Laurie and Debbie say: We were going to write our usual single-topic post today, but we kept sending each other too many interesting options. So here are a bunch of body image articles that we hope will interest you as much as they interest us: Sins Invalid is a performance project on disability and sexuality. [...]

Debbie says: Eizo, a Japanese company also doing business in Europe and around the world, has a new way to sell its medical monitors and imaging devices, with a “pin-up” calendar of skeletal images. I’m no stranger to sex, or conventionally beautiful women, as sales devices, but I have to say that I don’t think [...]

Marlene says: I’ve been going to events at the Center for Sex and Culture for years. I’ve even written about one of them. One of CSC’s little secrets is their archive. It isn’t really a secret. Plenty of people know such a thing exists, but few have seen or used it. I’m going to try [...]

Laurie says: Luke Jerram has created exquisite glass sculptures of dangerous viruses. .. Designed in consultation with virologist Dr. Andrew Davidson from the University of Bristol in England, using a combination of different scientific photographs and models, the sculptures were made in collaboration with a team of specialized scientific glassblowers. They are not literal reproductions. [...]

Debbie says: I’m just dropping by quickly to “boost signal” (i.e., get the story out further) on this story. Here’s how the newspaper tells it: Reginald Latson, 18, faces one count of malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, one count of assault and battery of a law enforcement officer and one count of knowingly [...]

Debbie says: Anthony Bourdain, well-known “bad boy” chef, TV personality, and excellent writer, doesn’t read his own books (or even his own interviews). Bourdain is getting a lot of well-deserved grief just now for this piece, in which he relates his no-holds-barred campaign to keep his daughter from having any interest in fast food. This [...]

cross-posted at Fukshot Marlene says: Between my actual age and the fact that this year also marks sixteen years since I started hormones, I’ve been thinking for a while about my place in the trans community. I realized some time last year that I’ve crossed the line to some sort of semi-elder status within the [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: Conventionally attractive women get hired more frequently than conventionally unattractive women. Women in the beauty culture, on diets, getting plastic or weight-loss surgery and other beauty treatments, aren’t just looking for men, or self-esteem … they’re also looking for good jobs. For Debrahlee Lorenzana, however, it seems to have backfired in [...]

Cross posted at Fukshot. Marlene says: You may or may not have seen videos of Uganda’s Martin Ssempa speaking on the evils of homosexuality. There’s one below. He’s a weird weird man with some funky personal issues. The enthusiasm with which he pantomimes “deviant” sexual activity is intriguing. What I find most interesting is that [...]

Lynne Murray says: It’s been eight years since I had a new novel published. If I did “happy and proud” like normal people, I’d say I was thrilled to my new book in print. Bride of the Living Dead, a romantic comedy for women who love horror movies was officially published June 1 by Pearlsong [...]