Sex News Roundup, Feb. 1/15

Dusty Miller

National gay rights group to air same-sex ads today in Alabama.

“Images of two women and their daughter - at a pizza joint, at church - flash across the screen as one of the women talks about the Alabama's refusal to consider them married.”

“Alabama does not recognize our marriage,” Chi Peoples says in a TV ad that begins airing in the Birmingham and Montgomery TV markets today. “Everyone wants to believe that if you do what you're supposed to do, you will be taken care of. But we don't have that safeguard.”

Issues might include spousal pension rights, private family health insurance, and other issues including divorce and custodial rights. Assuming a marriage is not recognized, it also give the school district the excuse to discriminate against the children and the family.

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‘History of Loneliness’ explores priest sexual abuse. (NPR.)

“It used to be that being a Catholic priest was just about the highest social standing a man could achieve in Ireland. It was a call that always reflected well upon a young man and his family. The Irish writer John Boyne says that is not always the case now. The sex abuse crisis in the church destroyed a lot of lives, and the focus has rightly been on the victims who suffered the abuse. But in his new novel, Boyne introduces us to a central, yet overlooked, character in this crisis - the priest who did not abuse but who did turn a blind eye. The book is called ‘A History of Loneliness,’ and the priest at the center of the story is named Father Odran Yates.”

In a survey it was revealed that over half of all Irish schoolchildren had suffered some form of sexual abuse, mostly by priests. There must have been those who knew about it—why didn’t they speak out?

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Safe sex is the best sex. (University of Florida.)

“When you go away to college, all the new freedoms you enjoy make it easy to forget about any safe sex education you received in talks with your parents and/or lessons in a classroom. The only form of education you still receive during college is through commercials you see on television, online or in print. Whether it’s an ad for birth control pills or the latest in condoms or lubricants, most manufacturers don’t portray any message other than “buy my product.” But if you arm yourself with knowledge and your choice of contraceptive, you can avoid contracting — or spreading — a sexually transmitted infection (STI).”

We could not help but agree.

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Lusaka Police Accused of Raping Sex Workers. (KITWE Times.)

“Sex workers in Lusaka have accused police officers of being in the habit of raping them. The Sex workers have charged that the men in uniform usually apprehend them for idling but decide to rape them along the way to the police station. They say as if that is not enough, the police officers are also in the habit of stealing their hard earned cash. The sex workers say they have been failing to report the cases as they are victimised and called useless prostitutes. But Police spokesperson Charity Munganga Chanda has urged the sex workers to report police officers involved in such vices as rape is a serious offense. Ms Chanda says while Sex workers are also committing an offense of displaying their bodies for an immoral purpose, they cannot be punished using another offence.”

It’s not unusual for women and girls to be preyed upon in general and this is so true of the sex trade, where they are put out to work and are preyed upon by relatives, pimps, pushers, boyfriends and husbands, and the system itself.

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She Thinks Friends, He Thinks Sex. (Science Daily.)

Men and women constantly misunderstand each other when it comes to the difference between being friends or sexual partners. But is that also true in a sexually liberal country where gender equality is strong -- like Norway? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. 

Imagine the following scenario: a woman and a man are having a conversation. She is interested in the conversation, and is friendly, smiling and warm. He interprets her behaviour as sexual interest.

Or maybe: a man is sexually attracted to a woman he has just met, and signals this in various ways. 

She thinks that he is just being friendly.

Recognize these situations? If so, you're not alone.

We misunderstand each other

“In a recent study at the Department of Psychology at NTNU, women reported that men often misinterpret their signals of friendliness as sexual interest. Conversely, the men in the study reported that women often misinterpret their signals of sexual interest as friendliness.”

“The results are no surprise, seen from an evolutionary perspective,” researcher Mons Bendixen explains. “The fascinating thing is that our results are identical to a study done in the USA, even though Norway is one of the most gender-equal, sexually liberal countries in the world."

Hmn. Interesting.

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Under-10s Committing Sex Crimes. (Sheffield News.)

“Hundreds of children under 10 have been reported to police for sex offences including rape, according to reports.”

“Figures obtained by the Sunday Mirror through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from 33 police forces across England and Wales showed 776 children aged up to nine had been investigated for sex crimes.”

This would not shock a criminologist, although a good point is raised about statistical anomalies due to improper data entry.

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And that’s it for another Sex News Roundup.

Byee!!!

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