sundance

And you thought Mississippi was conservative? Meet Mitt, Ron, Newt, & Rick

Women’s reproductive rights haven’t been this threatened by a group of Republican presidential hopefuls in decades. As Rachel Maddow summarized brilliantly the other night, Rick Santorum, “libertarian” Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry have all signed pledges backing the Personhood movement that aims to make all abortions illegal (even in the case of rape and incest) by defining fertilized eggs as people, which would in turn ban most forms of birth control. Mitt Romney hasn’t signed anything yet, nor did he attend the Presidential Prolife Forum in South Caroline this past Wednesday like all the others, but he did tell Mike Huckabee last October that he “absolutely” would have supported a personhood amendment to his state’s constitution when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Rick Santorum is the only one — so far — who’s actually said out loud that birth control is “not okay” and is a dangerous problem in this country, but that kind of thinking is basically built into the personhood movement (whether these candidates, who will say anything to appease their religious base, realize it or not). So you know where these guys stand.

Super sketchy but awesome condom campaign of the week

We’ve all had our share of dubious Facebook friend requests – that regrettable one night stand you’d almost succeeding in forgetting, your former therapist, your ex, your mom. But what about a Facebook request from your unborn child? A bunch of guys in Brazil were recently friend-requested by babies with their own name, plus the “Jr.” suffix. It turns out that these friend requests were actually from a condom company.

The female reproductive tract explained in Rachel Maddow’s man cave

Wait, that title didn’t come out quite right. “Man cave” is not meant as a euphemism here, especially for Rachel Maddow’s lady parts (for several reasons). No, the “man cave” is just one of her dorky gimmicks whereby she tells her female viewers to take a break and pops a brewskie, puts up some sport paraphernalia and just talks to the dudes. (For a feminist lesbian, she sure likes to play-up gender stereotypes!) Her latest man cave episode involved explaining how egg fertilization happens within the female reproductive tract, because a lot of people, including Mitt Romney, don’t quite have it down. Nor do they understand how many forms of birth control work – birth control many of them use!…

Pickup line of the month: You’re one in seven billion!

On October 31 of this year (or thereabouts) the world population will hit seven billion. Seven billion! If you can’t quite get your head around what a billion looks like, then check out the real-time population counter on the Population Action International website -those spinning numbers kind of bring it home (the world grows by more than 200,000 people a day). And if you want to know where in that 7 billion you fall, you can enter your date of birth and the site will tell you your number.

It’s official: your insurance provider now has to cover your contraceptives

We reported last week that a leading U.S. medical advisory panel recommended that all insurers be required to cover contraceptives for women free of charge. Well, guess what? The Obama administration went for it! And we don’t mean the kind of “free” where you have to pay an annoying co-pay or other deductible. We mean 100% on the house. Let the celebratory protected boot-knocking begin!

Give us an I! Give us a U! Give us a D!

Move over, Pill! According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the IUD is a whole lot more effective — and safer than was traditionally thought. For a long time IUDs have been recommended only for women in long-term monogamous relationships who’d already had children — this was based on concerns that IUDs raised the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which, left untreated, can cause infertility. But according to ACOG, the evidence does not support these concerns — meaning, IUDs do not cause PID.

Abortion foes seek to redefine “personhood”

If anti-abortion activists thought that redefining the laws of gravity would help their cause, they wouldn’t let a little scientific evidence get in their way. And the latest campaign is almost as far-fetched: A group called Personhood USA is trying to redefine when life begins. It starts “exactly at creation,” according to Keith Mason, president of Personhood USA. “It’s fertilization; it’s when the sperm meets the egg.” Mason wants laws to recognize every fertilized egg as an individual and complete human being.

How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place

We’ve got our TiVo hooked up to get the latest Ted Talks on our TV, so we were delighted to find Mechai Viravaidya’s presentation “How Mr. Condom Made Thailand a Better Place” in our “Now Playing” list recently. Viravaidya is an eloquent and funny speaker, which alone makes it worth watching the 14-minute talk. But [...]

Naked News: World record kissing and Lady Gaga on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

• Lady Gaga PSA’s her way into politics with a video about the importance of repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
  
  
• Two men from the College of New Jersey kissed for thirty-three hours, putting them in the Guiness Book of World Records for world’s longest kiss.
  
  

Best condom tagline ever: “You can’t wait to get it on”

Trojan Fire & Ice – Kinda Like a Thrill Ride from Raymond Forbes on Vimeo. We just saw this awesome condom TV commercial from Trojan the other day. We’re not necessarily endorsing the product, just the ad. First of all, the tagline “You can’t wait to get it on”? Genius. How has this not been [...]

The 50th anniversary of The Pill

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Pill, and there’s been some interesting coverage of it by the media. Margaret Marsh, one of the first researchers granted access to the personal letters of the Pill’s co-developer, John Rock, discusses his Catholicism, among other Pill tidbits.

Climax delay condoms gone cute.

As a general rule, we’re not really fans of climax delay condoms (the numbing agents most of them use aren’t good for you, and, well, just make sex less enjoyable). But we’re still amused by this ad for Olla Prolong condoms, which offer an illustration of what, exactly, your sperm cells might be getting up [...]

New York City wants to turn you on

Good design used to be completely unheard of in the world of sex accessories — neither function nor form was particularly paid attention to, whether it was a vibrator or a pair of latex undies. Fortunately, in the last decade or so, both form and function have improved immeasurably, and we could not be happier. Now vibrators and dildos are as likely to resemble abstract art for your coffee table as they are to resemble a penis.

Sex at the Winter Olympics

The Olympics are such a noble event symbolic of international peace and camaraderie, that to bring sex into The Games would be a tactless move, expressing an outright distaste of taste. So….let the tactlessness begin! Apparently, lots of sweating, increased heart rates, and aerobic activity doesn’t just happen at the official events, but also in the Olympic Village — in the past, people have called it “an adult Disney World.”

What kind of birth control should you use?

The good news is there are a lot of birth control options available to women. The bad news is you have to figure out which one is right for you — how to choose?! Planned Parenthood has a pretty cool new widget that can help take a little bit of the guesswork out of it.

Birth control cards remind the one you love to play safe

Have a friend who needs a little reminder about safer sex? Send her a note on one of these handmade cards, featuring vintage sex ed info. True, the information about birth control is a little dated (there’ve been more than a few updates in birth control technology since 1972)–but it’s still a cute and clever [...]