Sex Stories We Love: Erecting a Monument, Much Ado About Balls, and Brothers in Arms

“It’s a weird time for sex,” the incomparable Carol Queen was recently quoted as saying when discussing many aspects of our topsy turvy sex world. Damn right it is! Personally speaking, this is great. People are talking about sex, discussing sex, and, best of all, questioning everything about sex. This is how we learn! This is how we grow!

Funding the Future With Free Porn

Is Pornhub ever not in the news? The much-maligned website, when not busy pirating porn from other companies, is also demonstrating it has a heart. The site has launched a philanthropic side to its business called Pornhub Cares and have just set up a scholarship fund! Would be students send in a non-explicit video answering one simple question: “How do you strive to make others happy?” I’d love for someone who has read this article on how to watch porn ethically send in a clip detailing how much of their $25,000 scholarship their going to spend on purchasing porn legally to support the companies Pornhub pirates. Of course, that student should be studying sex, to, you know, make it an educational expense.

Erecting a Monument

I live just down the road from a structure that has long been dubbed the world’s largest phallic symbol. The CN Tower has long graced Toronto’s skyline looking like a great big dick. When the Skydome was added at the base, the whole package was in place. We Canadians look positively demure compared to The Domestikator, a provocative building is an art installation that doubles as a capsule hotel for visiting VIPs in Bochum, Germany. Artistically speaking, the building is supposed to demonstrate “the power of humanity over the natural world, and our disrupted relationship with nature.” Aesthetically, it looks like two people fucking doggie style. Should we have more buildings shaped like this to normalize our relationship to sexuality in the every day?

Much Ado About Balls

I always love finding lists of information about anything relating to sex. It is good to recognize and know the historical basis of some of our current thoughts on sex, putting them into perspective. This time, we're lookin' at balls! As the believed seat of virility, testicles have had much weight put on them through time. They’ve been used in legal, musical, and botanical contexts! It was just plain good to know about the left-hanging thing.

Brothers in Arms

We often hear of stories wherein people have to hide or mask their sexuality for fear of being persecuted. More often than not, our sympathies usually fall in line with the victim of this fear. Would you feel as much sympathy for two people who hid their queerness because it would endanger their standing as organized crime kingpins who were eventually convicted of murder?

Such is the fascinating story of London’s notorious twin brother crime leaders Ronnie and Reggie Kray. They built an empire in the East End while hiding their true sexual identities. To add to the story, the brothers sought sexual relief in each other, carrying on an incestous relationship through the early part of their ascent to the top of the crime pantheon. They did have a legit reason to fear, as being gay and bi would have definitely jeopardized their standing in 1960s London.

The Foot Bone's Connected to the Clit Bone

Sometimes it takes something truly odd or strange to possibly explain something commonplace. This fascinating story of a woman who, after a separate-but-related medical emergency, began experiencing orgasms in her foot seems to shed light on the most popular fetishes. When doctors delved into her situation and ascertained that her foot orgasms were the result of “crossed wires” in her nervous system (the feet, vagina, clitoris, and labia are all connected to the same part of the spinal cord), a simple treatment sorted the issue out. However, it raised some interesting questions about foot fetishism that could lead to further understanding of a potential physical link to this strong psychological desire.

Remembering Candida Royalle

It was with much sadness that I learned of the passing of feminist porn legend Candida Royalle this past week. I have been fortunate enough to interview many of the top names in the sex world, and I was very excited to feature Candida on Sex City less than a year ago. She was warm, compelling, and a completely wonderful guest with whom I’d hoped to have more talks in the future. Reading Petra Joy’s memories of her friend, I know there could have been so much more to talk about. Let’s all raise a fistful of birdseed and spread it to the sky, as an icon did.