Mark Regnerus, Cheap Sex

At Amazon, Mark Regnerus, Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy.

'A Mother's Birthday Greeting to Her Son'

A beautiful, wonderful short post, from Phyllis Chesler:  

I can still remember the exact moment of his birth, how small and wet he was, and how unexpectedly blonde. He was gasping for air, needed oxygen, and I was completely worn down by a 32 ½ hour labor. But, within an hour, I was up and filled with the most incredible joy. Giving birth to life is a unique rite of passage, both divine and yet incredibly human, the stuff of mortal beings, the way of female flesh. I was so overcome by it all that I wrote a book With Child: A Diary of Motherhood, which some publishers turned down because, as one editor said: “You can write about important things, why waste your time on this?” Another editor said: “You will not be a normal mother, other women will not be able to relate to your experience.” Arnold Dolin, a wonderful man and a wonderful editor, published it. When my son was eighteen, he wrote the Introduction to the book. He is a beautiful writer and I will forever admire his words.

But oh, how quickly his childhood was over. One minute it was here—diapers and Barbar-the Elephant King, Paddington Bears, and Cabbage Patch Kids, and all those little action figures (I called them boy dolls), and then it was all gone in only an eye-blink of eternity...

Keep reading.

 

Anthony Bourdain Heartbroken After Split from Asia Argento?

I know, from having my heart broken too many times, if there's one sure thing to drive a man over the cliff it's the rejection of a beautiful woman. And Bourdain had problems before. He'd been a heroin addict at one point.

The Other McCain tweeted the other day:

Bourdain had a history of serious drug abuse. He was divorced twice, and had just been dumped by his girlfriend. Stop pretending that his suicide was mysterious, caused by some "chemical imbalance." That's bullshit.

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) June 9, 2018

Why don't you mention that the reason Bourdain killed himself was because Asia Argento recently dumped him? https://t.co/rM1bxLBfCr

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) June 9, 2018

I wrote about my pal Tony https://t.co/4STkQsUxVV

— your friend Helen (@hels) June 8, 2018

Also at TMZ:

ANTHONY BOURDAIN
EVERYTHING SEEMED GOOD WITH GF
... Until This Week https://t.co/nJQ1UQvHHl

— ☮️ 🕊 🌎 tmarie (@Syr829) June 9, 2018

Here's where things get murky. We know Anthony was shooting his show in France this week -- he'd been there for at least 4 days. However, Asia was back in Rome, strolling around with a French reporter named Hugo Clément. There were photos of them holding hands and hugging, but the Italian photographer who shot the pics pulled them off the market on the heels of Anthony's death.

It's unclear if Anthony and Asia had broken up. If they did, there was no public announcement. Their last public appearance together was at an event was back in April in NYC.

Piers Morgan Chews Out Dating Guru: ‘You Are A Repulsive Individual’

At Huff Post:

Piers Morgan chews out dating guru: "You are a repulsive individual" https://t.co/t2eRoVb5a8 pic.twitter.com/OVH6eOjtps

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 23, 2017

This seduction expert thinks British women are 'overweight' and 'entitled'

Watch the full debate: https://t.co/vuw078VG5o @piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/Xfc21gRb6C

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 22, 2017

Mom Defends Sexual Intercourse While Breastfeeding

All in the family, you might say.

At WWTDD, "Mom Defends Getting F***** While Breastfeeding Baby."

'Cuckold Stands by Wife' After She Cheats with 14-Year-Old Boy

Ouch.

That's a harsh headline.

Maybe the dude just loves his wife and practices Christian forgiveness.

That said, being "cuck" is kind of a thing these days, lol.

At the New York Post:

A husband stood by his wife after her affair with a middle school kid https://t.co/PFojR41y7T pic.twitter.com/xe5rP3p8P3

— New York Post (@nypost) March 20, 2017

What Do Men Value More — Intelligence, or Large Breasts?

Heh.

At Instapundit, "I SAY, EMBRACE THE MAGICAL POWER OF 'AND'."

Tinder Decries L.A. Billboard Warning Users to Get Tested for STDs (VIDEO)

Heh, Robert Stacy McCain called it already, "‘Hit-It-and-Quit-It on Tinder’."

They want that billboard to come down.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Tinder demands removal of L.A. billboard that tells dating app users to get STD test":

Tinder has sent a cease and desist letter to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation after a billboard went up in Los Angeles last week that draws a link between dating apps and a growing rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

The foundation said the billboard's purpose is to raise awareness about the increasing STD rate and to encourage dating-app users to get regular screenings or a “free STD check.” The billboard features silhouettes of people and the words “Tinder, Chlamydia, Grindr, Gonorrhea.”

“In many ways, location-based mobile dating apps are becoming a digital bathhouse for millennials wherein the next sexual encounter can literally just be a few feet away—as well as the next STD,” Whitney Engeran-Cordova, the foundation’s public health division director, said in a statement.

“While these sexual encounters are often intentionally brief or even anonymous, sexually transmitted diseases can have lasting effects on an individual’s personal health and can certainly create epidemics in communities at large,” the statement continued.

But Tinder, a location-based dating app, has fired back, saying the ad wrongly associates the app with venereal disease.

“These unprovoked and wholly unsubstantiated accusations are made to irreparably damage Tinder’s reputation in an attempt to encourage others to take an HIV test by your organization,” Tinder attorney Jonathan Reichman said in a letter to the foundation.

The foundation responded that it would not remove the billboard. It also referenced a Vanity Fair article that attributed a boom in casual hookups to the emergence of dating apps like Tinder...

Hey, we've got you covered at AmPow. The Vanity Fair piece is here, "The Tinder Hookup Culture and the End of Dating."

Yep, goodbye dating and hello STDs!

There's still more at the Times, heh.

Robert Stacy McCain Blogs 'Tinder Is the Night'

Following-up, "The Tinder Hookup Culture and the End of Dating."

At the Other McCain, "‘Hit-It-and-Quit-It on Tinder’."

'Hit-It-and-Quit-It on Tinder' http://t.co/yiQDHnPIe0 h/t @AmPowerBlog #tcot pic.twitter.com/l7QjocEUDg

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) August 31, 2015

The Tinder Hookup Culture and the End of Dating

"Tinder is the night."

Heh.

At Vanity Fair, "Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse”":

Mobile dating went mainstream about five years ago; by 2012 it was overtaking online dating. In February, one study reported there were nearly 100 million people—perhaps 50 million on Tinder alone—using their phones as a sort of all-day, every-day, handheld singles club, where they might find a sex partner as easily as they’d find a cheap flight to Florida. “It’s like ordering Seamless,” says Dan, the investment banker, referring to the online food-delivery service. “But you’re ordering a person.”

The comparison to online shopping seems an apt one. Dating apps are the free-market economy come to sex. The innovation of Tinder was the swipe—the flick of a finger on a picture, no more elaborate profiles necessary and no more fear of rejection; users only know whether they’ve been approved, never when they’ve been discarded. OkCupid soon adopted the function. Hinge, which allows for more information about a match’s circle of friends through Facebook, and Happn, which enables G.P.S. tracking to show whether matches have recently “crossed paths,” use it too. It’s telling that swiping has been jocularly incorporated into advertisements for various products, a nod to the notion that, online, the act of choosing consumer brands and sex partners has become interchangeable.

“It’s instant gratification,” says Jason, 26, a Brooklyn photographer, “and a validation of your own attractiveness by just, like, swiping your thumb on an app. You see some pretty girl and you swipe and it’s, like, oh, she thinks you’re attractive too, so it’s really addicting, and you just find yourself mindlessly doing it.” “Sex has become so easy,” says John, 26, a marketing executive in New York. “I can go on my phone right now and no doubt I can find someone I can have sex with this evening, probably before midnight.”

And is this “good for women”? Since the emergence of flappers and “moderns” in the 1920s, the debate about what is lost and gained for women in casual sex has been raging, and is raging still—particularly among women. Some, like Atlantic writer Hanna Rosin, see hookup culture as a boon: “The hookup culture is … bound up with everything that’s fabulous about being a young woman in 2012—the freedom, the confidence.” But others lament the way the extreme casualness of sex in the age of Tinder leaves many women feeling de-valued. “It’s rare for a woman of our generation to meet a man who treats her like a priority instead of an option,” wrote Erica Gordon on the Gen Y Web site Elite Daily, in 2014.

It is the very abundance of options provided by online dating which may be making men less inclined to treat any particular woman as a “priority,” according to David Buss, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in the evolution of human sexuality. “Apps like Tinder and OkCupid give people the impression that there are thousands or millions of potential mates out there,” Buss says. “One dimension of this is the impact it has on men’s psychology. When there is a surplus of women, or a perceived surplus of women, the whole mating system tends to shift towards short-term dating. Marriages become unstable. Divorces increase. Men don’t have to commit, so they pursue a short-term mating strategy. Men are making that shift, and women are forced to go along with it in order to mate at all.”

Now hold on there a minute. “Short-term mating strategies” seem to work for plenty of women too; some don’t want to be in committed relationships, either, particularly those in their 20s who are focusing on their education and launching careers. Alex the Wall Streeter is overly optimistic when he assumes that every woman he sleeps with would “turn the tables” and date him seriously if she could. And yet, his assumption may be a sign of the more “sinister” thing he references, the big fish swimming underneath the ice: “For young women the problem in navigating sexuality and relationships is still gender inequality,” says Elizabeth Armstrong, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan who specializes in sexuality and gender. “Young women complain that young men still have the power to decide when something is going to be serious and when something is not—they can go, ‘She’s girlfriend material, she’s hookup material.’ … There is still a pervasive double standard. We need to puzzle out why women have made more strides in the public arena than in the private arena.”

Sorry. Not buying it.

Attractive women have tremendous power. And frankly, if this story's any clue, looks like you're getting a lot of skanky people of both sexes on Tinder. Perhaps there's a few classy babes using the apps (or some real together dudes), but if you're hot and single, it's not like the chances for hooking up were all that bad before all these dating gizmos. Maybe the quantity has gone up, but not the quality. And for some people, that's not going to be an improvement. (But then, what do I know? I'm a fifty-something happily married man in the process of losing a few pounds, heh. I'm not on any dating market, which is kind of a relief.)

But keep reading. It's a kind of juicy piece, heh.

'Text Neck'

Mobile technology is hazardous to your health.

At CNN, "There is an epidemic and it is called 'text neck'."

Hey, I'm guilty too.

But then, I read a lot of books, usually reclining in a lounger or lying in bed. In other words, what people have been doing forever. I doubt all the new wireless and mobile technology is helpful for the intellectual development of young people. They need to read more. And I mean old fashioned books, newspapers, and magazines. "Long reads" as folks like to say.

PREVIOUSLY: "Texting Makes You Selfish."

Texting Makes You Selfish

And less trusting.

All the screen-time is said to effectively rewire your cognitive and emotional processes, especially among the young.


At the Washington Post, "Texting has made us less trusting, more selfish":

Virtual distance is a game-changer when it comes to human relations. When technology is used as an agent for relationships, in some cases it can be beneficial. However when technology is used purposelessly as a default it doesn’t just squeeze out sophisticated interpersonal interactions, it changes the nature of what’s left.

Purposeful use of technology can support children’s learning but when technology becomes either a substitute or a proxy for relationships, language development in children can be held back. Communication becomes the transfer of impersonal information instead of the sharing of a passion. This can have an impact on language development for kids, but it can have affects on other aspects of our lives.

Taking a risk and having a go at that tricky math problem seems more difficult when a child is on their own than when with a friend. More so sticking with a difficult task (a real gym-buddy is more effective than an app).

These kinds of skills – self discipline, ethical understanding and interpersonal communication, as well as social ability, and critical thinking (among others) – are what UNESCO calls “transversal competencies.” And they can be impaired through virtual distance.

When the ripple effects of actions and inactions seem to go no further than the screen, empathy and collaborative skills can be difficult to develop. For example, children seem to have trouble looking into other people’s eyes and are less able to hold conversations.

As connectivity increases, connectedness can lose out...

More.

America's Men Describe Their 'Perfect Woman' as Blonde with Blue Eyes

My wife's the one with blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm the one with the graduate degree, heh.

At London's Daily Mail, "It's not just about looks! America's men describe their 'perfect woman' as blonde, with blue eyes - and a graduate degree."

The 'Little Pink Pill' for Female Sexual Dysfunction

This is interesting, at ABC News, "'Little Pink Pill' for Women Sparks Big Sexism Controversy."

Raising Sled Dogs in Manhattan

I wish I had a sled dog, heh.

At NYT, "Planes, Dog Sleds and Automobiles":

Samantha Brooke Berkule and Scott Stuart Johnson were married Saturday evening in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. Cantor Jill E. Abramson officiated at the Acqualina Resort and Spa on the Beach.

The bride, 35, is an assistant professor of psychology at Marymount Manhattan College and a research assistant professor of pediatrics at New York University. She graduated from Cornell and received a master’s in psychology and a doctorate in developmental psychology from Yeshiva University. Her previous marriage ended in divorce. She is the daughter of Andrea S. Berkule of Yonkers and the late Lloyd I. Berkule.

The groom, 41, owns SJ Partners, a New York investment firm, and is an adjunct professor teaching entrepreneurial finance at Columbia Business School. He graduated from Columbia, from which he also received a Master of International Affairs and an M.B.A. He is the son of Cindy S. Johnson and Tod S. Johnson of Scarsdale, N.Y.

Dr. Berkule and Mr. Johnson became acquainted in 2012 after she reached out to him through Match.com...

Interesting. The world of dating is enormously different from when I was on the market, lol.

More, including video, here.

How to Get Some on Valentine's Day

Yeah, that'd be nice, lol.

From Esquire.

A word from Mary-Louise Parker: How to Get Some on Valentine's Day http://t.co/GfMURoMs5J pic.twitter.com/6Luaj6rZuM

— Esquire Magazine (@Esquiremag) February 11, 2014

Lee Woodruff: Secrets to a Successful Marriage

An interesting interview from today's "CBS News This Morning."

Woodruff discusses her article at Ladies Home Journal, "Let's Talk About Sex (And Why I'd Rather Just Go To Sleep)."



She is married to ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff, who was nearly killed by an IED in Iraq in 2006.

Together they wrote a memoir, discussed at NPR (with an excerpt), "Bob Woodruff and Wife Pen Recovery Memoir."

More, "Author Lee Woodruff on the Secret to a Successful Marriage and Being 'Perfectly Imperfect'."

Simon Cowell Lauren Silverman Beach Stroll in South of France

Well, I guess he's not too worried about Ms. Silverman's demands for a reality show.

Must be the life, really.

At London's Daily Mail, "Those smiles say it all! Simon Cowell can't keep the grin off his face as he holds hands with pregnant lover Lauren Silverman during romantic beach stroll":

He's spoken out about how happy he is that his lover Lauren Silverman is pregnant.

And now Simon Cowell is fully showing just how ecstatic he is about it - by putting on a public display of affection with her during a romantic getaway in the South of France.

In fact the music mogul couldn't get the smile off his face as he held hands with Lauren while they walked along a beach on Saturday morning.

And Silverman looked equally as gleeful as she also grinned from ear to ear to show they're not just having a baby together but are also officially an item.

It is the first time the pair have been seen together since news of the pregnancy shocked the world. And it also marks the first time they've been reunited since her husband Andrew Silverman found out about their affair and they subsequently got a divorce.

Continue reading.

Homosexual Teacher at Catholic School Fired After Marrying Partner

You think?

I'm not sure why someone like this is still Catholic.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Gay teacher at Glendora Catholic school fired after marrying partner":

A gay teacher at a Catholic high school in Glendora was fired after he married his partner and photos of the wedding were published in a local newspaper last month.

Ken Bencomo, 45, of Rancho Cucamonga was fired from his teaching position at St. Lucy's Priory High School days after he married his partner of 10 years.

He and Christopher Persky, 32, were among the first couples married at the San Bernardino County assessor-recorder's office after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed gay couples to marry in California.

Photos of the ceremony were published in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

Officials at St. Lucy's Priory had been aware of Bencomo's sexual orientation for about 10 of the 17 years he was employed by the school, said Patrick McGarrigle, Bencomo's attorney.

School officials specifically mentioned the wedding and the publicity it received during a meeting at which Bencomo was informed that he had been fired, McGarrigle said.

Bencomo, through his attorney, declined to comment.

"Ken was one of the school's star educators and the decision to terminate him because he lawfully married a man is just heartbreaking to him — it's crushing," McGarrigle said. "It shows a terrible error of judgment and complete disregard of Ken and what he has brought to the school."

Shoot, the guy was probably one of the brightest stars on campus, but he went and got married? What a freakin' dolt.

Timeline of 'Horndog' Simon Cowell's Women

This is pretty good, via the New York Post, "'Baby mama' seeking to tame horndog Simon Cowell, making 'X-Factor' judge keep promise to marry her." (Via WeSmirch.)