It’s the most top-10-list time of year! And we’re not even going to try to resist its allure. 2011 was no stranger to sex scandals (is any year?). Most were political and/or not really all that surprising. And so, without further ado:
photo of DSK graffiti via Flickr
1. DSK
2. Shirtless congressman on Craigslist
3. Arnold’s love child
Thanks to San Francisco’s proposed circumcision ban on the ballot this coming November, there’s been a lot of turtleneck debate of late. Many have been crying antisemitism, which seems a bit ludicrous if you think of male bodily integrity as a human rights issue (i.e. no one would call fighting against female genital mutilation anti-religion) — but then you you find out that one of the main proponents of the ban (btw, proponents are called “intactivists”!) recently put out an anti-c comic with some rather indelicate imagery (i.e.”Monster Mohel”, WTF?). It’s been interesting to read some different takes on the issue:
We’re very proud of ourselves for coming up with this one. With the whole Weiner scandal going on, we were discussing how there’s got to be something in between flirting and actual physical cheating. What Weiner did goes beyond mere flirting — even though it didn’t involve physical contact with anyone other than his wife, it did involve sexual antics (and release?) with other women via social networking services and the telephone. So it’s not full-blown, full-body-contact, STD-and-pregnancy-risking cheating, it’s more like virtual or cyber cheating.
“Mohammed was a child molester, Mohammed was a pervert…” Those are just some of the chants protesters hurled at attendees (many children) of a charity dinner held in Yorba Linda, CA by ICNA Relief (an American Muslim relief organization) to help raise money for projects that include women’s housing, hunger prevention, family counseling, medical aid, and emergency financial.
Our friends, Em & Nora (who we like to call “Em & No”), recently launched a site for grown-ups about young adult literature called LoveYALit.com*, since (according to the New York Times) more and more people 18-and-over are enjoying books originally intended for the 18-and-under set. Of course, books about teens, the most hormonal among us, often deal with issues of first romantic relationships and sexual awakenings — and reading them as adults can emotionally transport us back to our own teenage years, when those things were really new and exciting, dramatic and traumatic. So we asked Em & Nora to give us a sampling of the good, the bad and the complicated of YA love and sex. We published the good and the bad earlier, here’s the complicated:
First the Katy Perry debacle, and now this! Okay, so they are not actually marketed as “sexy” Sesame Street costumes; they’re called “sassy.” We guess there’s a difference. But still, is there nothing sacred? It’s hard enough to find little girl costumes that aren’t all tarted up, but now we have to tart-up the most…
…apparently means to be photoshopped by Elle magazine. Or at least, that’s the rumor that’s got ladies mag readers all abuzz. For their 25th anniversary issue, Elle just released 4 different covers featuring 4 different 25-year olds, “young women changing the world” they said, though they forgot to add “in Hollywood.” Let’s be clear, these…
After both of us were on vacation for a week, pretty much avoiding all news and headlines, we were shocked and saddened to receive an invitation to a funeral this morning for an acquaintance we didn’t even realize had died: UK artist, writer, self-proclaimed dandy and all-around nut, Sebastian Horsley. For a second we thought this might just be another one of his twisted art projects (like being crucified in the Phillipines), especially since the funeral invitation came with the following footnote:
The funeral will be filmed, by attending you give permission for your image to be used for possibly future commercial purposes (i.e. documentary and/or the film planned about Sebastian’s life).
That’s so very Sebastian, the eternally shameless self-promoter. But alas, it appears there are too many news reports for it not to be true.
We just got around to watching Frontline’s late April report called “The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan” — it’s a horrific and mind-blowing look into the world of “bacha bazi,” or “boy play”: …Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi (Behind Taliban Lines) returns to his native land to expose an ancient practice that has been brought back by…
If you haven’t heard of it by now, here’s the ten-second scoop: Iranian cleric blames the world’s earthquakes on women’s immodesty so Jen McCreight, a self-proclaimed “liberal, geeky, nerdy, scientific, perverted, atheist feminist trapped in Indiana” at Purdue, organizes Boobquake, a day (yesterday, April 26th, 2010) for women to wear their most immodest outfit (that they would would wear on any other given day or a night out) to scientifically (sorta) study if the cleric’s claim holds any water. Well, the media went bat-shit crazy for this, so here’s a round-up:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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During the Pope’s visit to Malta this past weekend, he visited with abuse victims, paying a lot of lip service to “healing” and “investigations.” Yeah right! He also commended Malta for keeping divorce and abortion illegal. What century is this!? So here’s a roundup of some recent abuse scandal pieces to keep you riled up: