June 6, 2011
A unisex toilet is a public restroom or toilet that is available for use by either the male or female gender. Sex-separated public toilets are a source of difficulty for some people. For example, people with children of the opposite sex must choose between bringing the child into a toilet not designated for the child’s gender, or entering a toilet not designated for one’s own. Men caring for babies often find that only the women’s washroom has been fitted with a change table. People with disabilities who need assistance to use the restroom have an additional problem if their helper is the opposite sex.
Some public places (such as facilities targeted to the transgender or LGBT communities, and a few universities and offices) provide individual washrooms that are not gender-specified, specifically in order to respond to the concerns of gender-variant people; but this remains very rare and often controversial. Various courts have ruled on whether transgender people have the right to use the washroom of their gender of identification.
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June 6, 2011
Topfreedom is a cultural and political movement seeking to advance gender equality by the recognition of the right of women and girls to be topless in public on the same basis that men and boys are permitted to be barechested. In addition, topfreedom advocates seek recognition of the right of nursing mothers to openly breastfeed in public, and of women to sun bathe topless.
The Topfree Equal Rights Association (TERA) also assists women in Canada who have been charged for being topless, while GoTopless organizes demonstrations in the United States to protest against the legal and public attitude to the inequality. In Sweden, Bara Bröst is active in advancing topfreedom, as is Topless Front in Denmark.
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May 23, 2011
Nyotaimori often referred to as ‘body sushi,’ is the practice of serving sashimi or sushi from the body of a woman, typically naked. Nantaimori refers to the same practice using a male model. This subdivision of food play is originally an obscure Japanese practice that has attracted considerable international media attention. Promoters, eating participants, and proponents of the practice often say that nyotaimori is a form of art. This argument is rejected by some feminists, who argue that it objectifies the woman or the man doing the serving.
Before becoming a living sushi platter, the person is trained to lie down for hours without moving. She or he must also be able to withstand the prolonged exposure to the cold food. Before service, the individual is supposed to have taken a bath using a special fragrance-free soap and then finished off with a splash of cold water to cool the body down somewhat for the sushi. In some parts of the world, in order to comply with sanitation laws, there must be a layer of plastic or other material between the sushi and the body of the woman or man.
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May 20, 2011
Wallace Wood (1927 – 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mad’s founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he claimed to dislike.
EC publisher William Gaines once stated, ‘Wally may have been our most troubled artist… I’m not suggesting any connection, but he may have been our most brilliant.’
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May 18, 2011
The Golden Age of Porn or porno chic refers to a period in the history of pornography, approximately from the late-1960s to the early-to-mid-1980s that is idealized as a time where difficult to treat STDs had not achieved wide public notice. This freedom was ostensibly reflected in the pornography industry, with adult movies and adult magazines approaching the mainstream and becoming increasingly visible.
The golden age was also typified by interactions with the contemporaneous second wave of feminism. These were radical and cultural feminists which, along with the Christian right, attacked pornography, while other feminists were more concerned with ideas of sexual liberation and freedom from government intrusion into the growing industry.
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May 18, 2011
Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic starring Linda Lovelace (Linda Susan Boreman). One of the first pornographic films to feature a plot, character development and relatively high production standards, Deep Throat earned mainstream attention and launched the ‘porn chic’ trend despite the film being banned in some regions and the subject of obscenity trials.
The 61-minute movie is intended to be humorous, with highly tongue-in-cheek dialogue and songs; fireworks going off and bells ringing during Lovelace’s orgasms. The film’s popularity helped launch a brief period of upper-middle class interest in explicit pornography referred to by Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times as ‘porno chic.’ Several mainstream celebrities admitted to having seen Deep Throat, including Martin Scorsese, Truman Capote, Jack Nicholson and Johnny Carson.
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May 2, 2011
The final girl is a thriller and horror film (particularly slasher film) trope that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Alien and Scream. The term was coined by American professor of film studies, Carol J. Clover, who argues that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.
According to Clover, the final girl is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims (sex, narcotic usage, etc.). She sometimes has a unisex name (e.g., Teddy, Billie, Georgie, Sidney). Occasionally the Final Girl will have a shared history with the killer. The final girl is the ‘investigating consciousness’ of the film, moving the narrative forward and as such, she exhibits intelligence, curiosity, and vigilance. One of the basic premises of Clover’s theory is that audience identification is unstable and fluid across gender lines, particularly in the case of the slasher film. During the final girl’s confrontation with the killer, Clover argues, she becomes masculinized through ‘phallic appropriation’ by taking up a weapon, such as a knife or chainsaw, against the killer.
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April 28, 2011
Quirkyalone is a neologism referring to someone who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than dating for the sake of being in a couple. Magazine publisher Sasha Cagen came up with the term on a Brooklyn subway platform on New Year’s Eve, 1999.
International Quirkyalone Day is February 14 and was chosen as an alternative to ‘the marketing barrage’ of Valentine’s Day. It started in 2003 as a ‘celebration of romance, freedom and individuality.’
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April 28, 2011
A burqini is a type of swimsuit for women designed by Lebanese Australian Aheda Zanetti under the company name Ahiida. The suit covers the whole body except the face, the hands and the feet (enough to preserve Muslim modesty), whilst being light enough to enable swimming. It looks rather like a full-length wetsuit with built-in hood, but somewhat looser and made of swimsuit material instead of neoprene.
In August 2009, a woman in France was prevented from swimming in a public pool wearing a burqini. This was due to a long-standing law requiring swimwear in place of street clothing in public pools, for hygienic reasons, rather than the result of any specific political position on the garment, despite controversy in France over Islamic dress. There are other styles of Islamic swimwear such as the veilkini and mycozzie which was the actual garment worn in the France incident.
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April 28, 2011
An undress code is a dress code or social norm which sets an upper limit on the amount of clothing that can be worn. For example, some public swimming facilities set maximum clothing standards, for sanitary reasons.
These rules restrict persons using the facilities to specific types of bathing suits.
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April 26, 2011
A panty raid is a prank in which male students steal the panties (undergarments) of female students by intruding into their living quarters. The term dates to February, 1949.
It was the first college craze after World War II, following the 1930s crazes of goldfish swallowing or seeing how many could fit in a phone booth. By the 1970s, mixed dorms, less inhibited attitudes to intercourse on campus led to fading of panty raids.
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April 25, 2011
Tableau [ta-bloh] vivant [vee-vahn] (French for ‘living picture’) is a group of suitably costumed actors or artist’s models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of painting/photography, and as such it has been of interest to modern photographers.
In the 19th century, virtually nude tableaux vivants or ‘poses plastiques’ provided a form of erotic entertainment.
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