Posted on 05/08/2005 3:09:58 PM PDT by wagglebee
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - From bondage to "breath play" and zoophilia, it's not easy keeping up with society's fast-developing sexual trends.
That's why some of North America's top sexologists are hunkered down with academics and therapists at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel this weekend: to swap findings about everything from teens with underwear fetishes to transgender couples.
"These couples have problems that I didn't know how to deal with," said Olga Perez Stable Cox, president of the Western U.S. region of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. "You have to understand the culture, otherwise you're an outsider, and you don't get it."
The theme for the society's four-day conference is "Unstudied, Understudied And Underserved Sexual Communities." Presentations range from discussions from autoerotic asphyxiation, or "breath play," to zoophiles, or animal lovers, to more mainstream topics like sex motives of dating partners.
"Let me tell you, it was not easy finding these pictures," Hunter College professor Jose E. Nanin told his audience in a seminar about "specialized" sexual behavior among gay men.
Nanin's photos are more than an explicit how-to of exhibitionism and sadomasochism, he says; they are examples of safe alternatives to sexual intercourse that need to be de-stigmatized in order to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS.
Researchers say their greater goal is to help the medical community, the public and legislators figure out what behavior is merely out of the norm versus downright dangerous.
"As sex researchers, one of our concerns is distinguishing what can be harmful and what is not -- so that instead of being based on myth, public policy can be informed," said Charlene Muehlenhard, professor of psychology and women's studies at The University of Kansas.
When authorities caught a Midwestern U.S. teenage boy stealing girls' underwear, they immediately demonized his underwear fetish, Pennsylvania State University researcher Patricia Barthalow Kosch said. Many clinicians attribute the boy's crime more to broken family relations. The crime was theft, not his sexual fantasies, conference attendees said.
Teen sexuality draws sensational headlines, but suffers from a lack of academic study, researchers said.
Kim Openshaw, a psychology professor at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, who studies teenage sex offenders, said the limited amount of research so far has found that girls make up only 5 to 10 percent of all underage sex offenders.
The numbers are underreported, Openshaw says, because many people are reluctant to acknowledge the problem.
Victims of girl sex offenders tend to be in the immediate family circle. Most perpetrators are victims of family abuse. By contrast, boy sex offenders tend to be more macho, violent and attack outside of their immediate family.
Argh, I thought I pung it out... I'll double check. It's so freaking unsavory.
Not if you really love the sheep . . .
I can't believe they didn't pick you. Does this mean you'll run for antipope? I hear the position is still open. :-)
Syphillis is one. Comes from sheep.
>>That's why some of North America's top sexologists are hunkered down with academics and therapists at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel this weekend: to swap findings about everything from teens with underwear fetishes to transgender couples.<<
Nope, that's not why. I think this bunch of nutty lefties go off on pictures of and a discussion about weird acts. An orgy of porn disguised as a study.
Specialized sexual behavior among homosexual men? Considering their "normal" sexual behavior, the notion buggers the imagination.
Moral Absolutes Ping.
I almost don't want to ping this out, it's so extremely distasteful....Blechh. But, doing my duty regardless of personal feelings, here it is. Gotta know what the sick freaks and leftists (but I repeat myself) are up to. Know thine enemy, it is really necessary.
BTW, the pic of the girl and little goats (#29) is really cute; having been around goats here and there I've got a soft spot for baby goats. And in a very normal way, I might add!
Let me know if you want on/off this pinglist.
Glanced at the article again and noticed that this - meeting? or whatever is people by ACADEMICS and THERAPISTS.
Avoid them like the very plague.
Sex researchers? I want to know how one gets a Ph.D. in sex research and can someone please tell me which universitites offer this course of study? Thanks in advance. I knew I would find something to get me back into the classroom in retirement....
Have a friend getting one in sex therapy from Drexel in Philadelphia. Her husband gets quite a few comments!
Wonder how "hard" the "oral" exams are...
Dear Abby,
Where can I buy a 'breath play' rubber? I'm serious ... I've been practicing unprotected breathing all my life.
Frantically Yours,
Breathless
Unpopular sex acts ping.
WHERE is PETA on this issue?
Probably brought the props for show and tell time....
I'll second that emotion.
There are some things one just can't "unsee".
I met a queer shepherd once.
He had 200 rams, and no ewes.
LOL!
And a very well-deserved kick too.
Seriously, somebody who goes fence-hopping to molest livestock is no laughing matter to farmers and breeders. Heard of a valuable broodmare aborting a foal and herself almost dying of an infection because she was "fooled with".
WTF?
The trees are in the way of the visionary forest on this one.
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