Susie Bright's Journal

No Sex, No Pity

Today, on my In Bed podcast, I take a look into the darker side of the Sex and the City phenomenon.

You know, I wouldn't care so much if those four neanderthal-ettes showed you how to shop for sexual insight— if that's their forté— but they even fail at that.

An unintentional erotic moment in the movie makes the point quite bitterly: three of the girlfriends realize that their fourth, Miranda, has neglected to shave her bikini line.

The camera shows a close-up of a couple of errant bright-red pubic hairs curling out from Miranda's upper thigh.

Her BFFs excoriate her: How can she destroy any hope of a sex life by refusing to shave! She must be turning her back on men altogether!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is what red cunt hair, the most prized of all genital details, has been reduced to.

When the film debuted, I spoke to Susannah Breslin at Salon, about the nausea of SATC:

"Did you see the recent New Yorker essay, "The Fall of Conservatism," by George Packer?  It paraphrases social theorist Eric Hoffer: 'Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.'

"Sex and the City is the 'racket' part of what once was recognizable as the sexual self-emancipation of the feminist movement... I can't watch these women, you know, make asses of themselves and be so petty and small-minded about sexual possibility. I take it too personally."

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In the second half of my show, a news story in France catches my eye- can a traditional marriage can be annulled because the wife isn't a virgin?

And finally, in my Try This at Home mailbag, I answer a letter from a worried mom: "My son is way too sexually precocious, and it's causing me alarm..."

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, and feedback about the show, to [email protected] (Episode 347, July 4, 2008).

Photo Credit: This image is the top hit when you search Google for "Merchandising."

"Usually Tight" — Barnard Girls Go Wild in the Gilded Age!

While cleaning out my desk this past week, I discovered a wonderful "sex shock" news clipping that a friend in Boston found for me in her collection of early 20th century newspapers.

There is no annual date on the story. I'd guess it's from the late 20s, given the use of flapper language like "getting tight" and "tipplers."

If you recognize the newspaper or can pin down the year, let me know!

The culprit in this tabloid shockeroo was The Jester, a campus humor magazine, founded in 1901. But that the student editors published this survey at all, given the era, was quite scandalous:

Girls Answer Quiz on Purity

Barnard Students Admit Necking and "Soul Kissing"

New York, Oct.22— Answers to an amazingly frank "purity test" taken by girl students at Barnard College were published in the Columbia Jester at the university today. Shocked professors immediately ordered the magazine suppressed.

Within 45 minutes, however, the ban was lifted by Dean Herbert E. Hawkes. He made no explanation.

The test went to the ultimate of candor— and in publishing it, the authors of the Jester article inferred that some of the questions were too hot to print. 

They reported that: 51% of the 70 girls considered "one or more propositions to be contrary to their honor; that more than 50% indulge in necking; that 34% practice the "soul kiss"; that 49% had kissed ten different men; than 29% have gone out with other women's husbands, and that no one would answer the question: "Have you ever swum nude in mixed company?"

Of the group, the authors reported that 80% were smokers and 66% tipplers. Answering the question: "Have you ever been tight?" 38 wrote "no," 32 wrote "yes." Of those answering in the affirmative, 14 said they had been tight once, 14 said they had been tight often, and four said that they were "usually tight."

Susie and Kate Bornstein Break a Few Gender Plates

 Susie Bright Interviews Transgender Outlaw Kate Bornstein

Download this free sample of In Bed with Susie Bright!

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When it comes to turning boys and girls upside down, and shaking up every orgasmic assumption you ever had, no one does it better than transgender author, playwright, and performance artist Kate Bornstein.

Susie and Kate discuss Bornstein's latest book, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, as well as gender hierarchy and depression. 

If you've ever wanted to hear the un-cutesy truth about how people stay alive when all seems lost, this is it.

If you like this sample and want to hear more, you can subscribe (for $2 a show) to my weekly show at Audible.com. I'm offering a 12-episode season on iTunes to give new listeners a taste!

Photo Credit: Poster by Kath Moonan and Alexandra Lazar  from the International Festival of Transgender Arts.

The Women Kill Coyote By Repeated Intercourse

Coyote started on again. He came to a camp. He inquired about the location of the chief's camp. Someone told him, "See that tipi over there with the reddish smoke flap? That's where the chief lives."

Coyote went over there. He entered the tipi. A woman was in there. He said, "Your husband sent me over to fuck you."

"No, my husband wouldn't do that."

Coyote repeated it. So she went to bed with him. The husband was playing hoop and pole. When Coyote finished, he came out and yelled, "Do the cunts of all women look like those of the chief's wife?"

All the women in the camp heard him. They chased him around. Antelope Woman could run fast. She smelled pretty bad too. She could run fast, but she held herself back. Peccary Woman smelled bad too. She was big and fat. They chased Coyote and tired him out. Finally they caught him by the hair.

They dragged him back. All the women came. They took him under a tree and held his arms and legs. Each of the women crawled over him, pressing their cunts against him from his feet to his head. They made him smell. The Antelope Woman and the Peccary Woman came last.

When they started in, Coyote said, "I don't like to smell that stuff!" But they made him smell it. Those last two finished with Coyote, then they killed him.

His cock was sticking up. They all sat on him and fucked him. Pretty soon he had had enough. He begged to be let up. His penis went down. But they hit it on the end with a stick and it swelled up at the tip again and got large enough so they could fuck him again. They kept it up till they killed him. Then they threw him away.

That is why coyotes and dogs are that way now, and get stuck together when they have intercourse.

Happy 4th of July! I wanted to publish a Native story for a little relief.

This Coyote legend is one of hundreds of stories collected in the 1930s in a book called Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache Indians, by Morris Edward Opler. I found it in my late father's library collection, where he indexed thousands and thousands of Coyote stories, from tribes all over the Americas.

Bill, my dad, was such a Coyote fan that he did his own book, A Coyote Reader,  a collection of translations and contemporary takes on what Coyote is all about. He included authors like Leslie Silko, Gary Snyder, Wendy Rose, Peter Blue Cloud, and Simon Ortiz— even Mark Twain has something wonderful to say about Coyote.

I remember Bill was happy to say his was the first book from the University of California Press with the word "asshole" on the back cover copy. The reason Coyote is so unavoidably scatological and sexual is that... that's just the way he's been for the past four million years. The original stories are frequently involved with his shit, or his cock, or both. These stories weren't hidden from any age or temperament— they were like family jokes. Coyote is always horny and greedy, always making a mess of it, and always coming back from the dead. Remind you of anyone you know? ;-)

Photo: Coyote hits up Quiznos in Chicago.

Fuck, Marry, Kill: What Sex Game Are YOU Playing?

Susie Talks to the Strip Poker and Sex Game Experts

Download the free interview!

Here's the iTunes link.

Susie investigates why people love Sex Games— the card-playing, "Truth or Dare" kind— and why usually-monogamous couples will push the envelope if "rules of the game" are employed. 

One avid player named Amy told me: "Two reasons I like to play sex games: a), the joy of winning!— and,  b), the threat of losing!"

Uh... don't let Amy get me in a headlock!

I discovered  the iTunes sex side of podcasting when I met the people behind of one of the most popular new sex games ever, Great Sex Games. They certainly have improved "Spin the Bottle," but remember— I'm still too scared to play with Amy.

One of my author friends, Shanna Germain, just wrote a story for me* that involves a sex game called "Fuck Marry Kill." She was surprised when I told her I didn't know what FMK means— but I love that title.

Has everyone played this except me? The rules are, you get put on the hot seat, and asked to choose among a group of people— either your companions, or a hypothetical list they give you— who you would fuck, who you would marry, who you would... assassinate. What if all three amount to the same person?

If you like this sample and want to hear more, you can subscribe (for $2 a show) to my weekly show at Audible.com. I'm offering a 12-episode season on iTunes to give new listeners a taste!

Photo Credit: Yes, I have played Naked Twister.
* More on this soon! I'm doing a new erotic collection....