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

[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?"