Cory Silverberg's Blog, page 27
August 7, 2011
New Statistics on Teen Masturbation, USA
As promised last October, researchers from Indiana University and the Center for Sexual Health Promotion have begun to release more focused data from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. Last week a paper in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine offered a detailed look into the masturbation habits of 14 to 17 year-olds in the U.S.
If you're interested in the specifics check out this detailed summary and analysis of the results. The news may not be surprising...
August 4, 2011
Troubling Sexual Pain
I was recently sent review copy of a book that's coming out this November called Healing Painful Sex. I'm only just past the introduction, but so far I'm liking it. It was the first paragraph that drew me in. The authors tell us that anywhere between 16 and 20 percent of women experience sexual pain. They point out that 7.7 percent of all adults have asthma, 8.2 percent have cancer, and 12 percent have heart disease. Their point is that sexual pain is common.
What I like about this...
August 2, 2011
New Study Examines Predictors of Infidelity
I'm not the biggest fan of quantitative survey research, the kind of research that relies entirely on asking people close ended structured questions and then analyzing their responses using statistical software. But most of my problems can be address by ethical reporting and presentation of the data once they are analyzed. Which is why I didn't just skim over a release about a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Guelph and Indiana University looking at predictors of
July 31, 2011
Sex and Breastfeeding
August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week (this year's theme "Breastfeeding - a 3D Experience"). I think it's great to be able to take something positive from these sorts of initiatives while also being able to be thoughtful about the problems with them (in this case the way that ableism intersects with social expectations about gender to produce an environment where people who don't breastfeed are seen as bad parents, or people with failed bodies).
July 28, 2011
Friday Sex Readings
A list of things to read or watch or think about this week (aka things I should be reading instead of following literary smurf-sex tweets...the real danger of social media).
Judge Cuts San Francisco Circumcision Ban Short (New York Times)
Should AIDS Activists and Pharma Just Get Along? (Mark S. King)
I Can't Use Google + Because I Can't Lose Gmail (ZDNet)
A Modest Proposal to End Sex Work, Stop Paying for It (The Naked Anthropologist)
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July 26, 2011
Breastless, Hairless, Heavier, and in Pain
The title of this blog post, which is taken from this question I received recently from an About.com reader, is not the pink ribbon image of breast cancer one sees in magazine ads, plastered on the side of fundraising SUV's, or live, in the form of survivors paraded in front of TV cameras to tell their stories of pain and triumph (a practice that I recently learned is referred to by some as "patient porn").
It's a different image and a different story, although I don't think it's a...
July 24, 2011
Summarizing Recent Research on Male Contraceptives
It was great to see a review of ongoing research into male contraceptives make it to the front page of the Times (apparently it was on the front page of an early edition but later bumped for coverage of Amy Winehouse's death). And even nicer that the piece didn't go where almost all news coverage of male contraception tends to go; will men take it and will women trust them to?
In fact the framing of the article was unusually broad, almost suggesting that to deal with contraception fully...
July 22, 2011
Sex When You Work from Home
For those of us who have spent most of our lives working outside the home, the switch to working from home represents no small change from being out in the world everyday. We may not have to navigate the people, the politics, and the multiple layers of social life that come with going to work at a job in a public place, but that doesn't mean we don't have to deal with people, or problems, every day.
As someone who works part time from home, I'm aware of how many companies, books...
July 19, 2011
Too Hot for Sex
In Toronto, where I live, we've been enduring record temperatures. It's hot, and there is little relief for those of us who don't live with wall-to-wall air conditioning. This heat got me thinking about men.
Men, I'm told, always want sex. They think about it every 7 seconds, or maybe 30 times a day or 5,000 times a year. I can't keep track. I'm thinking about other things. Which is one of the many ways that being a man just doesn't describe being me.
I find when I let go of the...
July 18, 2011
Recent Data on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and the Problem with Normal
Some interesting new data detailing the process of women getting referred for female genital cosmetic surgery in the UK was described in a recent letter to the editor, published in The Medical Journal of Australia.
A group of three gynecologists and one psychologist, working at both the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney and University College London Hospitals in the UK describe a review which was conducted of referral letters for women seeking labiaplasty in the UK. It wasn't specified...