by yoursl | May 28, 2015 | Taboo Topics |
Sexual taboos change from one generation to the next. What is considerable to be an unspeakable and shameful event in one decade is no longer a taboo-related issue many years later. One such example of a changed taboo is unwed mothers. In America, Great Britain and Ireland, unwed mothers in the first half of the 20th century were something society frowned upon. Young women who were pregnant and unmarried were shepherded off to convents or “homes” where their pregnancies would be hidden from view and the babies’ births handled in discreet quiet. The majority of the babies who survived their births in these environments were forcibly taken from their mothers and placed for adoption or, in some cases, sold for profit. The book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, written by former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith and published in 2009, chronicles the experience of a young unwed mother who suffered through the forced adoption of her firstborn in the 1950s followed by decades of unsuccessfully searching for her child. Her emotional journey eventually resulted in this woman’s personal mission to change adoption laws in Ireland. This book, which I have not yet read, was the basis of the movie Philomena, which was released in the United States in 2013. I watched this movie over the weekend and felt inspired to share the story of Philomena and her firstborn. Earlier this year, I read The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn, in which one of the main characters struggles emotionally with being an unwed mother who was forced to give her love child up for adoption. Although this book is a work...
by yoursl | May 21, 2015 | Just For Fun |
In the pharmaceutical word, a patient is naïve to therapy if he or she has never tried that specific therapy before. In the real world, I was naïve to burlesque until a friend took me to see a show featuring a traveling group called the Suicide Girls: Blackheart Burlesque. The word burlesque derives from the Italian word “burla,” meaning joke, ridicule or mockery. Burlesque as a performance originated in 17th century Italian theatre as a type of comic interlude and would evolve over hundreds of years into its present-day form of bawdy entertainment. Burlesque is defined in the dictionary as “an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody” and as “a variety show, typically including striptease.” A Google image search shows multitudes of photos featuring fuller-figured, scantily clad women involved in various strip tease acts. I went to the Blackheart show with an open mind. I left with a less-than-stellar, somewhat mixed opinion of this traveling troupe’s show. The show opened with a young lady, who spent much of the evening in tubes socks and a pair of itsy bitsy panties, coming onstage to talk to the crowd. She was the emcee for the evening’s delight and opened the show by calling everyone there “bitches.” This young lady was derogatory to herself, to her fellow troupe performers and to the crowd. Instead of using her mic time to showcase intelligence and strength of character in herself and in her fellow performers, she instead stayed in trash-talking mode for the entire performance. The performers all wore black X’s across their...
by yoursl | May 14, 2015 | Just For Fun, Sexual Discussion, Taboo Topics |
I was reading an independent weekly newspaper this week when an ad on the back cover caught my eye. I did a double-take as I could not believe what I was seeing. I had not realized such a thing was possible. Among the ads for bankruptcy, addiction help and lawyers specializing in suspended licenses was a bright pink advertisement for a cuddling company. Yes, a cuddling company, whom shall remain nameless for now. Curiosity got the better of me so I checked out this cuddling company’s website. There was a great deal of emphasis on the professional cuddling experience being all non-sexual touch. All participants are fully clothed before, during and after a cuddle session. The cuddling takes place in “the cuddle room” or, for an extra fee, at a private residence. The videos of example cuddle sessions portray a hybrid mix of cuddling and massage, which my partner vehemently declared “not cuddling!” According to the owner of the cuddling company, “Cuddling helps reduce stress, can help alcohol withdrawal, increases oxytocin levels and reduces levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone.” The owner went on to say, “A 20-second hug can improve your day.” Before I write more on professional cuddling services, I would like for readers to better understand oxytocin and what it does in our bodies. Oxytocin is a hormone produced in the hypothalamus in the brain that is then transported to and secreted by the pea-sized pituitary gland, which is located at the base of the brain just beneath the hypothalamus. Oxytocin is both chemical and biological in nature because it performs two distinct...
by yoursl | May 7, 2015 | Just For Fun, Sexual Discussion, Taboo Topics |
Happy 55th birthday to the birth control pill! On May 9, 1960, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive, Enovid. The four Americans behind this miracle pill were feminist Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), scientist Dr. Gregory Pincus (1903-1967), Roman Catholic obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. John Rock (1890-1984) and heiress Katharine McCormick (1875-1967). This quartet of masterminds came together in the 1950s to create the country’s first oral contraceptive. Sanger was a birth control activist, sex educator and nurse. She was one of 11 children born into a Roman Catholic working-class Irish family. Sanger saw firsthand the effect multiple pregnancies and even miscarriages had on her own mother. Seeking a better life for herself, Sanger attended Claverack College and Hudson River Institute before studying nursing at White Plains Hospital. In 1902, she married architect William Sanger. The couple would eventually have three children. In the early 1910s, Sanger began working in New York’s Lower East Side and saw multitudes of women “suffering due to frequent childbirth and self-induced abortions.” In 1912, Sanger began her campaign to educate women about sex and pregnancy when she wrote a newspaper column called “What Every Girl Should Know.” Sanger coined the term “birth control” and began to distribute contraceptive information and contraceptives, such as douches and suppositories, to women. Her 1914 publication The Woman Rebel promoted a woman’s right to access and use birth control. Sanger was indicted in 1915 for violating the Comstock Act because she had sent her publication through the mail. The law prohibited mailing information about contraceptives as well as actual contraceptives through the mail. To...
