My latest episode of In Bed with Susie Bright is #205: "Give Me Virginity or Give Me Death!"
This week, I discuss why Christian fundamentalist groups are protesting a new vaccine for a common STD that causes cervical cancer.
When I heard about this vaccine, I was so excited that it will be something wonderful for my daughter— but the Fundie contingent is having none of it!
"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council told the British magazine New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex."
As Katha Pollit so brilliantly advises in her Nation editorial: "Raise your hand if you think that what is keeping girls virgins now is the threat of getting cervical cancer when they are 60 from a disease they've probably never heard of."
Also on this show, I review and read a few passages from Porn Studies, my new favorite book for the post-modernist sex nerd.
A little history: The editor of Porn Studies, Dr. Linda Williams, along with Dr. Constance Penley (see her cool interview on slash fiction), and myself were the first professors to teach university courses on the nature of visual pornography.
I have always treasured my discussions with them, and many of those subjects are featured in this academic and scholarly look at what erotic cinema has wrought! I am emphasizing the "scholarly" part, because this is not casual reading, and some of the prose is not going to win any prizes... but I just love this information, so it's sort of like being biologist who flips for the latest frog book.
One passage I read is by Nguyen Tan Hoang, who examines the presentation of Asian ethnicity in "The Resurrection of Brandon Lee: The Making of a Gay Asian American Porn Star." Another excerpt is from a favorite writer of mine, Eric Shaefer, who really does write beautifully about the cinematic history of pornographic and exploitation films.
Finally, in my "Try This At Home" mailbag, a listener posts his amateur nude photos on the Internet, and loves it. Don't forget, you can always send your confidential questions and feedback about the show to [email protected] I read every one of them and delight in answering them!
