Bluetooth Orgasms

Bluetooth-operated sex toys penetrate and are penetrated by the human body, leaving code behind. This article analyzes the relationships that develop between bodies and Bluetooth-operated interactive sex toys. Resembling the pods and portals of David Cronenberg’s film eXistenZ, interactive sex toys allow us to consider how technologies relate intimately to the sexual body. I use Massumi’s work on virtuality and affect theory as a starting point from which to frame embodiment, virtuality, and the circulation of affects. Further, I consider the importance of embodiment and the translations of intensities and vibrations through digital coding among the open sexual body, the technology of the sexual machine, and the applications that foster those connections, in the context of Bluetooth-operated sex toys. This article advocates the need to consider intimate encounters between interactive sex toys and bodies as complex technological and biological assemblages, where vibrating machines and the human body’s flesh come into intimate connection through datafication.

Archaeologies of Gossip: AIDS in Contemporary Gay Fiction

<p>Queer criticism is now in its third decade and, as critical orthodoxy, running up against its own limitations. What, for example, is a discipline preoccupied with the unspoken, the marginal and the blurring of gender boundaries to do with Edmund White’s unambiguously gay, masculine “red unsheathed fury of the third penis of the afternoon”? The Western AIDS novel is, overwhelmingly, a product of a historically precise, explicitly gay, male experience. This thesis seeks unapologetically to engage with this writing on its own terms, eschewing the queer critical lens as insufficient, and, rather, reading for a specifically gay aesthetic. Grounded in a broader overview of both AIDS novels and existing criticism, this thesis consists of extended close readings of two exemplary AIDS novels: Edmund White’s The Farewell Symphony and Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty. Firstly, I articulate the centrality of the gay sexual body to the representation of AIDS in The Farewell Symphony, tracing its representation of the disease through the epidemiological mapping of the virus itself, within the highly specific culture of gay New York in the 1970s. Secondly, I examine the way in which the re-imagination of a selective tradition of gay literary predecessors in The Line of Beauty, specifically Henry James and Oscar Wilde, provides an aesthetic solution to articulating AIDS.</p>

Archaeologies of Gossip: AIDS in Contemporary Gay Fiction

<p>Queer criticism is now in its third decade and, as critical orthodoxy, running up against its own limitations. What, for example, is a discipline preoccupied with the unspoken, the marginal and the blurring of gender boundaries to do with Edmund White’s unambiguously gay, masculine “red unsheathed fury of the third penis of the afternoon”? The Western AIDS novel is, overwhelmingly, a product of a historically precise, explicitly gay, male experience. This thesis seeks unapologetically to engage with this writing on its own terms, eschewing the queer critical lens as insufficient, and, rather, reading for a specifically gay aesthetic. Grounded in a broader overview of both AIDS novels and existing criticism, this thesis consists of extended close readings of two exemplary AIDS novels: Edmund White’s The Farewell Symphony and Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty. Firstly, I articulate the centrality of the gay sexual body to the representation of AIDS in The Farewell Symphony, tracing its representation of the disease through the epidemiological mapping of the virus itself, within the highly specific culture of gay New York in the 1970s. Secondly, I examine the way in which the re-imagination of a selective tradition of gay literary predecessors in The Line of Beauty, specifically Henry James and Oscar Wilde, provides an aesthetic solution to articulating AIDS.</p>

Ästhetik(en) der Pornographie

Pornography has long been an omnipresent phenomenon in both everyday and popular culture: representations of sexualities and the sexual body (the suffix ‘-graphy’ refers to this depictive and staging character) through language, signs and images can be found at any time and in any culture, but since the 20th century, of course, especially in photography and film. Over the centuries, specific writing strategies have emerged in order to escape censorship, and representations characterised by a ‘male gaze’ have been established—aesthetics of pornography that tread a narrow line between being ‘artfully’ erotic and ‘wickedly’ obscene. With contributions by Tatiana Ageeva, Hans Richard Brittnacher, Philip Jacobi, Katharina Kohm, Norbert Lennartz, Christian Lenz, Swantje van Mark, Jonas Nesselhauf, Wieland Schwanebeck and Sabine Sielke.

Z historii polskiego słownictwa erotycznego – nazwy intymnych części ciała w dawnym socjolekcie przestępczym

The author discussed a few sexualisms – names of sexual body parts. He excerpted lexical material from Polish historical studies from the 19th century and the beginning the 20th century. In the article the author presented the provenance of some expressivisms. He analysed less familiar and forgotten names of breast (bust), vulva (vagina) and male member (penis): i.e.: jabłuszka (‘apples’), bufory (‘buffers’), fujara (‘ninny’), flet (‘flute’), węgorz (‘eel’), mona (from Italian), bilkałe (from Yiddish). Mostly studied words is neo-semantism, less often – borrowings. The author put the analyzed words in the context of linguistic and cultural taboos (he mentioned euphemization and vulgarization). The text is inviting to join a discussion; some observations of the author are provoking to debate. The author presented the etymology of this vocabulary, but he also hypothesized the origin of several lexemes.o w polskich socjolektach.

Associations between pornography exposure, body image and sexual body image: A systematic review

There is evidence for associations between pornography exposure and sexual behaviors of adults and adolescents. Here, we review associations between pornography exposure and body image/sexual body image. Using a systematic search, we found 26 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Compelling evidence shows that frequency of pornography exposure is associated with negatively perceived body image and sexual body image; both heterosexual men and women appear to be affected. Due to scarcity of studies in adolescents and non-heterosexual samples, findings cannot be generalized to adolescents or individuals who identify as sexual minorities. Implications and future directions are discussed.