Not your typical pornstar

Over on AZBlogX there’s a piece on gay pornstar Dale Cooper (who took this name from agent Dale Cooper in the tv series Twin Peaks). A man of many talents. He writes for the Huffington Post on (mostly) gay matters, Here’s HuffPo’s blurb on him:

Dale Cooper is a sexual health educator, a social worker for HIV/AIDS clients, a porn performer, and a fundraiser for sexual health causes and affordable housing. He continues to study how gay sexuality has been affected by the Internet, and maintains a web presence at www.daledoesporn.com.

There’s plenty of shots of Cooper genitally nude and engaging in hard-core gay sex acts on AZBlogX. For this blog, here’s a nice head, armpit, and torso shot of him, with his engaging smile:

 (#1)

The 12-inch pianist

Today’s Scenes From a Multiverse:

Size doesn’t matter. Or: Size matters. In any case, an allusion to an old joke.

Questionnaires again

Back a while, I tried to make sense of the last sex survey by Details magazine; a lot depended on how the questions were worded and how the respondents understood those questions. Now another case, this time from a much more carefully conducted study: George Vaillant’s Grant Study of Harvard graduates, as reported in the May 2013 Atlantic. The relevant section of Scott Stossel’s piece:

Aging liberals have more sex. Political ideology had no bearing on life satisfaction—but the most-conservative men ceased sexual relations at an average age of 68, while the most-liberal men had active sex lives into their 80s. “I have consulted urologists about this,” Vaillant writes. “They have no idea why it might be so.”

Now “having sexual relations” and “having an active sex life” are not necessarily the same thing; “sexual relations” implies another person, though there’s still possible unclarity about what counts as having sexual relations with someone, while “an active sex life” can be solitary. So a lot will depend on how Vaillant worded his questions.

Before I continue, this warning:

[TMI Warning: The following posting contains information, opinion, or reflection that some readers might find uncomfortably or unwelcomely personal, private, or intimate in topic or content: too much information, as the saying goes. As a general observation, I’m willing to go almost anywhere in my postings, including some places that some readers don’t want to go.]

Synthetic compounds and back-formed verbs: rape

From discussions of rape in recent news, the synthetic compounds slut-shaming and victim-blaming — and, no surprise, the back-formed verbs slut-shame and victim-blame.

Andy Singer

Encountered yesterday, this cartoon by Andy Singer:

The cartoon plays on the political slogans “Life begins at conception” and “Abortion is murder”, and incorporates a powerful cultural prejudice against masturbation (on the grounds that it’s non-procreative sex, and therefore unproductive, wasted effort — and, if you adhere to certain religious beliefs, against God’s law).

Brief mention: our modest medicos

From the materials for Dr. James Hartford’s presentation in a seminar on hip (and knee) replacement at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation on Thursday (an information-packed two hours), in a set of slides on “Common Questions?”, slide 4:

How long do I maintain hip precautions? [things like not crossing your legs] 6 weeks

When can I play golf again? As soon as you’re comfortable (3-8 wks; Dr. Hartford had more detailed imstructions)

When can I drive? 4 weeks

When can I have relations? 4 weeks

That’s relations, a modesty truncation of sexual relations. My daughter and I did wonder if non-native speakers would understand the euphemism.

No one asked about it, though I’m curious here, as in many other contexts, about what counts as sexual relations. I can see why intercourse would be problematic. But what what about masturbation? I’ll have to check with the doc.

 

monkey-spank

Heard on an old episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a reference to some films as “primo monkey-spank material”. Similarly:

Most men probably only know American Apparel as primo monkey-spank material. But there are a few men who actually wear the clothing. (link)

Now a few words on morphological developments from the colorful euphemistic idiom spank the / one’s monkey ‘masturbate’.

Vajazzled!

Mike Hale, “Like Ross, Rachel and Company, but With Faster Hook-Ups” (on the tv show Friends With Benefits), NYT Arts section, August 8:

… it combines a single-camera, mildly absurdist style and raunchy humor with stock sitcom situations. It’s the kind of show in which a lamely suggestive joke about a vajazzled woman – one with a bejeweled genital area – giving birth (“The kid came out looking like a disco ball!:) is followed by reaction shots of everyone in the scene laughing.

That’s the verb vajazzle, a portmanteau of either vagina or the euphemism vajayjay with bedazzle.

Verbing: dildo

On my X blog, in the midst of material about BFF Tibor Wolfe (no, not what you think, but something much more startling), brief discussion of the verbing dildo (with incidentally, examples of the verbing fist).

Not for the kiddies or the faint-hearted.

 

Raping and punking

Item 1: a Ms. magazine blogger asking me about the use of rape ‘vanquish, beat’ in certain communities and contexts.

Item 2: (from Ben Zimmer on June 12, a link to) the story about Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proclaiming

Our fans punked the shit out of the Miami fans.

after the NBA finals in which the Mavericks beat the Miami Heat.

The two items are connected.