Scanner : censorship

Full Frontal Nudity On British Afternoon TV

Emily Farris — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:49:00 GMT

VIA THE REMOTE ISLAND: More evidence British television is not at all like American television...

Amazon Rank Fail

Colleen Kane — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:17:00 GMT

My journalism professor used to say, "never get into a battle with someone who buys their ink by the barrel." He was referring to newspapers, but the same could be said in the firestorm of writers (and readers) versus Amazon.com, which arose over the weekend.

Many writers, editors, and publishers of erotica as well as GLBT and sex-related books, including Scanner's friend Rachel Kramer Bussel, noticed that the Amazon sales rankings of books they had written, edited, or published had disappeared as part of their new adult policy. Hundreds of titles had been affected.

When books are deranked, they no longer come up near the beginning of search results, even if they're a popular-selling title or a classic like Lady Chatterly's Lover, and hence, they are hidden from potential buyers. It appears that the books have been selected for deranking due to their sexual content, or in the case of gay titles, simply due to the tag "gay," whether or not sexual content appeared in the books themselves.

Word quickly spread via Twitter with the tag # amazonfail, and throughout Amazon online superstore itself with the tag amazonfail, which users added onto the listings for books that had been de-ranked.

Amazon's response to those who have emailed to complain is an additional fail.

Amazon is now denying having a new adult policy (though one blogger documents it here), and claims all the books that just happen to have "sex" or "gay" as tags were deranked due to "a glitch" in their system.

No one is having that explanation, and The Guardian's story on Amazon rank fail-gate noted inconsistencies like this that go to prove the claims:

The 2003 paperback edition of Fry's autobiography Moab Is My Washpot, which Amazon tags as "gay", is unranked, whereas the original hardback , filed under "memoir", has a ranking.
The New Joy of Sex, an updated version of the 70s classic, which is filed under the subject "sex/sexuality", has lost its ranking, while the original edition (subject "love/sex/marriage"), from 1974, is ranked. DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, meanwhile, is now unranked.

As of this morning, some titles have been relisted, but many have not. If you're as pissed about this as we are, sign this petition and register your disapproval on the internet however you usually do so. More coverage here.

Related:

Amazon's "Girl Scout Cookies"

Amazon Giving Away Lots of Great mp3's

Rape Simulation Game: Wheee!

Spidey: Too Racy for the Library?

Colleen Kane — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:51:00 GMT

When a 6-year-old boy brought home a Spider-Man graphic novel from his school library in Millard, Nebraska, his mother found it to be age-inappropriate and requested that it be removed from the library.

The offending comic is from 2002 and was rated PG, Ages 12+, and features Mary Jane (above) in a bikini and short skirt. Woah now! It's not like you can see that anywhere you turn like on TV, the Internet, movies, or real life.

The school district's head librarian is forming a committee to determine what course of action to take. And this will take how many resources...?

While we agree that a 6-year-old could be making more educational choices at a school library, we hate when parents try to get books of any kind banned, especially when the main offense is showing a little leg.

Related:

Spencer Pratt Wears Spider-Man Costume Sized to His Ego

Sneak Preview: Obama the "Comic-Book Geek" and Spidy Team Up to Save the World

Spider-Man Wants To Get Into Your Pants

Warner Bros. Took Away Kevin Smith's Dicks

Colleen Kane — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:15:00 GMT

We would be more outraged about this news of a Kevin Smith film being censored if our initial reaction to this news wasn't "Kevin Smith is making another movie?"

What juvenalia has he left unplumbed? Is there still more minutia of Star Wars yet to be discussed on the big screen?

This latest venture with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan was supposed to be titled A Couple of Dicks. And it's about detectives! But then Warner Bros. found that just too risque and so the name has been changed to...wait for it...

A Couple of Cops.

[As struggling screenwriters everywhere kill themselves, alone in their cheap rented rooms.]

Related:

Today It's Porn Vs. Halloween For Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith Makes A Porno... Or So Thought The MPAA

Trailer: "Zach and Miri Make a Porno"

Video: Israeli BBC in Gaza Spoof, Completely Offensive or Completely Funny?

Scanner Matt — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:12:00 GMT

Israeli comedy show, "Eretz Nehederet," lampoons the BBC news coverage of Gaza.

While You Were Sleeping: Tara Reid Back To The Booze

Sex on the Beach: Zhang Ziyi Won't Go Nude For A Movie, But...

While You Were Sleeping: Weekend Weddings

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:52:00 GMT

Someone has been posing as a thirteen-year-old Australian girl on the internet and posting nude photos, license plates, and phone numbers online predators. Unsurprisingly, the cops want to do the job themselves.

Censorship reigns supreme in America, even in art galleries.

What's worse than getting married at a Waffle House? Getting married at Taco Bell.

Roland Burris-- forgotten footnote or future Senator? History will be decided today.

What happens when you're Elvis Costello and you're on tour with The Clash and the Damned? Painful pranks.

Charlotte Church is old enough to have a baby? Holy God, we must be getting old.

A man solved a Rubik's Cube... after 26 years of trying. We're not supporters of just giving up when something doesn't work, but...

'Til Death will return for a fourth season.

Prince Harry apologized for calling someone a "raghead" and another a "Paki."

And Kevin Costner was in the hospital while, on an unrelated note, Fergie got married in Malibu.

Tampon Ad Is Australia's Most-Complained About of 2008

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:51:00 GMT

Idiots everywhere raved about it: "I think the beaver ad is fantastic! i couldn't stop laughing when i saw the ad -good on you guys!!!!!" "This was cheeky and effective. Well done!" "Congratulations! What a fantastic advertising campaign!" Uh, yeah... because people write to companies they hardly know and applaud their advertising department, suuure.

So, it should come as no surprise that Kimberly-Clark testimonials on behalf of their "Beaver" ad campaign are obvious fakes... and certainly not after you see the ad, rated as the year's #1 Most Complained About Commercial, which came close to being yanked in Australia:

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if people complained because this ad was mind-numbingly obvious and an insult to our intelligence, instead of for offending Puritans with strict mores?

Via YouTube.

Regarding The Facebook, It's Time for Plan B (Facebook the Sh*t Out of Facebook)

The Latest Kool Kid Kraze: Vodka Tampons

A Beaver Is A Woman's Best Friend (In Australia)

Australians Fight Back Against Potential Topless Sunbathing Ban

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:06:00 GMT

It seems that for their next act of mass censorship, the conservative movement plans to rally around is a ban on topless sunbathing. (Of course, they're only banning women from tanning without tops.) In New Zealand, young boys protest the "sick" naked breasts they've seen on beaches. In Australia, a battle has raged for days about one Christian conservative's proposal to ban women from baring their boobs at the beach...

Reverend Fred Nile, a leader of the Christian Democratic Party, angrily denounced the decades-old practice of many an Australian female, requesting a law be specifically passed that prevented the women from going topless. Immediately, the measure gained traction among other conservatives on the legislature in New South Wales, to the point where the story made front page news around the world yesterday and Australians (men, mostly) panicked. Others chastised the law in vicious blog comments, which ranged from "don't these people have anything better to legislate" to "what a bunch of sexist morons-- welcome to the Nanny State." In fact, they didn't go far enough in chastising these backwards morons, although the public uproar of the past 24 hours has quelled the argument... for now.

While leaders of the two major parties in NSW have said they would not pass such a law, they are going to leave it up to individual towns, which may not be so levelheaded. Nonetheless, we'll either protest those poor decisions or celebrate their defeat with the following photos, none of which show any onlookers to have had their eyes burned out by (an imaginary) God or little kids to be traumatized for life. It's perfectly natural-- and if men can do it, it's nothing but blatant sexism if one puts a stop to the practice...

As you can see, this is a perfectly normal, well-rounded, natural occurence. Now, should we show you topless men-- those photos might not meet the same qualifications...

Related:

10-Year-Old Boy Is the Lone Protester of Nude Sunbathing

Cops Stripped Of Duties After Wild Hooker Party

Who Would You Rather: Topless JFK vs. Topless Obama

Wino Goes Topless and We Say No No No

This Blog Has Been Rated NC-17

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:14:00 GMT

See why after the jump.

As Emily noted in yesterday's Sloppy Seconds, some idiots over in the UK (rapidly become the near-police state we have across the pond) think it's wise to give blogs ratings. If so, we'll circulate a petition saying every blog will agree to rate themselves XXX, rendering the internet entirely useless for most people until a law is passed abolishing the ratings.

We've always hated the concept of blog, movie, or even video game ratings (for one thing, way to give away what we're going to see-- "Rated R for strong graphic violence and sexual content" and there hasn't been any of that in the first forty minutes? Well, we know how this is all going to wrap up, see?) However, we were unable to resist One Plus You's attempt to rank blogs in advance.

Here's how Scanner stacked up:

So, wouldn't a religious (wacko's) site railing against pornography, abortion, and women actually enjoying sex be NC-17 as well? Gotta love indiscriminate censorship...

Frenchmen Either Have the Biggest Dicks... or Are the Biggest Liars

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:56:00 GMT

The French claim to have the biggest dongs in Europe, stretching them out to an average of 6.1 inches, according to a very questionable new study.

And no one's questioning it more than the Greeks... those poor, poor things...

The Institute of Condom Consultancy, which has long been developing a spray-on condom, released a report today that found that the French buy the biggest condoms, which could mean they have the biggest dicks or-- hello, ICC, you idiots-- the French a) buy condoms that are too big for their own penises or b) they are liars. Or they do have the biggest dicks-- who knows? The only thing we do know is that the men of Greece are ready for a violent takeover of the ICC building, wherever that is.

Greek men reported (yes, you could self-report this survey-- who, clocking in at under a foot, wouldn't add an inch or two?) a measly 1.2 inch average for their wangs. But forget that for a second-- check out a line we liberated from the press release:

The study was conducted in order to educate young people about the need for effective contraception.

How in the hell does it do that? Weirdos.

Related:

The Giant Penis Is Watching Over You

Scanner's Rules for Polar Bear Impregnation

Masterminds of Piss-Related Innovation and Design About to Become Convicts

Scanner Highs and Lows: Because We Have Nothing Better To Do on a Friday Night

Sloppy Seconds: Pete Wentz and His Penis (and His Wife!) Win the Weird Baby Name Game

Lost Your Penis in the Penal System? Washington State Has 300 G's For Ya

Burger King Wants You To Have $100... No, Seriously, Take The Money...

The English Are Still Too Prudish To Appreciate Nudity

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:11:00 GMT

Based on the public outcry surrounding a university student's nude photo in a collegiate newspaper, some Brits are clearly in possession of long-dormant puritanical streaks.

The unnamed 21-year-old blond from Homerton College, wearing lingerie sans top, posed for the third page of Vivid Magazine, an anonymous Cambridge University publication, apparently a riff on the Sun's regular feature of Page 3 Girls...

Unfortunately, no fully nude photos have leaked onto the web, but we do have a blurry one for you:

"I can't believe she agreed to pose for the magazine. Everyone has been talking about it. I'm sure she must really regret it now."
"Lots of students and professors have seen this. It's a very risky thing to do when you are studying at one of the top universities in the country." [News Locale]

People, we shouldn't wonder whether this kind of thing will hurt her academic career. We should be celebrating the fact that she had the guts to go topless in a magazine that only her fellow academics would read. To be able to hold your head up and not care what these people think after a stunt like this is a very valuable life goal...

Photos via Hotties in the News.

20-Year-Old Teacher Strips For Her Students

While You Were Sleeping: Nude Photo Hoax

Harvard Student Publishes Porn Mag... Featuring Only Himself

While You Were Sleeping: When MySpace Attacks...

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:52:00 GMT

An eldery woman in Evanston, Illinois couldn't bear to part with her three siblings after their deaths. Turns out, she decided to keep their bodies in her home...and got away with it for a quarter of a century.

Natalie Portman was kinda wasted on the Letterman show the other night.

One of our favorite country music legends has lung cancer...

Country singer Merle Haggard, recently diagnosed with lung cancer, had part of a lung removed and is recovering at home, his spokeswoman said on Sunday. [Yahoo!]

Evan Rachel Wood and Marilyn Manson... not totally broken up?

As if MySpace wasn't going downhill already: now it's censoring one of the only pages anyone would ever actually sign in to MySpace to read.

A nationwide protest of California's Proposition 8 will take place on Saturday the 15th. Do not miss this.

And Nicole Kidman is playing "the world's first post-op transsexual," who is married to a woman played by "Charlize Theron." Yum.

Related:

How The World Watches Porn Now

Top 5 Sex Scenes Featuring Nicole Kidman

Top 5 Sex Scenes From "Chick Flicks"

Sloppy Seconds: Charlie Sheen Denies Enjoying Endless Lapdances

Top 5 Sex Scenes From Comedies

Scanner Highs and Lows: In Which We Get Scurrred

Top 5 Sex Scenes From Comedies

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:15:00 GMT

Nerve once did a Top 5 Funny Sex Scene list. Unfortunately, we disagree with almost all of its choices ("The Graduate" being the only exception.)

Here's a new, much funnier list, with not only great sex scenes but barrels of laughs (we had a hard time imagining anyone would laugh at the raunchy sex in "Havoc.") Barrels of laughs during sex? Can't say we've ever experienced that... no, sir...

5. Animal House.

4. Because couldn't find clips for Being There or Sideways, another equally-worthy scene from Animal House:

3. M*A*S*H

In the TV show's entire decade long run, we doubt you could put together two hours as sidesplitting as the original Robert Altman film. This vintage trailer features some of the film's unforgettable dialogue and two or three of the best scenes in movie history, including this one (about 1:18 in.)

2. Team America: World Police. FYI: This is the R-rated version... which means there's no defecation (for better or worse.) Enjoy!

1. The Tall Guy. Yep, not only does our number one choice feature Jeff Goldblum (yikes!), it stars the boobs of one... Emma Thompson. Who could have ever predicted a sex scene with Emma Thompson (not to say she isn't hot) would be so memorable?

Runner-up: Being There, Sideways. (Couldn't find either online.)

Related:

Lizzy Caplan, Not To Be Outdone By Anna Paquin, Takes It Off For True Blood

Top 5 Sex Scenes From Bad Movies

House Hotties Break Network TV Rules With Raunchy Sex Scene

True Blood's Anna Paquin In First (True) Nude Scene

Top 5 Sex Scenes Featuring Nicole Kidman

Keira Knightley's Latest Nude Scene Kinda Puts Us To Sleep

Celebrate Banned Books By Buying Everything On This List

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:52:00 GMT

We forgot to remind you that it's Banned Books Week here on Earth... as opposed to on Mars, where some of these anti-First Amendment types like your future VP (the rumored basis for Voldemort in the oft-banned Harry Potter series) apparently hail from.

Here's a list of banned books, plus events promoting authors rights in your area...

1984

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Alice in Wonderland

Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl

Beloved

Brave New World

The Bible

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

The Call of the Wild

Canterbury Tales

Catcher in the Rye

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Clan of the Cave Bear

The Color Purple

...pissed yet? We're not even through the C's... and, after all, this is a very abbreviated list...

If you want to express your concern, here's a taste of events going on all over the country. Find an event near you on this page.

San Francisco Center for the Book (ongoing)
Banned & Recovered: Artists Respond to Censorship

Black-Eyed Sally's in Hartford, CT (tonight)
An ACLU event "dedicated to appreciating the music of artists who refuse to let authorities dictate their freedom of expression."

Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA (was Saturday)

Wine and Cheese Party with readings from favorite banned books

The Nyack Library in Nyack, NY (October 4th at 2pm)

High school students will read from banned books. Additionally, we will have a Banned Books display for the whole week.

For more events, click here.

Related:

Big Brother Has Boobs and Our Attention

Olympic Committee to Stop Pretending Chinese Gymnasts Are Actually 16

Apparently, A Naked Woman Is Automatically Lewd And/Or Erotic Now

Nude Photo Book Just Made Famous French Actress A Lot More Famous

John Hodgman Has Great Taste In Women

CBC Apologizes for Calling Sarah Palin a "Porn Star"

Emily Farris — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:29:00 GMT

The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) has retracted, and apologized for, an article by blogger Heather Mallick that caused a hullaballoo portraying Palin as appealing to "the white trash vote" with her "toned-down version of the porn actress look."

Though the article has been taken down, we've pasted the entire thing, for your reading pleasure, after the jump.

I assume John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential partner in a fit of pique because the Republican money men refused to let him have the stuffed male shirt he really wanted. She added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right.
So why do it?
It's possible that Republican men, sexual inadequates that they are, really believe that women will vote for a woman just because she's a woman. They're unfamiliar with our true natures. Do they think vaginas call out to each other in the jungle night? I mean, I know men have their secret meetings at which they pledge to do manly things, like being irresponsible with their semen and postponing household repairs with glue and used matches. Guys will be guys, obviously.
But do they not know that women have been trained to resent other women and that they only learn to suppress this by constantly berating themselves and reading columns like this one? I'm a feminist who understands that women can nurse terrible and delicate woman hatred.
Palin was not a sure choice, not even for the stolidly Republican ladies branch of Citizens for a Tackier America. No, she isn't even female really. She's a type, and she comes in male form too.
John Doyle, the cleverest critic in Canada, comes right out and calls Palin an Alaska hillbilly. Damn his eyes, I wish I'd had the wit to come up with it first. It's safer than "white trash" but I'll pluck safety out of the nettle danger. Or something.
Doyle's job includes watching a lot of reality television and he's well-versed in the backstory. White trash — not trailer trash, that's something different — is rural, loud, proudly unlettered (like Bush himself), suspicious of the urban, frankly disbelieving of the foreign, and a fan of the American cliché of authenticity. The semiotics are pure Palin: a sturdy body, clothes that are clinging yet boxy and a voice that could peel the plastic seal off your new microwave.
'Turn your guns on Levi, ma'am'
Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the "pramface." Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting. What normal father would want Levi "I'm a fuckin' redneck" Johnson prodding his daughter?
I know that I have an attachment to children that verges on the irrational, but why don't the Palins? I'm not the one preaching homespun values but I'd destroy that ratboy before I'd let him get within scenting range of my daughter again, and so would you. Palin's e-mails about the brother-in-law she tried to get fired as a state trooper are fizzing with rage and revenge. Turn your guns on Levi, ma'am.
Palin has it all, along with being vicious and profoundly dishonest. Just hours after her first convention speech, the Associated Press did a good fast listing of her untruths and I won't dwell on them.
I did promise to watch the entire convention so you wouldn't have to, but I discovered a neat trick. I switched between the convention and the 2003 folk music mockumentary A Mighty Wind on Bravo.
They were indistinguishable. Click on a nervous wreck with deeply strange hair doing a monologue on society today and where it all went wrong. Are you watching Christian belter Aaron Tippin singing Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagle Fly in the Xcel Centre in St. Paul or the actors from Spinal Tap remixing the 1966 version of Potato's in the Paddy Wagon?
Who delivered this line: "To do then now would be retro. To do then then was very now-tro, if you will." Was it Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family talking about Bristol Palin's shotgun wedding or was it a flashback to the Kingston Trio?
The conventioneers are nothing like the rich men who run the party, and that's the mystery of the hick vote. They'd be much better served by the Democrats. I know Thomas Frank answered this in What's the Matter with Kansas?; I know that red states vote Republican on social issues to give themselves the only self-esteem available to their broken, economically abused existence.
Lie works for Palin
But surely they know Barack Obama is not planning to finish off the ordinary hillbilly when he adjusts tax rates. He's going to raise taxes on the top 2 per cent of Americans and that doesn't include anyone at the convention beyond the Bushes and McCains and random party management. So why cheer Palin when she claims otherwise?
Is it racism? I'm told that it is, although I find racism so appalling that I have difficulty identifying it. It is more likely the dearly held Republican notion that any American can become violently rich, as rich as those hedge funders in Greenwich, Conn., who buy $40-million mansions unseen and have their topiary shaped in the form of musical notes.
When Palin and Rudy Giuliani sneered at Obama's years of "community organizing" — they said it like "rectal fissure" — the audience ewww-ed with them. Republicans dream of a personal future that involves only household staff, not equals who need to be persuaded to vote.
So I'm trying to imagine the pain of realizing, as they all must at some point, that it is not going to happen for them. It's the green light at the end of the dock. It's the ship that never comes in, gals, as Palin would put it. But she won't because the lie works for her. It helps her scramble, without compassion, above all those other tense no-hoper ladies in the audience.
American politics isn't short of smart women. Susan Eisenhower, Ike's granddaughter, who just endorsed Obama, made an extraordinary speech at the Democratic convention (and a terrific casual appearance on The Colbert Report as Palin was speaking). The Republican party has already consumed nearly all of its moderate "seed corn," she said aptly. Time to start again.
Eisenhower, a scholar and journalist, has a point. Or am I only saying that because she's part of the thoughtful demographic that I'm trying to reach here? Think, Heather, think like a Republican! The Skeptics, shall I call them, are my base, and I'll pander to them as ardently as the Republican patriarchs tease their white female marginals.
This Week
Mad Men is scaring me (AMC on Sunday nights). What has Matthew Weiner, a writer from The Sopranos, created, a period soap opera about reality and façade or a horror series on a localized war between men and women? Was Episode 6 of Season 2 a costume drama about the Madonna/whore complex or the operatic rendition of one simple thing, human cruelty?
Or maybe I'm seeing too much into it and it's just a sexed-up version of the Republican convention.
Heather Mallick has worked as a reporter, copy editor and book review editor at various Toronto newspapers. Her latest book, Cake or Death: The Excruciating Choices of Everyday Life, was published by Knopf in April 2007. This column is printed with permission from CBC.ca where it first appeared.

From the CBC:

Following 300-plus complaints from readers, and attacks from Canadian and American media organizations, including Fox News, publisher John Cruickshank said the public broadcaster had erred in its editorial judgement and the item should never have appeared on the CBC website.
In an online statement, Cruickshank said reaction to the column has caused the CBC to install new editing procedures that will ensure inappropriate work won't appear.
"We are open to contentious reasoned argument but not to partisan attack," he said in a statement posted on the broadcaster's website.
Despite the vitriolic response to Mallick's Sept. 5 piece, "A Mighty Wind Blows Through the Republican Convention," the CBC had initially stood by the article and said it wouldn't remove it from its website.

Let's hear it for censorsip!

[Rabble Columns via Jossip]

[Image]

The War On Sex Rages On...

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:30:00 GMT

The War on Sex in this country has never been at more of a fever pitch. Church signs damn lesbians as hellbound. An accidental visit to a website that contains child pornography lands you in trouble with the law. A teacher is jailed, not without cause, for sleeping with a student of legal age. And on and on.

This week, we interview author/sex therapist Dr. Marty Klein, PhD about the State of the War on Sex, what we can expect under a McCain-Palin administration, and how we can win the war...

First, you're a sex therapist. You wrote a book called The War On Sex. In these troubling sexual times, how are you able to have a regular sex life? The people that must come in, with their problems...

Well, I can say this... Every good sex therapist communicates with his or her partner and every good sex therapist knows what they like erotically and is not afraid to communicate it and hopefully enjoys the satisfying consequences.

You say the War on Sex is different than your typical culture war. Can you elaborate on that?

The term culture war implies that there are two sides, like the North and South back in 1861. The truth is is that the War on Sex is really not two sides, equally equipped with opposite agendas. On one side, you have a group of people who just want to be left alone and not force other people to go to nude beaches or have abortions or anything like that. On the other side, you have decency groups... and local, state, and federal government... they not only have their own private agenda, they make it a public one when they tell people how they want them to live. The latest example of this is Sarah Palin: it's not enough that she doesn't want her children to read certain books, she wants to prevent other people in the community from reading those books by removing them from a public library...

Another example is the government in Phoenix, Arizona... even though none of the members of the government had ever gone to any strip clubs and no one had ever complained, they felt that they had to shut them down. The problem isn't too much government, it's the government pursuing a moralistic agenda.

Do the conservatives want to bring us back to the sort-of Puritan era?

You know, it's really unsettling to hear people say we need the government to roll back the rights we've been accumulating over the last century. It's unsettling to hear people say, "All social problems can be traced back to sexuality." Or that sexuality needs to be somehow repressed. There's no data that says our social problems can be traced back to "sex."

You say in your introduction that some people "hate sex." What do you mean by that?

If you listen to some of these groups, like the person Bush asked to run the FDA, you would think that people need to be protected from their own sexuality, that adults need to be prevented from making choices... because those choices might be harmful to those adults. These people tell kids that sex can make them sterile, that sex can make them suicidal, sex is a toxic substance they need to keep away from. And that's just an awful training for young people.

What made you decide to write this book? Was there a final straw?

[Laughs] Well, I've been feeling that way for a while. Anyone who does this kind of counseling is inundated with the shame from people about their own sexuality and the sexuality of their partner. And then watching the Bush Administration dismantle, particularly our rights around reproductive health services and watching the Bush Administration fund religious institutions that were discriminating against sexual minorities and training young people to fear their sexuality, that was a real motivator...

It's just become clear to me that the level of misinformation in the culture about sexuality is no coincidence. It's the result of years of careful programming and massive funding... the kinds of things that make Europeans shake their heads and say, "What's up with those Americans?" Because they do-- they think that about us, and they're right. It's no coincidence all this is going on.

Until this book, no one made the case that it's all connected. The fight against gay rights, the fight against strip clubs, it's all connected: the money and the power is all connected.

You say in the book that the American people can win the War On Sex. How will we win it and how will we know we've won?

Well, I don't think there's going to be a day on which we decide we've won. Basically, it ends when the government decides that it's going to treat privacy issues regarding sexuality that same way it treats other private behavior. Which is that, "We don't care what you do, as long as you don't burn down somebody's house while you're doing it..."

Dr. Klein's book and website here.

Scanner Highs And Lows: Privates And Privacy

Blue Light Special -- On Your Privacy!

Sloppy Seconds: Half-Naked Woman At A Blue Jays Game

Palin's Grandbaby Daddy: Self-Proclaimed F*cking Redneck

Germans And Poles Are At It Again...

HGTV Star Prevented From Talking To Media Because He's Gay... Or Because He's In Gay Porn?

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:34:00 GMT

Who knew HGTV's Design Star was so badass?

First, ousted participant Michael Verdugo was put on administrative leave with his day job in the police department, where he has worked for years, after allegations surfaced that he appeared in gay porn. Now, Gawker and others are accusing HGTV of placing a gag order on their star to prevent him from talking about bonking dudes in the same breath that he promoted their show...

First, in Florida:

Hollywood police have put patrol officer Michael Verdugo on leave until the department determines whether the HGTV Design Star contestant appeared in a 1996 porn film.
''Verdugo has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of a fact-finding Internal Affairs investigation,'' Hollywood police spokesman Lt. Manny Marino said Thursday. [Miami Herald]

Then Gawker weighs in:

Design Star, an HGTV interior decorating challenge show, is one of our gayest reality programs, and the network is free to admit it. Their PR people set up interviews with gay-themed publications for the series' many out loud 'n, um, loud designsters, though it is ultimately each man's (or, I guess, woman's) choice whether or not to talk about their sexuality. Pretty admirable for television, I think. So what, then, happened with Mikey V., a queeny cop cum (always makes me awkward, every time) decorator with a tiny little bondage porn past who says he was happy to chat with the gay media, but claims he was shushed by HGTV? Two theories abound. Was it a marketing decision, or pornophobia?

We say marketing. All these networks care about is sucking in viewers anyway they can-- if that means getting gay men to tune in based on interviews, they'll get their stars to do interviews. But a gay porn star is a loose cannon-- imagine the outrage if a housewife in Des Moines found out her favorite "character" likes in the butt-- and not with her finger.

At least, that's the thinking at HGTV headquarters for sure. Meanwhile, here are some delectable photos from our friend's alleged porn past:

Via Gawker.

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What's It Like Being The Husband Of A Porn Star?

Apparently, A Naked Woman Is Automatically Lewd And/Or Erotic Now

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Do you consider this obscene? Not the pictures specifically, but the Venus sculpture itself, which had been situated at Woorim Beach on Bribie Island in Queensland, Australia...

Well, the Mayor thought so, overruling his own City Council, which put it there. His quotes and the local reaction, simultaneously hilarious and sad after all we've been through as a single human race...

Mayor Allan Sutherland ordered the sculpture, representing the "birth of Venus", be removed from its popular Woorim Beach, only two weeks after it was included at a public opening of the revamped beachside area.
"The sculpture is offensive to women. We have to take it back to whoever made it and ask that it be changed," said Cr Sutherland. "It's offensive in an area where there's lots of kids and families."

Oh, Allan! Our hero! cry the feminist females of Queensland. Thank you for consulting with us and hearing our overwhelming reaction to this dreadful, offensive, disgusting (because, remember, vagina = disgusting) work of "art." And judging by the pictures, you were totally spot on about families and the kiddies being freaked.

Beenleigh artist Antone Bruinsma, who created the sculpture, said he was "extremely disappointed" that the artwork was removed from Woorim Beach to a council yard, and said he had not been contacted by the council about changing the sculpture.

He said it was an important portrayal of a woman's body.

"I don't have a problem with children seeing a depiction of a woman's vagina, it's not done in a lewd or an erotic way," he said.

Typical man! Of course he loves seeing vagina... especially seeing vagina that he's made with his own hands, groping and tweaking it. Perv!

Seriously, let's leave it to mothers of three to start their children out right by informing them that vaginas are bad and we should be ashamed for possessing them:

Mother-of-three Terri Johnson, 35, from Morayfield, said the sculpture should be in an art gallery where there would be a more appropriate audience.

"It's not appropriate here, it's not the right spot for it, with young families, where you have to explain everything and kids start asking questions," she said.

God forbid they should think their bodies are natural, Terri. Godspeed.

Via News.com.au.

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Italian Prime Minister Hides--a Breast of--the Naked Truth Behind His Big Fat Head

Nicole Pasulka — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:31:00 GMT

Silvio Berlusconi or someone on his staff has incited bafflement and outrage by retouching (or rather dressing) a painting where he gives press conferences because an exposed breast floats above the prime minister's head "like a halo." What exactly has been done about this boob halo? Now, "an extra fold of clothing has appeared that covers the offending breast."

Come on! We know you're dying to see what was covered up!

That's right, none other than the 18th-century painting "Time Unveiling Truth" by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Pretty racy stuff, eh? But we imagine something like this would be right up Berlusconi's alley, considering, as the Guardian points out:

The media mogul and Italy's prime minister made a large part of his fortune televising variety shows packed with scarcely veiled, undulating female flesh. One of the members of his cabinet - the equal opportunities minister, Mara Carfagna - was until just a few years ago a topless model and showgirl on one of his television channels.

Yes, by all means, protect this Berlusconi's image from a floating Renaissance titty. At this point, any false modesty or prudishness would be a pleseant change for a man who--

On welcoming newly elected female MP Mara Carfagna to parliament he joked: "I am obliged to remind you of a rule in the Forza Italia group, the jus primae noctis." (a Latin reference to the medieval "law of the first night" which gave the lord of an estate the right to "deflower" new brides)

Blech. Like most acts of over-the-top censorship, retouching this boob flash will do too little too late for the prime minister's reputation as a sexist moron.

Beer Pong Video Game Falls By Way Of Lenny Bruce, Poop Paintings, Janet Jackson's Nipples

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:28:00 GMT

Stupid poster available from AllPosters.com

How dare these bastards try to stop up from playing "Beer Pong: The Video Game?" Never mind that we're spending $50 on a video game in which we salivate over digitized beer, when we could play it for real for $1.99 worth of Country Club...

Time Magazine has this shocking, shocking story:

Perhaps, in retrospect, JV Games should have seen this coming. After all, drinking games and video games may be two of college kids' favorite pastimes, but they are also a source of constant complaints from the students' middle-aged parents. So when the softwaremaker tried to combine the two adolescent activities, many critics felt it had gone too far.

"Too far" meaning, in this case, attempting to release a video game promoting binge drinking on the Nintendo brand.

"We never anticipated such a severe reaction to the word beer," says Jag Jaegar, co-owner of JV Games, which released Pong Toss on July 28 with a kid-friendly rating of T for teen.

Never anticipated?! Dude, the problem isn't the word "beer," it's everything including "beer." And yes, they actually changed the name of the game to "Pong Toss" and now feature water in the cups instead of booze.

Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Via Time.

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New Zealand Party Poopers Move To Shut Down "Boobs On Bikes" Parade

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:06:00 GMT

If you're going to have a parade with nothing but leather-clad motorcycle Dudes with capitol D's and topless babes as their passengers, you should be prepared for an angry conservative onslaught which is bound to shout you down...

A simple Google search will tell you there have been complaints (and stories of the massive amounts thereof) since 2006, but this is the first time those complaints have threatened to be fierce enough to shut down Auckland, New Zealand's lovely ode to the boob and, more importantly, the local erotica and porn trade.

Yesterday, the conservative action group Family First NZ (we have similar fascistic organizations here in America, including Focus on the Family and their ilk) filed a complaint with the city and argued the parade, set to take place in August, violates a new city ordinance barring public processions that are likely to be offensive to... well, someone.

"This parade is an advertisement for the porn industry which is simply a business, with no regard for the welfare and protection of families who are exposed to offensive aspects of the parade.
"It is certainly not a charitable family-friendly event like the Santa Parade or a sports event or celebration."

The parade drew thousands of people last year, as an assortment of porn stars, erotic dancers, models and a few drag queens, exposed their breasts downtown.

Mr McCoskrie said the event was in breach of the Crimes Act. "It will also now be in breach of a new bylaw just passed by the Auckland City Council (Bylaw 20.6.9 - Public Places 2008) banning public events likely to be offensive."

Well, at least this event is about something (the celebration of the human body, spirit, and need for dudes to see limitless ta-tas), whereas a sporting event is about bullshit.

The following video is nsfw either, but it gives you a much better idea of what the parade is like than these leering photos ever could.

These girls were campaigning for Steve Crow, mayoral candidate and porn scene fixture, at last year's parade. Surprisingly, he lost that race.

Read more about the parade here. If the parade goes off and there is photographic or motion picture evidence, we will provide...

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Score! Photographer Pulls Off Public Nude Shoot Despite Police Invasion...

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:14:00 GMT

Semi-reclusive photographer and local legend "Harvey" (real name Harvey Drouillard) was all set to shoot 36 naked men and women as part of his 14th annual unsanctioned exhibit at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs when, for the first time ever, police officers swooped in and threatened to arrest anyone who dared to remove their clothes.

But Harvey is never one to let the fuzz get him down... or out... and so he snuck out of the chaos, a couple of participants in tow...

Dreslinski said they would keep police officers dispersed around the fairs in case Harvey tried to take his photos somewhere else, adding that they couldn't stop the photographer in past art fairs because Harvey acted covertly.
This year, Harvey publicized his planned location because he wanted to let "people really experience what really goes on in a shot.
"... My long-term goal is to show people that nudity is not a big deal," Harvey said. "In the U.S., people always try to bottle things and make things taboo."
The impromptu covert operation for nude art in Ann Arbor began an hour and a half after the first attempt broke up.
Harvey and the three models regrouped at Michael Wolfe's booth of metalwork on North University, a more discreet space where they could get naked without getting handcuffed.
"No kids, no cops," said Harvey, looking from side to side.

While we don't know what Harvey's three-model photo looks like (yet), here are two that have been attributed to him which may give you some idea:

Via The Detroit Free Press.

By The Way, We Just Got Banned From Digg (Digg This Post For Us!)

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:29:00 GMT

It's been a crazy day at Scanner. First, were confused and disoriented by the "brum"; later, upon our recovery, we received what appears to be a death threat after gleefully dancing and having gay sex on the grave of uber-Fascist Senator Jesse Helms.

Then we got a letter from the powers that be at Digg, the website devoted to the promotion of doctored photos and unrestrained Obamania, telling us not to ever submit any of our dopey little stories again.

Your account was banned for violating the Digg Terms of Service (digg.com/tos) that you agreed to.

"By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree not to use the Services:

to contribute any Content that is infringing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party;"

The offending link is provided below:

http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/scanner/archive/2008/07/10/corrupt-congresswoman-does-topless-shoot-from-prison.aspx

We will unban your account if you agree to not submit content like this again.

Obviously, if a topless shoot is part of the news (imagine Hillary Clinton did a topless shoot to celebrate winning the Vice Presidency, okay? ~~Wait, don't.~~ Could we not do a story about that without fear a Digger and Scanner reader could get themselves banned for appreciating us publishing even one single photo of a God-given breast?

Guess we were wrong to think that censorship is only on the McCain side of life...

Corrupt Congresswoman Does Topless Shoot From Prison

Newspaper Runs Topless Photos of 13-Year-Old Girl

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Magazine Fights Censorship With Nude Six-Year-Old Cover Girl

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:01:00 GMT

An Art Monthly Australia cover that starred a nude six-year-old girl, an attempt to protest child pornography laws that some consider "artist censorship," has been deemed criminal and sent to the Australian Classification board... of censors.

Art Monthly Australia published the photo in response to government raids and the seizures of the photographs of artist Bill Henson, who frequently presents "tasteful" nudes of underage children. The magazine, which receives $50,000 in taxpayer funds every year, is now facing possible collapse after the typical righteous political outcry.

[The issue] also includes several provocative photos of children posing naked in adult jewellery as well as naked teenage girls.

Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell labelled the publication a "provocative publicity stunt" and called for a review of Arts Council's funding for the magazine.

In the editorial, Maurice O'Riordan said he chose the 2003 picture of the young girl in the "hope of restoring some dignity to the debate" and to "validate nudity and childhood as subjects for art".

The image, taken by Melbourne-based Polixeni Papapetrou, is believed to be her own daughter. [Daily Telegraph]

While we hope that Australians will see right through this political posturing at the expense of creative freedom, we know better than to expect intelligent reactions to any publication that dares to defy community standards.

For more, check out the original story at The Daily Telegraph.

Mark Zuckerberg to China: Let My People Poke!

Emily Farris — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:09:00 GMT

Social networking behemoth Facebook launched a Chinese-language version last month, and already some of the site's approximately 250,000 users are having problems exercising their right to poke.

While nobody really knows exactly where the problems lie (we're not sure if poking is really the issues), censorship was expected to be an issue when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbeg decided to launch the site, and will certainly become more of an issue when the international community (and by "international community" we mean international Facebook community) descends upon China for the Olympics next month.

Someone should start pitching around a book proposal for censored Facebook updates from the Olympics.

[Radar: Chinese Facebook Users Can't Get Their Poke On]

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Top 10 Things We Didn't Need to Waste Time Doing This Year But Did Anyway (File Under: Facebook)

Hooters, Like Cockroaches, Will Survive the Apocalypse... And The Olympics

"Lust, Caution" to Blame for New Chinese Film Restrictions?

Smile! Religious Wackos Videotaping You Buying Lingerie

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:42:00 GMT

A righteous pastor and his flock in Vacaville, CA apparently have nothing better to do (other stories in their local newspaper include Teen Book Club To Host Pizza Party and Get In The Picture, Camera Club Forming) than harass residents entering Secrets: Lingerie Boutique...

Jeremy White, a local pastor of student ministeries, has been pointing a camera and holding a sign that says "Sex Good, Porn Bad" because, as everyone knows, wearing lingerie in the privacy of your own home is disgraceful obscenity.

"I'm not trying to embarrass anybody," White said. "If you have absolutely no question of conscience about entering this store, then by all means shop away. However, if even only one of the dozens of customers we've deterred from entering is a married person about to do something shady behind their spouse's back then - mission accomplished."

Ah, isn't it nice to know that rent-a-pastors across the country are looking out for us? God forbid we make our own decisions or that we're allowed to purchase clothing items without having our faces all over YouTube.

Read more at The Reporter's website.

NSFW Video of the Day: "Japanese girls f*cked while playing Wii"

Bryan Christian — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:48:00 GMT

We don't normally link directly to a porn site like YouPorn, but holy smoke, we just had to share this with you. Japanese porn is a thing all its own, what with its res-ed out genitals and boundless enthusiasm for high-pitched, seemingly pained squealing -- but this catchily titled video goes well above and beyond the standard level of craziness for J-porn. For one thing, you never see the fuck-er, he's just a persistent presense with two hands and an Atari johnson. For another, it manages to shoehorn an entirely separate Japanese obsession into the fun: video games. Which is brilliant, in its way. It's like watching a tea ceremony devoted to the stars of basebaru!

However, we do have to call a tiny foul. We're not entirely sure that these gals are actually playing Wii Tennis the whole time they're getting f'd. Oh, sure, we see 'em swinging their Wii Remotes, and we hear the balls going back and forth (as it were). But seriously: we've never, ever, in the year and change since the Wii came out, ever seen a game of Wii Tennis this un-animated. If this were us, we'd be jumping all around and talking smack and shit. It just doesn't make sense. The eerily disembodied handjobs, we'd be cool with. But this lethargic mode of playing Wii Tennis... that's just downright creepy.

Click here to view "Japanese girls f*cked while playing Wii."

[via Fleshbot]

"Lust, Caution" to Blame for New Chinese Film Restrictions?

Bryan Christian — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:03:00 GMT

Bad news for Chinese film lovers: Beijing has banned the makers of erotic films from participation in domestic awards competitions and requested that Chinese film studios decline from making sexually explicit films in the future. (And just so we're clear, from what we know about China and most other Communist states, we're using the word "request" kind of loosely here.)

The [State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)] asked nationwide studios not to produce films with footage of hardcore activities, rape, whoring, obscene sex exposing human genitals, or sex freaks, the newspaper said. Vulgar conversations, nasty songs and sound effects with sexual connotation were also restricted.

Would this have anything to do with Ang Lee's erotic, Chinese-language thriller Lust, Caution, which you may remember Salon Sarah quite liking a few months back and which opened in mainland China with great controversy, great success, and about 7 minutes missing? Perhaps not coincidentally, early last month, Lust, Caution swept the Golden Horse awards, which are held in Lee's home country of Taiwan but are generally considered the most prestigious awards for Chinese language films. China's own Golden Rooster awards have attempted in years past to compete with the Golden Horses, but we can't imagine this latest move will up their street cred any. So boo hiss, Chinese government: you've managed to de-hot your own movies and undermine the value of your own awards shows all at the same time.

More importantly: hang in there, Chinese smut makers! We still love you, even if your home country don't!

[Via Shanghaiist]