Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Bonobos Have Lots of Sex, Are Awesome, May Hold Key to Our Past

June 11, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
bonobos

We evolved from primates. And generally that story follows a simple path: we started to walk upright, then we started to talk, then we started to use tools, then we hunted down bigger-but-dumber animals, then we got married and monogamy became a thing, and then, generally, we were the humans we are today. It's easy enough to track and makes sense considering the way most people live(d). Echoes from the past in society of the present. But those echoes might actually just be sounds from a bonobo orgy. As Jack Hitt writes for Lapham's Quarterly: In the heart of Africa, in a swamp ... Read More

More like this: Science
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

UPDATE: Women Like Sex

June 4, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
woman-thumbs-up

Early last month we wrote about a decidedly not-fascinating study, which said: Women like sex. It was stupid—but stupid because the study only exists since it's predicated on ideas of what women should do rather than what they actually do. Over at Slate, Amanda Hess has a great piece on the topic, stemming from spending some time at a Playboy party—in which the editor-in-chief tells her, "We used to have a pickle shot now and again. Not anymore.”—and a book (Daniel Bergner’s What Do Women Want?) that's out today. Bergner's book, Hess writes, breaks down all the modern ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , , , ,

Real Men Don’t

May 31, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
baseball-bro

One of the banes of male existence is the continued struggle for authenticity. Like, it appears that I'm a real man, but human existence is possibly an illusion, right, so how can I be so sure? How can you be so sure? Real man? Man, I just don't know. Luckily, there are things like this article, which contains the following two sentences: "Men have become lazy pussies. I don’t even want to use the word pussy because it brings to mind women, who nowadays have much more character than men." And this (actually hilarious and awesome) video made for Brazilian soccer star Neymar, titled "Real Men ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , , , , ,

Why Pornography Deserves Its Own Academic Journal

May 17, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
porn-keyboard

Routledge recently announced that it will publish the first international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the academic study of pornography. Making its debut in spring 2014, with editors Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith at the helm, the aptly titled Porn Studies will give critical scholarship on pornography a place at the proverbial table. The announcement generated a great deal of media interest (“Porn studies is the new discipline for academics,” declared The Guardian), along with some palpable skepticism (“The world has officially lost its marbles,” wrote one online ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , , , ,

How Will I Survive the Cicada Invasion?

May 10, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
cicada

As you've surely seen, the East Coast is preparing for a pending cicada invasion. And by "preparing," I mean "hyperventilating in front of a computer screen." Sure, everything happening remotely close to New York always gets blown out or proportion—that big gray cloud you just Instagrammed is going to release water, which is called "rain"; everyone will be fine—but, I mean, there are going to be a lot of cicadas, like multiple-hundreds per person. Despite the pending invasion of these mutating alien-shrimp pods, you're all probably going to be fine. Probably. To get the low-down on what ... Read More

More like this: Science
Tags: , , , , , ,

Groundbreaking News: Women Like Sex

May 8, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
thumbs-up

Hold onto your codpieces, y'all. You're not gonna believe the news coming out of Australia. I am currently shivering in a corner, feebly pecking away at a keyboard with my mouth, trying to finish up this post while I attempt to process all of this. Here is the lede: It's a myth that men want sex and women want relationships, says a Sydney professor, as a long-simmering gender spat reaches Australia. I am dead—and there's still more: It is not true that men are focused only on sex and women only want relationships, she says. But. But. But. But. But how could she know? Richters, an ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , , , ,

Men: Want More Sex? Don’t Do the Laundry!

February 12, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: GUALTIERO BOFFI/SHUTTERSTOCK)

When it comes to sex, don’t believe everything you read on the Web. As we discussed earlier, the myth of “sexercise” persists online despite physicians’ assessment that rolling in the sheets is hardly an efficient way to burn calories. Now, a trio of sociologists, writing in American Sociological Review, takes on the notion that men who do more housework lead healthier sex lives, a bit of pop wisdom that went viral in 2009 thanks to the CBSNews.com article, “Men: Want More Sex? Do the Laundry!” In fact, the authors argue, that write-up was based in part on an unpublished ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , ,

The Myth of ‘Sexercise’

January 30, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK)

Buried in an article reviewing the myths and facts of obesity and weight-loss in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine is this gem: “Myth number 7: A bout of sexual activity burns 100 to 300 kcal for each participant.” There’s no shortage of Web sites extolling the cardiovascular virtues of sex, from undressing to foreplay to intercourse. Suffice it to say that they’re long on pseudo-science and short on data. A random sample: WebMD estimates that 30 minutes of sex can burn 85 calories or more. “It may not sound like much, but it adds up: 42 half-hour sessions will ... Read More

More like this: The 101
Tags: ,

‘Slut’ Label Refuses to Die

December 3, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
scarletletterblue

For women, engaging in casual sex still carries a stigma, and the prospect of being judged dampens their interest in one-night stands. That’s the key finding of a newly published study that suggests sexual mores remain stubbornly stable. It concludes that, more than a half-century after the introduction of the birth control pill, the sexual double standard is alive and well and still influencing women’s everyday behavior. The research, published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, is by three University of Michigan psychologists led by Terri Conley. Last year, she authored a paper ... Read More

More like this: Findings
Tags: , , , ,

Large Looks Lovely to the Stressed-Out Male

August 8, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

New research suggests a promising strategy for larger ladies who are looking for love: Find a singles bar near a workplace where the men are really stressed out. Researchers writing in the journal PLOS ONE report men who had just been experiencing acute stress were more likely than their calm counterparts to find overweight women attractive. When it comes to changing a man’s perspective, beer goggles may be less effective than frazzle frames. Psychologists Viren Swami of the University of Westminster and Martin Tovee of Newcastle University describe an experiment involving 81 male ... Read More

More like this: Culture & Society, Findings
Tags: , , ,