Remember When Jacking Off Caused Insanity?

Medical books are fun, especially the really dusty ones no one reads anymore with information no one believes anymore, like this 1845 tome describing mental illness, the main cause of which, of course, was widely believed to be masturbation — or should we say, self-pollution?

This is an engraving from The Secret Companion, a medical work on onanism or self-pollution, with the best mode of treatment in all cases of nervous and sexual debility, impotency, etc., by R. J. Brodie, 1845, Plate 2.
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What a long way we’ve come — well, all of us except maybe for Christine O’Donnell.

Via MorbidAnatomy.

Dr. Seuss, But For Sex

A little book about sex inspired by Dr. Seuss is making the internet rounds. Before you panic, allow us to remind you that this is not a book being handed out on street corners to children, but one that resides online with so little SEO as to render it impossible to stumble upon unless someone has a direct link.

Having gotten that out of the way, allow us to introduce you to Now That You’re Big by Simon Greiner, a hysterical combination of wordplay and images in the style of Dr. Seuss. … Continue Reading

Author Speaks Out Against Damaging Concepts in Young Adult Literature

In 2010, Karen Healey authored Guardian of the Dead, a book for young adults that interweaves teen relationships, adventures, and Maori lore. In the midst of excitement surrounding the leaked sex scene photographs of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Healey took to her blog to call bullshit on the general perception as it regards teenagers, sex, and sex in fiction for teenagers. … Continue Reading

Passion Fades — and the Phenomenon Has A Lolsy Name

We’re all familiar with the fireworks of passion decreasing as people settle in to being together, but did you know there is an actual name for this? According to Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of The Science of Kissing, it’s called “The Coolidge Effect” — and yes, that “Coolidge” refers to U.S. president, Calvin Coolidge. … Continue Reading

NYC’s Toxic Bachelor Is Now L.A.’s Guy Gone Mild

“Somehow it’s OK for moms to have their wine nights. But try getting dispensation for a weekly bender with your fellow dads,” writes author and playwright Rick Marin. “Never happen. At a certain point, your typical Family Guy stops seeking out the Company of Men ‐‐ and all his references are Netflixed. We don’t get out much. We turn hermit, unless thrust together by forces beyond our control. Like our wives. ‘Do you enjoy the friends your wife has picked out for you?’ a buddy asked when we moved to L.A. a couple of years ago. Matter of fact I do. But there’s only so much quality bro time you can squeeze in at a 5‐year‐old’s birthday party.” … Continue Reading

Nothing More English Than Bad Sex

Literary perverts the world over can rejoice! The Literary Review‘s eighteenth annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award winner has been announced: Rowan Somerville’s second novel, The Shape of Her.

Somerville accepted with grace,joking in a release: “There is nothing more English than bad sex, so on behalf of the entire nation I would like to thank you.” … Continue Reading

A View of Heaven

I’m not normally one for novels: I know enough make-believe people without having to meet them in the fiction shelves. But when I heard about Kimberly Cain’s Heaven, a novel about a theology-talking stripper, I was intrigued.

Heaven is a novel with pacing like a Dan Brown novel: the book’s many short chapters are shot through with scenes where the action stops and people have long conversations on interesting topics.

In Heaven, those topics are on sexuality and spirituality. The spirituality is of a predominantly Christian sort, but it’s the kind of Christian spirituality found among the refugee camps of those disaffected souls who chafed on the boundaries of their parents’ church. … Continue Reading

Monogamy Has To Be Dirty To Work

“In order for monogamy to work, it has to be ‘dirty.’”

Those are the words of Rabbi Irwin Kula, author of Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life.

“If the forbidden is what is exciting, we have to work hard to bring the taboo into our most intimate relationships,” he goes on. “If transgression is so titillating, we have to learn to transgress where we’re most safe. Our relationships can be nothing less than pleasure chamber. But we need to create situations and takes risks that are out of the ordinary and push the envelope.”

Via Tinamarie Bernard.

Fearless Storyteller (And Most Banned Children’s Author) Turns 72

Judy Blume’s children and young adult novels have covered everything from racism to menstruation to religion and sex. Her dedication to writing about difficult issues for the younger set has resulted in her fair share of controversy. She is one of the most challenged children’s authors of all time.

On her site, Blume writes about censorship:

I believe that censorship grows out of fear, and because fear is contagious, some parents are easily swayed. Book banning satisfies their need to feel in control of their children’s lives. This fear is often disguised as moral outrage. They want to believe that if their children don’t read about it, their children won’t know about it. And if they don’t know about it, it won’t happen.

Today, it’s not only language and sexuality (the usual reasons given for banning my books) that will land a book on the censors’ hit list. It’s Satanism, New Age-ism and a hundred other isms, some of which would make you laugh if the implications weren’t so serious. Books that make kids laugh often come under suspicion; so do books that encourage kids to think, or question authority; books that don’t hit the reader over the head with moral lessons are considered dangerous.

Since the 1980s, when she found herself the target of censorship, Blume has been reaching out to other writers, as well as teachers and librarians, under fire, and working tirelessly with the National Coalition Against Censorship to protect the freedom to read. She is the editor of Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers.

Thanks for telling it like it is, Judy. Happy birthday.

Image via Answers.com.

Schools Pull Anne Frank’s Diary From Curricula Because of “Vagina” Passage

“There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it,” wrote Anne Frank in her famous diary. “The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can’t imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!”

This, according to the Washington Post is the passage that caused Culpepper County, Virginia, school public officials to pull the book from the shelves.

This passage is present in the Definitive Edition of Anne Frank’s memoir, written between 1942 and 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.

This book is usually assigned to eighth-graders.

“What we have asked is that this particular edition will not be taught,” said Jim Allen, director of instruction for the school system. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. So we listened to the parent and we pulled it.”

The book will still be taught; the original work published by the girl’s father, Otto Frank, was heavily edited before publication in 1947, eliminating young Frank’s criticism of other people living in the Annex and all her discussions about sexuality.

It wasn’t until the 50th anniversary of Anne Frank’s death, in 1995, that the Anne Frank Foundation published the unedited, definitive version, which contains the passage. From now on, the edited version free of these passages will be used.

“I’m happy when parents get involved with these things because it lets me know that they are really looking and have their kids’ best interest (in mind). And that’s where good parenting and good teaching comes in,” Allen said.

Sex is evil! Water it down! Cut it away! Sanitize everything there is to read about it! Come on, world! This will definitely help our children grow up informed and aware!

If our sarcasm isn’t clear in the above statement, we’ll make it clear: we here at Sex and the 405 do not approve of this move.

I would also like to take this moment to thank my parents for sending me to private schools all of my life, most of which were run by super-progressive heretics.

Image from Amazon.com. Information from The Star Exponent and The Washington Post, via Eric Ludzenski.