Feeling naughty in Toronto this week? Check this out:
Calling all campers! Sign up today for the best FREE summer camp experience EVER at Planet IndigenUs – Harbourfront Centre!
Join the fun with Kegedonce Press Authors and Friends with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network on August 22 from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. for “Camp Kegedonce,” a late-night fun-filled, sexy, anything-goes celebration of Indigenous erotica, sexuality and sexual diversity.
WHEN: Saturday, August 22nd
WHERE: Harbourfront Centre Toronto, Lakeview Terrace
TIME: 11pm to 1am
COST: FREE!
It’ll be an R-rated romp through burlesque, body painting, music, and spoken word, with featured readings and performances by nationally renowned Metis writer Gregory Scofield performing from the revised, Kegedonce Press edition of his classic book of erotic poetry Love Medicine and One Song, the ever popular and effervescent Cherokee writer Daniel Heath Justice reading racy excerpts from the first ever Indigenous fantasy trilogy, The Way of Thorn and Thunder, and electrifying Anishnaabe writer Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm performing selections from the ground-breaking anthology Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica.
The incomparable, sex-positive, dynamic Mohawk diva Jessica Yee will be on hand to rock the mic as MC. She’ll introduce you to hot young local Native spoken word artists from Red Slam and entice you with prizes and give-aways from the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and Good for Her feminist sex store.
Body painter Ark Angel and Métis burlesque dancer Veronika Swartz AKA “Priscilla Pussycat” from the Shameless Dames will make things sizzle while dj Mad Eskimo keeps the fires burning with his Arctic flavoured, heart thumping, body pumping, soulful electronic sounds, music, and images.
According to a study published yesterday, Toronto teenagers want more access to sex education. The media are reporting this story as if it’s honest-to-goodness news, but I’m kind of wondering whether anyone is actually surprised at the findings of the Toronto Teen Survey, which was conducted by Planned Parenthood Toronto in conjunction with York University, the University of Toronto, Wilfred Laurier University, and Toronto Public Health. I’m sure community groups that deal with teen health and sex education, such as Planned Parenthood or Head and Hands, are more than ready to yell out a huge “I told you so” to governments and boards of education that have been slowly hacking away at sex ed classes in public schools.
I have to admit that I’m not entirely up to date on the quantity and quality of sex education classes in Canadian schools, which certainly must vary province to province, given that education is provincially regulated. But, from what I’ve read and heard over the past couple of years, my general impression is that sex ed classes are not meeting the needs of today’s teens. In Ontario, teens receive sex ed classes in Grades 7 and 9, which is not nearly enough, as far as I’m concerned. In fact, the newly published report recommends that sexual education be included in all elementary and high school grades. Far worse than Ontario is the province of Quebec, which decided last year to eliminate sex ed classes altogether in favour of an approach where teachers of all subjects are encouraged to include sex education in their classes. (I’m not sure how a math teacher is supposed to incorporate a discussion of, say, sexual intimacy while also teaching the quadratic equation, but maybe I’m just not being imaginative enough.) Not surprisingly, Sue Johanson was less than pleased with Quebec’s new mandate. And considering that just last week Alberta passed a law that allows parents to pull their kids out of classes in which religion or sex will be discussed, I’m going to guess that some kids in Alberta aren’t getting their fair share of sex ed either.
Okay, so now that this study has been conducted and published, what next? Is anything actually going to change? Are these teens who have indicated a subpar understanding of sexual health going to get more information? Or are governments and school boards going to pretend the study doesn’t exist? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what happens, but my guess is that the sex ed battle has just barely begun.
Attention hetero ladies–contrary to what country crooner Mickey Gilley may have led you to believe back in 1976, you do not, in fact, “look prettier at closing time” (or apparently at any other point in the day) to a drunken potential date, though you may find him hotter if you’ve imbibed.
A new study published in the British Journal of Psychology announces this curious discovery. Researchers showed (presumably heterosexual) women and men–in various states of inebriation–pictures of members of the opposite sex and asked them to rate their attractiveness. According to a summary in the Daily Mail:
While the women rated the faces in the pictures as more attractive after drinking, alcohol had no effect on the men’s judgement.
On the surface, the study may seem rather shallow, but, in fact, its findings have some important legal implications:
Drinking did not affect either sex’s ability to judge age, leading to the researchers saying that the influence of alcohol should not be a mitigating factor in the case of a man accused of under-age sex.
Not surprisingly, since their publication, the results have spawned a spate of news stories, like this one and this one. Interestingly–and disappointingly–among the crop are a number that downplay or completely ignore the portion of the study’s outcome related to the women’s perceptions of men or how men’s ability to judge age accurately despite drunkenness might affect the legal outcome of sex with minors cases. Instead, in many quarters is much guffawing over the fact that men apparently no longer can use the so-called “beer goggles” excuse when their buddies tease them about the women they take home. Sigh.
Can't express how much I love my husband. Feel I should attach a hashtag indicating #sincerity, or perhaps #unabashedsincerity or just #TMI15 hours ago
Just came back from playing squash. I still play like a dork, but I still love it. 2010/03/09
Feeling naughty in Toronto this week? Check this out:
According to a study published yesterday, Toronto teenagers want more access to sex education. The media are 
Confabulous badges!
