TED Talk: Cindy Gallop: Make love, not porn [NSFW]

Cindy Gallop: Make love, not porn is a TED talk by entrepreneur Cindy Gallop on the detrimental effects of hard core porn on heterosexual interpersonal relationships. In it, she launches her site, Make Love Not Porn, a site that redefines normal.

The commentary on the Ted talk includes a lot of annoyingly mis-informed and un-enlightened internet trolling, but don't let that detract from the experience: skip it altogether. Enjoy!


(From yesterday's TOTI)

They Shoot Porn Stars, Don't They? [NSFW]

They Shoot Porn Stars, Don't They? is a Not Safe For Work 10-page self-published essay written and photographed by Susannah Breslin. She wrote it for a publication, but it got pulled, and so she self-published. Normally I hate it when stories are split into pages, but with the photos atop I didn't mind so much. Plus, the site design is by Chris Bishop whose crowning achievement is the "Obama Rides a Unicorn" shirt.

The first page is... shocking. The whole essay is kind of... interesting. It reminds me of this sex and the law class I once took as an undergrad. Enjoy?

Highlights:

A long time ago, I asked Jim why he makes the movies that he does. He told me that when he was a teenager he had wanted to see what happened to the girl in the horror movies when the camera cut away from the action. What he had wanted was more. Hardcore, at least for a while, took him there.
...
If “2 Girls 1 Cup” is water cooler talk, what is offensive?
...
Among the potentially obscene videos were Powers’ “American Bukkake 11,” in which 83 men ---------------- a woman named Cotton Candy, and Butts’ “Tampa Tushy-Fest,” in which a woman can be seen ---------------- another woman and exclaiming, “Fuck yeah, that’s girl power!”
...
"Anybody that comes into this business, for the most part, is a broken toy.”
...
“If you want to have sex with Tori Black and don’t have chloroform, this is your next best option.” [Ugh.]
...
How far will we go if we are pushed to our limits?

PS: Pg. 5 made me wonder, has punk rock really always been associated with half-naked, bound, and kneeling female figurines? Weird.

(From Boing Boing)

He Wolf [probably NSFW]

He Wolf is a shot-by-shot remake of Shakira's music video She-wolf, but with a gay UW student. I don't know what's funnier, the word "lycanthropy" in a pop song or that guy piling into a single bed with his partner.

Enjoy!
(From Court)

[NSFW?] Beautiful Cervix Project

Beautiful Cervix Project is a website that features pictures of different cervices. There is one that shows the same cervix every day for a whole month. Other images include a post-menopausal cervix, an IUD cervix, and a pregnant cervix. If you're not ready to see pictures of such things, wander away now.

Don't know quite what to make of the site. Enjoy?

(From Boing Boing)

I Am Friends with Sluts [NSFW]

I Am Friends with Sluts is a blog about trashy women and barely hidden misogyny. People submit photos of slutty women and the authors make snarky comments about them.

Choice comments include,

"When all three stars light up you win a free coupon for Valtrex," [herpes medication]

"Not so much as an AA degree between the lot of us," and

"What do you mean that I 'sort of look like a dude?' I’m all woman. And silcone. And manface."

Enjoy!

(From Buzzfeed. More specifically, Peggy. Whenever I really like a link, it's usually by Peggy. )

Waiting topless (NSFW)

Waiting topless (NSFW) is a photojournalism piece by The Sunday Best (Courtesy of Briget Ganske/The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies) about what has to be the most depressing restaurant in the world: a topless coffee bar. In Maine. I mean, the whole place reeks of broken dreams and lowered expectations. The waitresses speak about taking care of an amputee mother and a special needs child. That's rough, it almost makes me want to cry. So many issues between exploitation and liberated feminism. In their words:

"When the Grand View Topless Coffee shop in Vassalboro opened in February 2009, Lisa Beaudreau and Star Cunningham both found jobs there. 'Yes, I am a topless waitress, but I'm just a regular normal person in society,' Cunningham says. 'I honestly don't think in this economy right that there is a job out there that would pay roughly the same.'

In June, the shop burned down in a suspected arson and reopened in tent‎."

I showed my friend EP, just to see what he thought. His reaction was, "OH GOD THESE ARE NOT PRETTY BOOBS." I had suspected as much, but not being a guy, I wasn't sure. 

The tragedy. 

(From I forgot, sorry.)

Oglaf (NSFW)

Oglaf is a not-safe-for-work web comic of the knight's tale variety. Themes include the fountain of youth, the boy who cried wolf, sword fights, and dirty sex jokes.

The dirtyness caught me way off guard. I mean the lines are so sharp, the colors so well-balanced... this couldn't be dirty, could it? Alas, it was. According to the authors it started off as an attempt at porn, and devolved into sex comedy. So there you have it.

Some of the cartoons are safe/suitable for children, but those are carefully labeled. Enjoy, and don't tell me I didn't warn you.

(From Metafilter)