The Jeff Booth Show

Internet Radio with Pictures

Show Transcripts

July 13th , 2008

You can contact us at:

Jeff@eroticuniversity.com

(818) 613-9248

This is the Jeff Booth Show for July 13th, 2007, brought to you by the Center for Sexual Expression and Education and Erotic University. I’m Jeff Booth. This is Sex Science Sunday, so we have all of the latest from the sex labs. We talk with Michael Grecco about his book, Naked Ambition, featuring his fine art photography of adult stars. Our sex and politics segment features McDonalds and homosexuality, incompetent mainstream sex reporting, sex confusion in the McCain camp, and John Dunne wrote “Any man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in all mankind” We found an exception. Just click on the topic you want to listen to, and thanks for clicking in.

Politics

The American Family Association is calling for a boycott of McDonalds for promoting the homosexual agenda. We’ve all seen Ronald McDonald. This comes as a surprise to them? They didn’t notice that french fries look like little erect penises? So, what nefarious gay agenda promoting thing did McDonald’s do? Change their slogan to “I’m Lovin’ it in the ass”? Now offering gay meals instead of happy meals? Pushing pansy promoting salads? No. They are upset because McDonalds refused to condemn Vice President of Communications Richard Ellis’s decision to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. And McDonalds has admitted that “We support our employees’ personal involvement in organizations of their choice.” This is exactly what the AFA means when they wrote about the boycott that McDonald’s has chosen not to remain neutral (in the culture wars) but to give the full weight of their corporation to promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage. And they give that full weight just by not condemning an employee’s private non-job related activities.  Thank god they only helped promote the gay agenda by doing nothing- imagine how much damage they could have done to the family by actually doing something. McDonalds joins Walmart, Ford, Disney and American Girls Dolls in being at the receiving end of an AFA Boycott, during which all of them saw their profits increase.

The Texas branch of the FLDS, the Yearning for Zion ranch, has had their children returned after the raid by authrorities, despite strong evidenced of forcing sex and marriage on young girls. But now they are in need of money. So they launched fldsdress.com, where you can buy the same exciting 18th century fashions they wear. Nothing in red though. And best of all, they have bridal wear in flower girl sizes. The site offers children’s ankle-to-wrist underwear, and long nightgowns for young girls, which I assume come with the matching crotchless Mormon underwear.

President Bush promised that his economic stimulus package would be stimulating to the economy. We haven’t seen a lot of that in general, except, apparently, in one area. It has been reported in several mainstream media outlets that fans of porn have been stimulated to use some of their stimulus checks on Porn sites, resulting in a large upswing in memberships. According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for Adult Internet Market Research Company, “Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market.”  I love this story- its almost too good to be true. Oh crap. I hate having journalistic integrity. When a story sounds too good, you have to check it out more thoroughly. Even when it appears in the L.A. Times like this one. Okay, maybe especially when it appears in the L.A Times. Don’t forget their recent erroneous reporting on the Los Angeles extreme porn trial and Judge Kazinsky.  I’d never heard of AIMRC, nor the two adult sites quoted, which set my radar pinging. A few others in the adult media were also suspicious, especially since they, like I, knew of the many sites suffering along with the rest of us under the Bush economy despite those stimulus checks. In fact, it seems that it was really just a clever and effective press release to get the names into the press of a couple of little known porn sites quoted in the so called research. Represented as a long time research company, Adult Video News looked up AIMRC and discovered that their URL wasn’t registered until last month. But many mainstream media outlets bought the story without checking any of it out, just based on the press release which they barely rewrote. And you thought porn stars were suckers.

Carly Fiorina, the former failed Hewlett-Packard chief pushed out in part for her involvement in illegal spying, is now part of Team McCain. She was out stumping for him this week when she said in reference to McCain’s health care proposals, “a real, live example which I’ve been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice.” Indeed they would. But McCain is not the pro-choice candidate. He has voted against requiring health care plans to include birth control. He opposed renewing the title X family planning program.  He is not even sure where he stands on government funded contraceptives. That question stumped him in an interview.  And in a recent interview when the reporter tried to ask him about Fiorina’s comment, he interrupted her and said he didn’t want to talk about in. When she finally finished her question and pressed him about the Viagra birth control issue, he claimed that he did not know enough about it to answer intelligently. To be fair, that would also include most aspects of modern life, but he was unclear about whether he was claiming he didn’t know enough about birth control or he didn’t know about Viagra. You can be damn sure he knows about Viagra, otherwise his much younger heiress wife wouldn’t be letting him use her jet as a campaign plane.

The good news- former Senator Jesse Helms has finally been buried in the ground. The bad news- he was dead at the time. I hope they at least buried him face down so he could see where he is going. With his passing, so goes the last openly racist high profile politician in America. Helms was a miserable excuse for a human being. The one-time  sports reporter filibustered Martin Luther King Day, calling him a sex pervert and a communist, just like all Black civil rights activists. He used racist ads to get reelected. He wanted to outlaw abortion even in the case of rape. He blocked congressional funding for Aids victims on the grounds that their “revolting conduct was responsible for their condition” He tried to dismantle the NEA because he said it was funding perversion. He called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress." He successfully axed federal funding for safe sex health promotion materials. He called homosexuals “weak, morally sick wretches.” Some Republicans and the White House have praised him on his passing, but he was a racist, mysogonystic, homophobic asshole who did tremendous harm to our nation with his obstinate hate filled obstructionism. Hopefully, we will never again see the likes of him attain so much political power in this country. He died on the fourth of July, and the sky was bluer and the birds sang sweeter.

Sex Science Sunday

This is Sex Science Sunday, where on the second Sunday of every month we look at current sex science, both the scintillating and the stupid. We find a lot of the stupid- and you can find a lot more at our companion site- SexScienceSkeptic.com.

They’ve discovered a fruit that works like Viagra. The fruit is Watermelon, and its flesh and rind contain a substance called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body's blood vessels. That is similar to the way Viagra works, although Viagra is more targeted. To get the effect, though, you’d have to consume a lot of watermelon and rind-over six cups. It is not anywhere near as effective as Viagra, plus Watermelon is a diuretic, which means you’d have two diametrically opposed bodily functions battling against each other.

In a survey titled  "Sex and the American Mom," sponsored by the respected science organizations Cookie magazine and AOL Body, it appears to show that 34% of married moms are in the midst of, or have already had, an affair. So guys, look to the mom on the left of you, then to the mom on the right of you, then to the mom in front of you, and if they are all naked in bed with you, you are one greedy bastard. Its supposed to be one in three. The survey also found that 77% of the women reported wanting more sex. Now, is that what’s left over after deducting the 34% having affairs plus the 1 percent extra for whom even that is not enough?

Did you know that until just recently, there was no actual scientific definition of premature ejaculation? They finally have come up with one, but it is amazing it took them so long to come up with it for something that comes so early. So here is the definition, straight from the International Society for Sexual Medicine: “A male sexual dysfunction characterized by ejaculation which always or nearly always occurs prior to or within about one minute of vaginal penetration; and, inability to delay ejaculation on all or nearly all vaginal penetrations; and, negative personal consequences, such as distress, bother, frustration and/or the avoidance of sexual intimacy.” And I noticed immediately that it was a definition only about the man. It doesn’t mention her frustration, distress or bother, which might affect him just as much. No mention of the impact on a relationship. Apparently, the definition seems to require that he be distressed by it. I have been told tales by women of too many men who seemed fine with it. So are they now technically not premature ejaculators because it does not cause them distress?  “Honey, are you coming?” “In a minute.”

Here is how the research by researchers at Durham University in England and published in the journal “Human Nature” was reported in the press: “According to the latest research women have negative feelings after a fling and remain unhappy with fleeting sexual encounters. Most women will only embark on a one night stand if they think it will lead to a full blown relationship and feel used and ashamed when it goes no further.” Those of you who have been following the hook up generation or even talking to younger women might be scratching your heads already. The study reaches evolutionary psychology conclusions with “women "have not adapted" to meaningless sex because it did not suit them at this stage in evolution. Men are more likely to reproduce and therefore to benefit from numerous short-term partners. For women, however, quality seems to be more important than quantity.” Great. Another study filled with poorly defined terms. Since it is a known fact that it takes a little skill on the man’s part to be a good sexual partner, and that I hear a lot of women complaining about men’s lack of skill, maybe the real issue is quality in terms of the guy being able to give them a satisfying sexual experience. And if they could get better quality, maybe more of that would be good.  But the impression you get from the media is that women don’t like casual sex while men do. The actual conclusion of the study, according to researcher Professor Anne Campbell, was not that women don’t like one night stands, but that “What the women seemed to object to was not the briefness of the encounter but the fact that the man did not seem to appreciate her. The women thought this lack of gratitude implied that she did this with anybody.” That sounds much more social than evolutionarily biological. Part of the problem is that one night stand has become a retro term in the days of fuck buddies and hooking up. And there is a huge difference in what you would expect between younger and older women, and married and single women. And this is all meaningless without factoring in age, marital status, and frequency of casual sex. In the media, they report that this study shows that women do not rate casual sex positively. But what about those that do? Swingers, for example.  Typically married and in secure relations, they engage in what might be termed one night stands on a regular basis, and enjoy it. Maybe it is situational, having more to do with security than biology.  As is typical with this type of research, they ask the wrong questions. According to the study, 46% of women seem to be enjoying casual sex and one night stands. The real question is why. They live in a society that still condemns women for promiscuity unlike men, and they face a higher risk of disease plus the risk of pregnancy. And what about the women having casual sex who report less satisfaction from it? Why do they do it?  Do they do it expecting to be more appreciated each time, only to be disappointed?  I think there is more to it than Professor Campbell’s poorly defined explanation that women have casual sex simply because it is hormonal, caused by women’s menstrual cycle. Real women and their lives tend to be a little more complicated than that outside of the lab.

And when women do have casual sex, why do they so often seem attracted to the so-called bad boys? A study led by Dr Peter Jonason and published in The New Scientist attempted to answer that question. They claim that the right combination of the narcissist's sense of entitlement, the non-clinical psychopath's thrill-seeking, and manipulative skills of Machiavellianism come together in some men to help them get more women. They call it the ‘dark triad’ of personality traits. As usual, they surveyed, you guessed it, college students, because no one is more sophisticated about sex and seduction than college students. As a model of the right combination, the authors used the example of James Bond. And in all the press reports on this research, I could not find a single one that explained why women were attracted to this combination. I have an explanation, not based on research but through years of observation. The men who get more women are those who are less risk-averse. They are not afraid to ask and go after what they want. That would include Bond, those with the dark triad, and other folks as well. They have egos that allow them to get a lot of nos to get to a yes. Those of us involved in the swinger lifestyle, a crowd known to be risk takers, have a simple saying: “you don’t ask, you don’t get, and if you snooze, you lose.” Spies and other adventure seekers are more likely to aggressively pursue what they want, and by shear force of odds have more partners. And a man who has sexual confidence is going to be more appealing to women, something he might gain along the way of having many partners. Sure, a lot of women  are attracted to bad boys, just check out the site Hot Chicks with Douchebags for many examples,  but this study’s conclusions sound more like they came from the nerd department that can’t figure out why those other guys are getting all the girls.

Here is the worst sex science headline I’ve seen in awhile: “Lesbians like straight men.”  Well, maybe as friends. Actually, its about brains, and that the brains of lesbians are more structurally like those of straight men. The study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm strongly indicates that sexuality is a biologically fixed trait that can be seen in physical brain differences. It was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using an MRI, they found that straight men and lesbians had asymmetric brains, with the right hemisphere slightly larger. Gay men and women appeared to have more symmetrical brains. PET scans also showed differences in the way the amygdala sent signals that matched up lesbians with straight men. What causes this differences is unknown. Also unknown is whether bisexual women can chose whether they are in the mood for having an asymmetrical or a symmetrical brain, or if they are just afraid to commit to one or the other.

I remember reading an anti-gay tract that claimed that gay sex was so unnatural even animals don’t do it. So, how many species of animals are known to engage in gay sex?  According to University of Oslo zoologist Petter Böckman, about 1,500 animal species. Everything from owls to dolphins, the latter perhaps being the queerest of the mammals, if you leave out the pygmy chimpanzees for whom gay sex is more common than in a bath house on Castro Street. So, do you think the dolphin just had a weak father figure, or was the chimpanzee just reacting to peer pressure because the gay lifestyle was so appealing? What they have not found in animal species yet is homophobia, since it is so unnatural even animals don’t do it.