Sense Project

A review of the existing scientific literature on the impact of porn on society comes to the conclusion that sex crimes tend to be lower in areas where pornography becomes more widely available. Just remember not to base your ideas of how big most penises really are on it.

Despite the widespread and increasing availability of sexually explicit materials, according to national FBI Department of Justice statistics, the incidence of rape declined markedly from 1975 to 1995. This was particularly seen in the age categories 20–24 and 25–34, the people most likely to use the Internet. The best known of these national studies are those of Berl Kutchinsky, who studied Denmark, Sweden, West Germany, and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. He showed that for the years from approximately 1964 to 1984, as the amount of pornography increasingly became available, the rate of rapes in these countries either decreased or remained relatively level. Later research has shown parallel findings in every other country examined, including Japan, Croatia, China, Poland, Finland, and the Czech Republic. In the United States there has been a consistent decline in rape over the last 2 decades, and in those countries that allowed for the possession of child pornography, child sex abuse has declined. Significantly, no community in the United States has ever voted to ban adult access to sexually explicit material. The only feature of a community standard that holds is an intolerance for materials in which minors are involved as participants or consumers.

Porn: Good for us? @ TheScientist.com

Mais ce mois-ci, il fait BEAU, il fait CHAUD et ne parlera que de ce qui est agréable en matière de sexualité!!!

Le printemps se pointe le bout du nez et nos hormones aussi.

Les hormones dans le tapis, quoi de mieux que de se trouver de bonnes raisons pour avoir des relations sexuelles?

Eh bien les scientifiques se sont penchés sur l’impact de la sexualité sur la santé. Et devinez ce qu’ils ont trouvé? Apparamment, le sexe n’est pas que plaisant. Le sexe améliore aussi la santé!!

Les activités sexuelles:

-Augmentent le sentiment de bien-être à cause des hormones libérées lors de l’orgasme (donc augmentent le confiance en soi et diminuent la dépression)

-Permettent de relaxer (donc moins de stress et de troubles de sommeil)

-Sont un antidouleur (donc moins de maux de tête et de dos!)

-Permettent, par l’échange de fluides corporels, de renforcire le système immunitaire

-Sont bonnes pour le coeur (réduisent les risques de crise cardiaque)

-Font perdre des calories

-Etc.

L’orgasme préviendrait même le cancer du sein chez la femme et le cancer de la prostate chez l’homme!!

N’est-ce pas merveilleux?

Vous voulez vous remettre en forme pour l’été? Vous savez ce que vous avez à faire!!

Some of you probably thought that I was crazy for asking this question. After all, HIV/AIDS is a serious issue affecting millions around the globe. However, Elizabeth Pisani, epidemiologist, journalist and author of The Wisdom of Whores, gave a talk last Thursday that really got me thinking about how HIV/AIDS is packaged and whether or not this packaging really reflects what’s going on.

For starters, Pisani argued that there is no global pandemic but rather, two separate epidemics that affect different and very specific groups of people around the globe. As many of us know already, there’s an epidemic in Eastern and Southern Africa. In the West, Pisani stated that only four key groups are at high-risk of contracting HIV; namely, male prisoners, drug injectors, people who buy and sell sex as well as gay men. Pisani warmly referred to these groups as “icky” in the sense that there’s no money or votes in relating HIV/AIDS back to them.

According to Pisani, it is precisely for this reason that HIV/AIDS has been repackaged to include everyone, with a special focus on innocent women and children. In this sense, governments are happy because they don’t have to deal with the “ick” groups, the UN and NGOs are happy because they get cash regardless of their mandate and activists are happy because HIV becomes less stigmatized. And, well, HIV is happy because it can keep on spreading.

Pisani, then, went on to show us lots of data. And, I got to say, the numbers and her explanations of them were pretty convincing. Millions of dollars are being spent every year on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment and yet, there has been no significant decrease in rates of HIV infection. Interestingly, the data, also, showed that national clean needle programs were extremely effective in controlling rates of HIV infection. So, why aren’t we doing them?!

In addition, Pisani said that HIV is at its most infectious during the 3 months following infection. And, that when there are high levels of the virus in the blood, it is at its most contagious. Thus, the four “ick” groups are at high-risk of contacting HIV because they, generally, have multiple sex partners and/or inject with multiple needles within short periods of time.

In conclusion, Pisani makes a strong argument for HIV/AIDS to be reinvented or rather, repackaged. She urged us to stop thinking about AIDS and to gear our efforts toward reconceptualizing HIV as an infectious disease. Indeed, she argued that we need to reorganize our priorities - remove the gaze from the general population and focus on HIV prevention and not AIDS; that the HIV/AIDS industry needs to respond to evidence and start spending money on the right things such as clean needle programs and condoms. Ultimately, the science does not mirror the politics and HIV prevention and treatment should be tailored to fit the particularities of the two different epidemics.

Of course, Pisani might not be taking social factors into consideration. High HIV infection rates could be caused by patterns of migration and issues related to “development” in Africa, for instance. I’m also concerned that if we start doing as Pisani suggests, we might be exacerbating other problems like homophobia. And, we cannot forget the many challenges that we already face. For example, the far right in the United-States has made it extremely difficult for prevention programs to be implemented in many communities. This, of course, is without mentioning the fact that human behaviour is extremely difficult to change. After all, the condom is an old technology that is, generally, pretty available and yet, people still don’t make use of it when they should.

So, do we live in a post-AIDS world? Well, I suppose it depends on which “world” we’re talking about and whether or not you agree with Pisani’s research and suggestions.

I came across this article today. It is worth checking out for yourself. But, in any case, here are some key points and concerns:

Catholic schools in Yellowknife will not be providing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination shots to its students. Sandy Lee, minister of health and social services for the Northwest Territories does not agree with this decision and ensures that the shots will still be provided by the ministry.

That being said, many HPV types can lead to a variety of cancers, cervical cancer being the one most commonly associated with this STI. So, while the ministry will still continue to provide the shots, the Catholic School Board has just made it rather difficult for its students to obtain it.

Interestingly, the board does provide other vaccines. So, why not HPV shots? Well, apparently, they want the parents to decide if their child(ren) should get the vaccine or not. Unfortunately for them, though, if they allow other forms of immunization then this argument doesn’t really stand on its feet.

Perhaps an education campaign would have been a better way to go…Who needs more barriers?!

Here is a link to a video of Mary Roach’s conference on “10 things you didn’t know about orgasm” on TED Talks. She’s a very funny speaker, and a lot of her tidbits are about little-known science facts concerning orgasm. This is for the sex geek in every one of us.

The video is in English, but English subtitles are available.

The TED Talks are a series of very interesting and accessible conferences about natural and social sciences. If you have the time, browse around their website - it’s definitely worth it.

Mary Roach: 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm (on TED Talks)