• Britain’s most famous — and heretofore anonymous — sex worker and blogger, Belle du Jour, reveals her true identity…turns out she’s a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology. We shit you not. And in case you were wondering, yes she did pay taxes on her sex work earnings.
  
  
• A German drug-maker is putting the finishing touches on a pill that is designed to boost female sexual desire by lowering inhibitions. In other words, yes, it’s all in your head — but don’t worry, we’ve got a pill for that, too!

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1952 DC comic book panel via Hilobrow

• BPA from plastic products can negatively impact men’s sexual health.
  
  
• Not exactly breaking news, but we can’t believe we missed this a few weeks back: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women will most likely overtake men in the American workforce before the end of the year.

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Australia kicked off its first ever Sexual Health Week yesterday (running through the 15th) to promote condoms, STI tests, birth control, etc. (To paraphrase Paul Hogan, now that’s a fight!) As part of the project, a survey was conducted showing that nearly all adult Australians taking part in the study have had unprotected sex, but only about half of them have had a test for sexually transmitted infections. We’re sure American numbers aren’t much better. It’s been a while since the ’80s AIDS scare and we’ve gotten lazy with the latex. So let’s take a minute to review Sexual Health Week’s goals and messages, for they are important and inspiring and should not be forgotten, no matter where you are in the world.

GOALS:

• Decrease the rates of sexually transmitted infections in Australia
• Encourage regular sexual health check ups
• Remove the stigma surrounding sexually transmitted infections and sexual health
• Promote awareness of the many contraceptive options available
• Reinforce the importance of condom usage and practicing safe sex at all times

MESSAGES:

• Take control of your sexual health – always negotiate safe sex
• Don’t let love bug you – get a sexual health check up
• Contraception Conundrums? – find out what contraception is right for you

MORE FROM EM & LO:

• Do You Ask About Belt Notches Before Sleeping with Someone?
• Is the Generic Birth Control Pill As Effective As Brand Name One?
• What’s the Deal with Manscaping?

Some people have been questioning Rihanna’s choice to wait to talk about her domestic abuse right until the release of her new album. But that’s just the way the magazine-TV-PR-celebrity-promotional circle jerk works: celebrities don’t tend to chat to magazine writers or TV presenters just because they feel like it, they do it because they are contractually required to promote something. And magazines, TV shows, et al are more than happy to comply, because celebrity cover stories sell like hotcakes.

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photo from Porn for Women

It’s long been a given in the sex advice biz that dudes who break out the vacuum cleaner every once in a while are more likely to get laid. We typically fight such Men-are-from-Mars-Women-are-from-Venus stereotypes, but we’ve heard too much anecdotal evidence to ignore this one. It’s not that watching a man iron is an actual turn-on — though there are exceptions, of course — but more that many women find it hard to get in the mood for sex if they’re annoyed that their partner isn’t pulling his weight in the domestic chores department. For these women, accessing the libido is a matter of clearing the deck of all potential distractions — clutter in the room, to-do lists, a buzzing Blackberry, body image issues, dirty dishes, petty spousal frustrations, etc.

But it turns out that it’s not just guys who should mop a little more often: A new study has found that, for men and women alike, the more housework you do, the more likely you are to have sex with your partner. In other words, the couple who shares chores together is more likely to swap spit (and more), too. Perhaps this is because sharing chores indicates mutual respect and a commitment to the “team,” or perhaps it’s a feng-shui thing where a clean and tidy house is more conducive to boot-knocking. Whatever it is, it’s good news — almost good enough to make us forget about the other statistic in the study: that the women spent an average of 41.8 hours on household chores each week, while the men spent an average of 23.4 hours. And this despite the fact that “chores” in this study included yard work, paying bills, and maintaining cars. Maybe once these numbers balance out a bit more, we’ll finally achieve coital harmony. Hey, two advice ladies can dream.

MORE FROM EM & LO:

• Living Together 7 Years = Common Law Married?
• When Your Booty Call Wants to Spoon
• Are Men Hardwired to Cheat?

photo by giant_mice_kill_rabbits

A new study has found that 36% of people under the age of 35 Tweet, text, or check Facebook right after sex. For the over-35 group, that figure drops to only 8%. Are we totally giving away which side of the 35 dividing line we are located on when we say, Seriously, people? That’s really what you want to waste your post-coital warm fuzzy glow on?

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• Three days left till Marge Simpson’s Playboy centerfold hits newsstands. Now we’re justing waiting for Stewie’s cover story in “The Advocate.”
  
  
• Support for civil unions up to 57%; support for same-sex marriage still only at 39%. But would a rose really smell as sweet if we gave it another name?
  
  
• It’s sad enough that there’s a demand for something like The Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit in this world. Sadder still that Egypt lawmakers are actively trying to ban it.
  
  
• Another meaningless study: 31 percent of adult Bostonians would rather forgo sex for an entire year, than give up their mobile phones for the same amount of time.
  
  
• Another stupid website: IJustMadeLove.com. Look out, FapMapper.
  
  
• If only more straight guys were as cool about homosexuality as Stephen Moyer, the lead vamp on HBO’s True Blood.
  
  

MORE FROM EM & LO:

• Do My Kinky Fantasies Need Therapy?
• I Was Drunk When I Wed; Is It Legal?
• 10 Rules of the Pickup

photo by Brian_L_Romig

• One step forward in Texas: A judge in Dallas just ruled that it would hear a divorce suit by a gay couple who were married outside of Texas, even though same-sex marriages are banned in the state. (Perhaps they heard our recent suggestion to the state of Indiana that it’s Good Family Values to dissolve a marriage you didn’t think should exist in the first place.)
• …and one step back: The University of North Texas student senate voted down a proposal allowing same-sex couples to run for homecoming king and queen.

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photo by Johnny_Jupiter

• A recent survey found that only 41 percent of U.S. truck drivers think that sex is more important than their truck. Although anyone who’s seen the excellent documentary Hands on a Hard Body could have told you that years ago.
  
  
• Speaking of research that depresses the hell out of us while not being the least bit surprising, another study found that millions of women prefer to be drunk during sex because it helps them overcome anxieties about their bodies.
  
  

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photo by VirtualErn

• An anthropologist claims that hot dinners — rather than sex — were the basis for early human marriages.
  
  
• A British Catholic charity has composed a special prayer for couples — married only, we presume — to recite before having sex.
  
  
• Democrats sponsor a bill in the house to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. The legislation, which has 94 cosponsors, is brilliantly titled the Respect for Marriage Act. Oh snap.
  
  
• The creators of Second Life are facing a lawsuit for allowing cheap knockoff virtual sex toys to be sold in their virtual world. (If cheap knockoff sex toys are banned in the virtual world before the real world, we’re going to be seriously pissed off.)
  
  
• An Indiana court denied two women’s appeal for divorce, arguing that state law does not give the court power to dissolve same-sex marriages. Though you’d think that they’d be more than happy to dissolve a marriage they didn’t think should exist in the first place.
  
  
• A Kansas couple is robbed at knifepoint while having sex in a dumpster. Seriously, people, a dumpster? We try not to be judgmental around these parts when it comes to sex, but that’s just plain nasty.
  
  
• After being on-air for more than forty years, The Newlywed Game finally features a same-sex couple. Let the “up the butt, Bob” jokes fly.

MORE FROM EM & LO:

• Should An Emotional Affair End Your Relationship?
• Green Porno’s Season Three Contest
• How to Have a One-Night Stand in 10 Easy Steps

photo by steakpinball

We have a special place in our hearts for Sherri Williams: the owner of a sex toy store called Love Stuff in Hoover, Alabama, she has been fighting her state’s ban on sex toys since the law was enacted in 1998. Yep, you read right, 1998: this isn’t an antiquated law Williams is trying to scrape off the books, it’s a shiny new law to keep all good vibrations out of Alabama. Sadly, her 11-year legal battle just hit a dead-end in the state’s Supreme Court: They voted 7-2 to reject a challenge to the state law that bans the sale of sex toys except for limited purposes.

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