A brief overview of what’s happened over the last week #InSearchOfPleasure.
There’s no such thing as a ‘normal’ vulva. So there isn’t an abnormal vulva either.
A team of researchers from Switzerland has come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a “normal vulva”.
A new study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology assessed 657 Caucasian women aged between 15 and 84 years old over the course of two years, taking standardized defined measurements of parts of their vulvas.
Measurements include clitoral gland, distance from the base of the gland to the urethral orifice, length of introitus, length of perineum, length of labia majora, length and width of labia minora. The measurements ranged drastically between each woman studied.
For instance, the average length of the inner labia was found to be 43 millimetres. However, some measured at 5 millimetres, while others reached 100 millimetres in length.
The average length of the clitoris was 7 millimetres, with the diverse measurements ranging from 0.5 millimetres to 34 millimetres.
The study is particularly relevant in a time when the number of women undergoing labiaplasties in order to alter the appearance of their vulva is increasing.
More and more girls and women worry that there’s something wrong with the shape of their genitalia and strive for an ideal of the vulva with short labia minora. A part of the book The Wonder Down Under investigates the causes of such an idea. “If young girls and women had learnt as early as infant school that their genitals would change, and if they’d got to know more about what they might look like between the legs once they were adults, perhaps we might not have seen the increase in intimate surgery that we’re seeing today”.
If it’s true that there’s no such thing as a normal vulva, then there isn’t an abnormal vulva either.
It’s probably nothing new to I Show Flag and Jamie McCartney artists who made the plaster casts of hundreds of vulvas, showing an undeniable truth: we’re all the same because we’re all different. (Last year I interviewed I Show Flag and I told my experience as one of his models for the casts.
The 7 Most Common Americans’ Sexual Fantasies
Social psychologist Dr Justin Lehmiller asked 4,175 American adults to tell him their biggest sexual desire as part of a recent study. The survey consisted of 350 questions, and according to his book Tell Me What You Want, in bookstores July 10, is the largest survey ever of sexual fantasies in America. Not only does Lehmiller describes innumerable types of fantasies, but he also categorizes them by prevalence, age, personality traits, relationship status, and even political affiliation.
Turns out, the 7 most common sexual fantasies are:
1. Multipartner sex: threesomes, orgies, and gangbangs.
2. Power, control, and rough sex, including BDSM fantasies.
3. Novelty, adventure, and variety, trying sex in new positions or places.
4. Taboo and forbidden activities, such as voyeurism and fetishes.
5. Partner sharing and non-monogamous relationships, like polyamory and swinging.
6. Passion, intimacy, and romance, or meeting deeper emotional needs.
7. Homoeroticism and gender-bending: experimenting with your sexuality & gender.
It looks to me like the list shows the portrait of a society more creative, open and tolerant than the one that every day gives rein to its hatred towards the different on the keyboard, filling the virtual media with homophobic, racist and intolerant messages. Maybe we are all better humans than we look but we’re afraid to say so.
4-day journey in search of pleasure surrounded by nature
This week, from 5 to 9 July, hedonist humans gathered in a magical location surrounded by nature in Poland to explore all the shapes of ethical hedonism, the philosophy that argues that the pursuit of pleasure is the primary goal of human life.
“Bring some poetry into your life as we honour nature, beauty, art and the physical form. Join us for an enriching, delightful, charitable event that will explore pleasure from theory to practice” are the opening sentences of the seminar program.
The seminar is organised by the artist collective and charity Hedoné and includes activities such as Naked Yoga, Yoni Egg Circle, Shibari, breath works, round tables. The ambience of the celebration is inspired by the poem De Rerum Natura and the elements that symbolize the beauty of the botanical world. The dress code allows only light coloured fabrics apart from natural components like leaves, flowers, feathers, shells, and encourages and celebrates transparency and nudity. The whole celebration is meant to be a mass performance against Female Genital Mutilation under the motto “Don’t cut the Flower!”.
The first day is reserved for the preparation of campsites and the beginning of the collective journey of inspiration and transformation. The second day is of introduction, initiation and education to the vision and mission of Hedoné through workshops, talks by experts, art exhibition, discussion panels, and live music performances. From the third day, participants put their newly acquired consciousness into practice, celebrating together the simple pleasures of life with interactive activities, guided experiences, and wellness activations.
International Kissing Day
The 6th of July was International Kissing Day. I can’t think of a better kiss than the free one, able to cross every geographic, cultural, social, gender barrier, portrayed in the series Sense8. I already talked about the show in a couple of articles (my list of 10 movies and tv series to be watched under the covers and the news announcing the release of the final episode on Netflix) and this week I finally watched the episode that puts an end (with huge disappointment of the fans) to the series with a triumph for love as an unstoppable feeling able to unite human beings and make the world a better place
[Spoiler ahead]
Maybe the image of the ideal love we all should strive for is depicted in the very last scene of the episode: a rainbow coloured strap-on dildo still wet from the fluid of the free human love.
