months, have you been involved in fisting? (Interviewer note: do not explain.

Now that's just begging for a misunderstanding from people on the less kinky side of the spectrum.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I know! Needs follow-up: "Can you tell me what fisting is?"

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Thanks!