Sex In The Public Square - news - Comments

The coathanger

Belinda — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:27:59 -0700

The signifier of the coathanger may also lay dormant, but then along comes something that reinforces it. The UK the film Vera Drake did this. The protagonist in the film did not use coathangers but rather the issue was debated and that debate strengthened the symbol.

The coat-hanger will always be meaningful to me

Elizabeth — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:35:00 -0700

I've been doing a lot of traveling this past semester and even the summer appears to have more travel than usual built in to the schedule. During these travels I've spent a number of nights in hotel rooms, and in two or three different cities I noticed what I assumed to be evidence of abortion-rights activism. Specifically, what I saw was a "No-Coathanger" sticker placed high up and out of the way on a wall of my hotel room.

The first time I noticed this I was touched and thought it very clever that the person who'd put it there had wondered how long it would go unnoticed by housekeeping staff, how long it would remain, and I wished I could find a way to telepathically let that person know that her symbolic gesture had been noticed.

The second time I noticed it I thought it a remarkable coincidence that twice I should find myself in rooms where some abortion-rights activist had left a message behind.

Then in a hotel room in Fort Wayne, Indiana, just a few days ago, I saw it again, and I noticed something I had not noticed before. The sticker was placed beside a sprinkler head, part of the hotel's fire-fighting system. I climbed up on to the bed to read the text at the bottom of the sticker and indeed it warned that contact with the sprinkler head could cause it to flood the room.

What a let down.

But I'm left with this observation: Whether or not the coat hanger emblem has become cliche for some, in my mind it is still vividly associated with urgently needed activism to protect access to abortion. I cannot see a coat hanger with a line through it and think anything else first. It will always, for me, symbolize the horrors of what women have been forced to do to their bodies when abortion services have been illegal or unavailable or too stigmatized to use and the urgent need to prevent those horrors today and in the future.

Age bracketing

Elizabeth — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:21:28 -0800

That's an interesting issue, Charles. What kinds of age brackets would seem proper?

As Looong as...

Charles Masterson — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:51:05 -0800

Provided the ages are bracketed properly, sex workshops should work out OK. I'm not for cross aging.

It does come off

JanieBelle — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:35:45 -0800

as dismissive of both of them, but then the topic being discussed is of direct relevance to the groups depicted.

That said, I've tentatively made my choice of presidential candidate (by process of elimination, unfortunately), and I think I can safely say that none of these types of (intentional or otherwise) subliminal messages has affected that decision. It's just not been a very close descision for me because of the blatant violation of my own particular deal-breakers that I already had in place.

I've already posted (at UDoJ) that every one of the Republicans is right out (and why - including my list of deal-breakers).

I'll be getting to the Democrats shortly.

Reminds me of boarding

Alex — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:07:16 -0800

Reminds me of boarding school, where we were wheeled out as a rent-a-crowd for any school occasion. I'll bet that the New York Time photographer has about 20 other shots that can't be used because some of the students in them are asleep.

Oprah is not to be dismissed....

Elizabeth — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:34:55 -0800

...and yet the NYT pairing of middle school boys and Sen. Obama, and high school cheerleaders with Sen. Clinton's husband seems dismissive of both. Is it clear which is more dismissive?

i'm out of the loop

tracya — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:47:25 -0800

reading this is a reality check for me...i am familiar with the candidates and recognize the nuance..

i think mrs clinton should be offended...why should attentive but non voting cheerleaders listening to her husband be a positive for her??

it's so early in the race, i can't imagine how many hairs will be split in the push to the white house

i can share a conversation....monologue, really by a british co worker...

"have you seen this? that black guy, runnning for president? he 'as oprah backing 'im now, ha, it'll bring 'im way up in the polls...you know how they worship oprah in america"

i had to bite my tongue...

looking forward to the next 12 months...

Virgin's "Everlasting love" campaign

Elizabeth — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:37:19 -0800

TracyA, that's amazing. I don't think Virgin Money has a presence in the US, so I don't think we'll be seeing the ads here (and I'm not sure they'd fly here anyway ... a different question). But how cool to see sexy ads that show older folks.

Here's a link to a different news story about the campaign that shows another ad from the same series:

http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22359972-12531,00.html

great pic

tracya — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:39:37 -0800

i totally agree that womens sexual "problems" and of those that accompany the natural aging process...meaning they happen to all of us....impotence is the featured dysfunction but female incontinence, dryness, lack of libido, lack of or loss of partner, even social conditioning which stigmatizes masturbation...can all effect coping with aging.

depression is so rampant in the elderly and yet an active intimate relationship (however it is defined by an individual) is probably the highest indicator of happiness in old age.

i was looking for a pic of a billboard that was all over england earlier this year, it featured a naked elderly couple from behind and i believe it was related to the the 5 a day campaign...but i found this pic instead and i have to say i love it even more!!!

believe it or not it's an advert for Virgin...big congrats to richard branson...i take back all the awful things i've said about him before!

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/virgin_on_love/

Oh, I'm not opposed

Elizabeth — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:31:30 -0800

to the US providing penis pumps as long as they do some good for the people who receive them (though I'd prefer if the Medicare administrators did some shopping around for reasonable prices). It's just very important to me that women's sexuality is taken as seriously and sex education for older folks is also covered.

sometimes a man needs help...

tracya — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:01:57 -0800

by the nature of sexual activity, it can be assumed that all responsibility lies with the man and his erect penis and the woman just lies there in submission.

i would argue that libido and yes, lubrication matters!!!! a woman needs to feel desire, needs to feel that she is participating/facilitating the act. hence, the need for lube...

as a woman on the verge of 50 with a 53 year old lover, i can say we do run into occasional difficulties...nothing that can't be resolved with imaginative D/s...

aging requires an open mind and ability to communicate desires

sorry, missed the original point

tracya — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:28:32 -0800

just went back this morning and read elizabeth's original post...i'm not so sure i would support medicare funding this kind of pump...

also, want to mention that my mom told me that my stepfather gets treatment at the VA and they hand out viagra like candy!!!

types of pumps?

Elizabeth — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:33:51 -0800

That doesn't seem to be the kind of thing the article is talking about, though it sounds like a pretty intense solution! The article is talking about a product that can be purchased on the Internet, so I'm guessing not a surgically implanted thing.

Your mention of diabetes made me thing of another issue: The packaging on one of the pumps written about by Corey Silverberg apparently warns users to avoid the product if they have diabetes or problems with blood clotting, both things that older men are likely to have to worry about! Maybe that's why the US only purchased about 47,000 pumps last year ($21 million/$450 per pump) even though there were about 16 million men over the age of 65...

Good point about the lube....

Slutty McWhore — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:16:35 -0800

No, Medicare is never likely to pay for lube for women because female sexuality (which doesn't include a penis to stick out for all the world to see) is less "visible" than male sexuality - or that's how men see it at least. Speaking of penis pumps, I'm an erotic masseuse (oh, don't judge me - I've got to make a living somehow) and I've actually seen one in action. It was fitted inside the penis of an older man who'd become impotent because of diabetes. He seemed happy with it, but it was a very odd device. The pump was situated in the testicles, so he'd squeeze the testicles to pump it up.