3.27.2015

Cinderella - The SSL Review



How, you ask, am I going to do an SSL Review on a children's movie from Disney? Was there really a discussion, or depiction of female orgasm or female masturbation in that movie that can make it eligible for an SSL review? The answer, my friends, is no, there was not. However, there was a scene (and I'm not giving any spoilers - because the movie is really just a live version of the cartoon with a bit more backstory - so no surprises) while Cinderella was at the Royal Ball. She and ol' Prince Charming (although weirdly there's a thing in this movie where she calls him Kit) are in a secret garden, and she's swinging on a rope swing. Her glass slipper falls off, and he puts it back on, and when he does, she lets out this breath, like she's having a foot-gasm. I don't know if everyone noticed this, but it made me laugh out loud for just a sec.

I decided that was enough to write an SSL Review - just because I wanted to say how boring and disappointing the movie was. I know you are asking, Trisha, why do you even care about this movie, and why would think think it would be like good or something? These are good questions, with no good answers, but by god, I will try.

I can honestly say that as soon as I saw there was a Cinderella movie, I had a little kernel in me that really wanted to see it. It was just a kernel deep within, but I knew I must see it. I guess I imagined the breath-takingly sparkly ball gown, and the incredibly cute Gus Gus trying so desperately to collect those pearls for his beloved friend Cinderelly despite the peril of that darn cat. I was thinking of the fairy godmother, and again of sparkles. And also, I was thinking about sparkles and sparkly-ness. It just seemed like something I wanted my eyes to look at.

So, as I was standing in the ridiculously slow moving Brazilian movie theater ticket line (I'm serious - movie ticket lines seem to take hours here. Each person seems to be at the cashier for 10 minutes), and we were deciding what movie to watch, Cindy-relly was the obvious choice. Well, as we sometimes...well maybe often...do, Charlie and I just wanted to go to the movies and eat popcorn, and we'll watch whatever the best option is at the time. Cinderella was playing right then. It had subtitles in Portuguese instead of being dubbed in Portuguese, and it's a classic story. Why not? We had also just that week seen Malificent -which was a magnificent live revamp of a classic Disney cartoon, so I had some hope

Unfortunately, I found it disapointing even for my very slight hopes. It was just a less interesting straight remake of the cartoon. There weren't fun songs, and although the mice in it were kinda cute, there wasn't that intense sweetness between the animals and Cinderella that were in the cartoon. Plus, I was way disappointed in the sparkles. Her dress looked like a giant version of the cheap dress-up dresses that little girls will be buying from the Disney Store soon. "Kit's" uniform at the ball looked kinda cheap and made him look kinda ill-shaped. There was no class, people! It all just looked cheap and phoned in - the whole thing.

Cartoon Sparkly Cinderella Ball Gown

2015 live action, hot-glued butterfly and tulle Cinderella Ball Gown


I wasn't even into Princess stuff that much as a little girl, but I always liked to look at pretty things and sparkles - I mean who doesn't, right? It just didn't satisfy that part of it for me. Maybe not the most top-notch review, but that was my gut. I could go into my issues and thoughts on remaking old movie without also updating the old tropes and old world-views that made it work then, but are unlikely to give the audience a similar experience now. Charlie and I talked about that a long time while walking in circles around the mall where the cinema was. I think that was Cinderella's worst mistake, but it's a very common mistake in Hollywood, so it's not new to that movie.

Anyway - Cinderella: 

Foot-gasm? Funny.

"Kit" puts glass slipper on in secret garden. Foot-gasm occurs.
Sparkles? not enough and not breath-taking enough.
Animal element? kinda cute. Not nearly as hard-working or dedicated to Cinderelly.

Lazy, undedicated, 2015 Cinderella Mice

Gus Gus and friend. Part of the dedicated and hardworking animals that take care of Cinderella

Sympathy for Cinderella? mehh.
Prince Charming? Terrible nickname, not hot enough, bad costume.
Ball Gown? Too dark blue, too much cheap looking tulle, too many cheap looking butterflies bought from a craft store and hot-glued on.
Glass slippers? satisfactory.
Stepsisters costumes? a little Minnie Mousey.

Wicked Stepsisters. A lot of polka dots

Wicked Stepsisters. Polka dot sweaters and bows on the head. Minnie Mouse?

Evil Stepmother's cat? should have become allies with the mice! It's the 2010's. People love inter-species friendships. Doesn't the director look at Pinterest?

Inter-species friendships!

Cinderella's childhood? A little pukingly perfect, don't you think?
Stepmother's costumes? F'ing fabulous.

The Wicked Stepmother is stunning. Cinderella should take note.

I give this movie only 1 vulva - because having a prince shoe you in a glass slipper is not the appropriate stimulation to elicit orgasm. Highly unrealistic!  (!)

3.23.2015

LEGALIZE O ORGASMO!!!



I guess it's supposed to be the rainy season here in Ribeirao Preto (the a in Ribeirao Preto is supposed to have a squiggly above it, but I can't make my keyboard do that, so just so you know. Also it's pronounced kinda like Heeb-ah-roun Pray-toe. It's really hard to remember that R's sound like H's in Portuguese. Also that squiggly a then o makes a kinda nasal 2-syllabled sound that's a little like the oun in noun, but making sure you pronounce it like it's 2 syllables.) Anyway, it was supposed to be the rainy season here all December, January and February, but it really didn't rain much, and it's actually a pretty big problem. Then, in March it just started raining a lot. People here were all like, "dude, that's weird." But, the rain is welcome, given the near drought situation.

My point here is that we used to do a lot of walking around the city on weekends, but the rain was keeping us in more the last few (we walked around one of the many malls instead).  We had perfect luck (sorte) though on Sunday. It rained, Then we walked to Centro (the aptly named center of the city), and back. It was a good 3 hours, and just as we were getting back to the hotel, it started raining again for the rest of the day. We avoided all rain!

There was also more surprise sorte. There's actually some pretty cool graffiti around. Someone is quite the artist here, but we happened upon some graffiti that was not so much artistically lovely, as much as right on and appropriate for this blog. It was next to one of the many "Sex Shops" that seem to be kind of like a chain,  but they each have their own look, and a different feel to the scantily dressed mannequins in the window. This one had a, I would say, "fancy" feel. The dude had some tuxedo speedos on and the gal had a classy black see-through nighty. Some are more S&M, some are more playful. I haven't been in one yet, but I should check it out, right? Okay, so next to this sex shop is the following graffiti.



Now, o orgasmo definitely means the orgasm in Portuguese, but legalize seems to be kinda English-y. The translation for legalize is actually Legalizar, and "Legalize" doesn't seem to be an actual word here. I'm pretty certain the orgasm is not illegal in Brazil, but I'm going to assume this is just a way to promote a pro-orgasm stance. Now that i think of it, "legal" means cool here, so I wonder if it's some new slangy off-shoot of that. Okay, just searched a bit and Google doesn't seem to think so. I'll see if I can get to the bottom of this, but in the meantime, know that we must have some Brazilian amigos (yeah - it's the same word in Spanish and Portuguese) in the Orgasm Equality Movement.

3.19.2015

Orgasm Equality Awesomeness from Stefani Ruper at Paleo For Women



I'm going to feel old and dumb when I say this, but I really don't understand Twitter that well. I use it, pretty minimally, for the movie and events and stuff, so I can get by kind of. I just can't fully figure it out, though. I get confused about where conversations go and begin and end and the direct message part seems super stupid to me. My point is I don't pay that close attention to it, and I just realized that I missed something awesome.

Ol' Bex Van Koot over at Bex + Sex (an Orgasm Equality Hero in her own right) tweeted to me about a kick ass article at Paleo for Women about the female orgasm. It specifically focuses on the bullshit myths about female bodies being less able to orgasm than male bodies, and calls out the truth - that it's not women's bodies that cause women to orgasm less than men, it's our culture, and it doesn't have to be this way.

Stefani Ruper (from http://paleoforwomen.com/)

The writer is an author named Stefani Ruper. Her blog is Paleo for Women, and although you'd think it's all about food, you'd be wrong. I checked through it a little and found a lot of pretty empowering posts about all kinds of life things. I honestly don't know much about Paleo, but I do know that she is on point when she speaks about why women orgasm less than men. She cuts to the chase, and I love it. She's a true blue Orgasm Equality Hero. She needs to rock on.

Her post is so good in so many ways. She gets what the situation in our culture is, the many factors that contribute to it, and what it could be. She also gets how complicated and strange the situation is on an individual level. She talks about a sexual interaction she had that didn't go in a way that was orgasmic or even that pleasurable to her, but she just didn't really do anything about it. She just went with it and was kind of in shock about how crap it was. It's a simple story but a pretty universal one. I know I've been there...and I felt bad - bad because it was bad, because it wasn't what I had hoped for, because I felt weak and dumb for not standing up for my desires, and because I let something I didn't like happen to me just because... well, just because I don't really know why. That kind of situation to varying degrees probably happens more than we'd like to admit. I love that she is so open. I think her little story really exemplifies the depth of the problems surrounding male and female inequalities around sexual expectations, entitlement, and power. It is entangled in us, and it's not easy or simple to overcome, but she makes it clear that we all need to be part of the solution. She ends with this challenge. I'll leave you with it, but please, please go read her original post. This kind of honesty and boldness should be seen and shared.

So I challenge men to overcome fear and ignorance and Even more importantly, I challenge us women to become better communicators about this. I challenge us to explore our own bodies and sexuality, and to learn what we like and dislike. I challenge us to tell men. I challenge us to be unapologetically sexual. I challenge us to own the real sexual power of our natural bodies – the biological bodies that have the potential to sustain multiple orgasms in quick succession. I challenge us to do this not only for the sake of a quick high between the sheets… but more importantly for the sake of consideration, empathy, and respect, and equality between the sexes.

**Oh - and Ms. Stefani Ruper - I'd love to get you a free copy or download of the movie for being a kick-ass Orgasm Equality Lady, so just write me at trisha att ancmovies dott com and it's yours.

3.14.2015

Fluid Expulsion During Female Sexual Activiy - A Journal Article I Read



J Sex Med.2013 Jul;10(7):1682-91. 2013 May 1.
Female ejaculation orgasm vs. coital incontinence: a systematic review. Pastor Z

So this is another installment of A Journal Article I Read. Let's get right down to it. This is a review article, which means it's not about a study the author did. The author simply looks at the articles that exist on a particular subject and discusses where there is agreement and where there is not, and then gives a conclusion, given the current scientific understanding, about the topic in question.

I very much like a review because it's kind of what science is all about. One study is one study - might be useful, might be a bit of an anomaly, might be bullshit. However, looking at many studies on a topic from all different directions, with different biases and methods and disciplines involved - now that is the way to get to the bottom of something.

This article does, in fact, try to get as close to the bottom of a thing as it can - which isn't really very far given the lack of high quality studies to go from, but in the right direction none the less. It's about liquid coming out of women during sexual activity - what the hell is it and why does it happen? It's a fair question. Not only are there women who report that something spurts out of them during certain sexual activity or orgasm, but there is also objective documentation of this in a lab situation. The problem is, it's hard to categorize it all as one thing because the timing of the expelling of liquid (during orgasm, arousal, penetration?) and the amount and make-up of the liquid seems to be quite variable. Currently there seems to be a few different ways that studies describe liquid expelling from women during the ol' sex and some are sexual releases or arousal related and some are due to Coital Incontinence (CI), otherwise known as some pee escaping during the sex. So, this article aims to see what the existing studies on liquid expulsion have shown so far.

The author used a variety of terms were used to search through literature databases, and anything that focused on "evaluating fluid expulsion occurring during female sexual activity or describing types of CI, including characteristics, quantity, and composition of the fluid and mechanism of leakage" were used. In the end 46 studies were evaluated including 4 reviews - and 4 books were also used.

So types of fluid expulsion:

First off, we're not really talking about vaginal lubrication here. Vag lube is a fluid that is emitted from the walls of the vagina during arousal. Although, a lack of this fluid can be problematic for some women, increased lube doesn't cause a problem and is considered a discharge more than a gush. Apparently Alfred Kinsey and his crew suggested that lubrication could be forced out through contractions of the perivaginal muscles thus resembling Female Ejaculation (FE). However, there is no actual evidence of an "expulsion" of this kind happening. The authors here talk about vaginal lube very quickly at the beginning of the article in much the same way I do above, but the focus of this article is liquid that comes out of the urethral opening - or as I like to call it the ol' pee hole. I want to mention this because this can be confusing. A lot of people think women actually pee out of the vagina or ejaculate out of the vagina, but we don't. We have a pee hole down there for that, and if you didn't know that, don't worry, you are very much not alone. I used to (into my 20's really) think I peed out of my clit, but that's another story.

So anyway, here's just that basics - because to really give you all the nuances- and there are a lot, you would just need to read the article in its entirety - which I suggest you do if you have any further questions or are interested in this kind of thing. Anyway, the body of evidence so far seems to suggest that the quantity and composition are kinda good indicators of where the fluid is coming from and what it's all about.

Here's the kinda flow chart that was made for the different categories of fluid.


 Female ejaculation orgasm vs. coital incontinence: a systematic review. Pastor Z J Sex Med.2013 Jul;10(7):1682-91. 2013 May 1.



  1. Female Ejaculation (FE) - A little bit of milky white fluid that contains some prostate enzymes and sugars also seen in male ejaculate. This likely originates from the female prostate (kinda similar to the male prostate before puberty) in response to clitoral or vaginal stimulation in some women or during orgasm. 
  2. Squirting - A larger amount of fluid released that may be a chemically altered urine from the bladder. Some very small studies were done that emptied the bladder before orgasm and then checked the make-up of the fluid released during squirting. It did have a little bit of uric acid and urea, but it also had some sugars and prostate enzymes. It was not urine, but probably came from the bladder. The mechanism for how this happens - even after the bladder is drained, is not fully understood. It seems to be a clear liquid that doesn't smell like pee.
  3. The other possible fluid release is basically urine. It can happen during arousal, stimulation, penetration and orgasm. There is some speculation in different studies about what types of problems (stress urinary incontinence or detruser over activity for instance) are most likely to cause urine leakage during which sexual activities, but there is little agreement. This type of fluid looks chemically like urine, though.


Here's the table showing the chemical make-up of the different categories of fluid.

Female ejaculation orgasm vs. coital incontinence: a systematic review. Pastor ZJ Sex Med.2013 Jul;10(7):1682-91. 2013 May 1.

Other things this article said were suggested from the studies so far:


  • Women who squirt or ejaculate as described above don't generally have issues with incontinence, but women who have urine leakage do tend to. 
  • I noticed from the article that the estimates of the percentage of women who complain of urine leakage during sexual activity varies wildly, but it seemed to me it's not insignificant...my point being that it seems to be a fair amount of women, so if this is you - you're not alone by any means.
  • There are clearly some women who naturally have fluid release in relation to certain stimulation or orgasms, but it doesn't seem to be a very high number of women.
  • A lot of the studies don't involve solid clinical evidence: "Only eight studies objectively confirmed FE in a total of 52 respondents. Studies reporting a higher prevalence of FE in hundreds of cases were based on questionnaire studies or anecdotal evidence" 
  • "A consensus regarding terminology and classification may contribute to more precise diagnosis and provision of correct information to both healthcare professionals and the public." - I mean, right?
  • There are better studies about this stuff that can and should be done. They may not be super easy, but good science never is...usually...I think.

So that's the very basics. I know some people can tend to get a little defensive and worried when it comes to defining fluid during sexual activity - given that ejaculation/squirting has and still is misunderstood. However, I hope everyone can recognize that gaining knowledge through good research on this topic is important, and that we can all figure out how to be tolerant and accepting no matter what things are learned as more research is done.

3.10.2015

Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-snopp!



My ol' friend Levi posted this thing on my FB page a couple month ago, and for some terrible reason I didn't see it until this weekend. It's sad because what he posted is a fun, and weird, and vulva related video, and I'm like way into all those things.

Basically it's a little 1 minute video made for Swedish kids that has a penis and a vulva - just some some good old fashioned cartoon anatomy learnin'. I found a translation HERE that I'm posting below. It's not like official or anything. It's just some shit I found on the internet, but you can run it through Google Translate if you feel you need to to check its accuracy.

You'll notice that it says in one part "Pee pee through the penis or the vagina (I think it's actually not vagina but a child-like word for girl parts) if you're a girl." Of course I would prefer a more clear description of boy and girl parts to be used for kids - something like the 3 and 1 description - Boys have 1 organ for pleasure, peeing, and reproduction. Girls have a clitoris for pleasure, the pee-hole for peeing, and the vagina for reproduction. I just think that girl parts too often get lumped together too much and in a way that it seems like the only important part down there is the hole (which a lot of people think pee comes out of as well as babies.) However, I'm not going to poo-poo on a well-meaning children's cartoon about genitals. I mean, come on, we need more age-appropriate sex education for the young folk, and some is better than the pretty much none we have now.

Go Go Snoppen och Snippan!



Original
Popi-dopp-pop snippedi snopp!
Här kommer snoppen i full galopp.
Han som inga brallor har dinglar med
snoppen och rumpan bar.
Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-do!
Snippan är häftig, ja det kan du tro.
Till och med på en gammal tant
snippan sitter där så elegant.

Så olika med nästan samma grej
Kissa kiss igenom snoppen eller snippan om man är tjej.

Snoppen och snippan vilket härligt gäng
Snippan och snoppen sjunger vår refräng
Snoppen och snippan finns på vår kropp
Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-snopp!

Popi-dopp-op-snippedi-snopp
Hänger och slänger på en liten kropp
Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-do
Snippan är häftig, Baby I Love You.


Translation
Popi-dopp-pop snippedi snopp (jibberish)
Here comes the penis in full speed
He who wears no pants
dangles with the penis and ass free
Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-do! (more jibberish)
The vagina is awesome, you better believe it
Even on an old aunt
the vagina sits there so elegant

So different, but almost the same thing
Pee pee through the penis, or the vagina if you’re a girl.

The penis and the vagina, what a lovely gang
The penis and the vagina sings our chorus
The penis and the vagina is on our body
Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-snopp!

Popi-dopp-op-snippedi-snopp
Hanging there on a small body
Snippe-dipp-dipp-snippedi-do
The vagina is awesome, baby I love you

*Update - I just realized the video has the translation too, but it's still nice to see it all written out below too.

3.07.2015

International Women's Day #MakeItHappen



Honestly, I don't know that I've given much thought to International Women's Day. I'm pretty aware that March is Women's History Month in America, but this day somehow didn't seem to hit my radar much before.



However, in Brazil, it's a little bit bigger. We were sent an email to wear purple to work this past Friday (since it's on March 8th which is a Sunday), as symbolism for equality. So I just happen to have a sparkly striped purple shirt, and I did indeed wear it. Most of the people, men and women wore purple too. That's about all I noticed here in relation to it, but maybe I'll see more tomorrow on the actual day (I'll be sure to keep you posted, so don't worry.). Anyway, the point is tomorrow is International Women's Day.

After wikipedia-ing it I learned that it's celebrated differently in different countries, with some of them using it as a general appreciation-for-women-day that lies somewhere between Valentine's day and Mother's day, which seems nice because there's probably lots of chocolate involved, but I think on a practical note I prefer the more social/political focus other countries take.

The theme of this year's IWD, taken from the "global hub for sharing International Women's Day News and Resources,"  is below - with the official hashtag #MakeItHappen
Make It Happen is the 2015 theme for our internationalwomensday.com global hub, encouraging effective action for advancing and recognising women.
Even though they spelled recognizing in an incredibly unAmerican way, I still like it. Simple but effective. There are plenty of things that need to be done for female equality and empowerment throughout the world, so let's #MakeItHappen ya'll!

In that spirit, I will throw out some action items (I have a corporate job - and that's what we do best - action items) for my most favoritist of feminist activisms - orgasm equality.

1 Get acquainted (or get your friends acquainted) with the topic of orgasm equality. In honor of International Women's Day, we made a special promotion code for streaming Science, Sex and the Ladies through Vimeo On Demand. Use the promo code: makeithappen and you can get the movie for 99 cents. I swear we tried to make it free, but VOD won't let you make it for less than 99...so that's the best we could do on short notice. Find it HERE.

2 Take some time to consider what the media, cultural norms, and pop science is telling you, your sisters, your friends, your daughters and your nieces about when and how you should and could orgasm. Think about how realistic these expectations are, and how they affected you as you started to become sexually active (both with yourself and possibly with other people). Think about what you wish you had known and what you still wish you knew. I don't know what this may or may not mean to you, but the personal is political in this case, and the first step to moving our culture forward with something so deeply personal is to start considering it more intentionally.

3 Talk about the clitoris. Even if you have some disagreement with me that all known orgasms in women originate from some type of intentional/unintentional, direct/indirect stimulation of the clitoral glans, I hope we can at least agree it's an uncontroversial statement that stimulation of the clitoral glans is the only way to orgasm for the vast majority of women (at least 70%) and an important way to orgasm for even more than that.
The clitoris is important to female orgasm, and it simply doesn't get the love that it deserves - not in porn, not in sexual education, not in movies, not in many, many sexual interactions. So, talk about it to your sons and daughters, to your partners, to your friends, and also to yourself...if you know what I mean ;)

Female empowerment is human empowerment, am I right?!! #MakeItHappen



P.S. In case you were wondering - the UN's focus for the day is below.

In 2015, International Women’s Day, celebrated globally on 8 March, will highlight the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments 20 years ago that sets the agenda for realizing women’s rights. While there have been many achievements since then, many serious gaps remain. 
This is the time to uphold women’s achievements, recognize challenges, and focus greater attention on women’s rights and gender equality to mobilize all people to do their part. The Beijing Platform for Action focuses on 12 critical areas of concern, and envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination. 
To this end, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is the clarion call of UN Women’s Beijing+20 campaign “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!” Join governments and activists across the world in commemorating the ground-breaking Conference of 1995. We celebrate the many achievements that have come since then and galvanize action to address the gaps that still remain in making gender equality a reality.

3.02.2015

Searches That Get People To this Blog!



Sometimes I take a moment to check my blogger stats. One of the things I can see is particular google searches that brought people to my blog. I have to keep a watch on this to find the good ones - cause the really strange ones only happen once, so they only really stay in the list for a day, otherwise they get overrun by the more popular searches.



So, just for fun. Here are the best 3 that I found today.

ssl in gynokologie - I googled this phrase and didn't come up with anything that led me back to my blog, so I'm not sure how this one happened. SSL is the name of the blog, but I'm pretty sure I haven't written anything that used a strange Slavic/Germanic spelling of gynecology. I rarely discuss gynecology, really. No one likes to think about having their cervix opened with a speculum, do they?

funny graphs with female doctors - Was this searched because a Thursday night wine and journal club for women, made up mostly of doctors was looking for some fun pictures to use in flyers about their group? Was a sexist medical school administrator with bad taste looking for graphs about silly women doctors to liven up his PowerPoint Presentation? Was a gender studies grad student searching the ol' internets for proof of sexism in research about doctors? Was some person that likes graphs, lady doctors, and a good laugh just fucking around on Google? Who knows, but I'm pretty sure it took him or her to THIS post about some funny graphs this woman made about female's masturbating.

orgasm fuck blogspot - I do use both those words, fuck and orgasm - the second more than the first, and my blog is on blogspot, but those are all pretty common words. To be honest, I'm a little flattered that any of my posts would pop up with such a generic search. I tested it out, and at the end of the 2nd page of the Google search was THIS post about what it would be like if we lived in an alternate universe where our culture dealt with male orgasm the way we deal with female orgasm.

So there you go. I'll keep a watch and maybe I'll have more soon.