Rejuvenation of the Orgasm Equality Spirit, My People

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Hello out there. As you are aware, and as I point out in pretty much all of my recent posts, my activity on this blog has slowed the last year or so. This is not a lack of interest. It's more a prioritization to accommodate my life in its current form. 

So, I am not here with some sweet (they are sweet to me at least) scientific journal article summaries, even though I would love to be working on one at the moment. There are plenty to read HERE, though, if you are jonesing for one. 

This is also not not an SSL Review  - otherwise known as in depth review of a depiction or discussion of the female orgasm, the clit, lady-bation, or cunnilingus. Although, to be sure, there's a shit ton of past reviews for both TV and Movies if you need some of that in your life right now. Spoiler alert: Slums of Beverly Hills and Diary of a Teenage Girl are in the top tier of 5 vulva rated movies (!)(!)(!)(!)(!), but The 40 Year Old Virgin and The Overnight are some that have a big fat zero vulva rating. :( ...And if you want to know what's currently sandwiching the list, 20th Century Women got the only coveted 5 1/2 vulva rating, while strangely enough, Hysteria, a movie about the invention of the vibrator is trailing the pack with the "-1 vulva rating" - something I made up special due to my utter disappointment in what it could have been vs. what it was. 

This post is not those things. What it is, is me waking up just feeling particularly excited about this work and wanting to post about it. I'm always kind of excited about his. It's truly something I want to leave in this world when I'm gone, but you know, within that there are frustrating times and disappointing times as well as exciting times and vibrant times. I just happened to have a little touch of excitement last night at a sweet sculptural art opening. I talked with a fab artist and cool lady (who has introduced me into a group of fab women and I am incredibly grateful to her for that) along with some other super cool people there, and I was able to engage about this work. 

I'll be honest, talking about my work has been a journey and a struggle full of learning and eye-opening responses. I think I've honed how I speak of it better over the years, but it's still a thing that makes me a little anxious for a variety of reasons - especially to new people. I'm truly a natural bull-shitter. I feel pretty comfortable talking with most people about life and feelings and dumb shit. However, speaking about things I have a real stake in, things that I really want to verbalize correctly is a whole different matter and something I do not naturally do well. All that to say, I really felt good talking to these people, and I really loved their engagement and their thoughts, and it was just an overall good experience that, I guess, upped my overall blogging motivation. 

You know, I think moving to a different city 4 years ago changed my culture around this work and although I hadn't thought of it this way before, maybe was really demotivating. I still had the bad-ass women on line that are in this fight too. They have continued to be great, and I even met a super amazing new one while I've been here too. However, I suddenly didn't have a lot of interactions with people other than workmates, and new co-workers are not the people you want to just start talking about lady-gasms to. Overall it was a struggle to find new friends, and then the pandemic happened, and I just recently started feeling like I'm finding a culture and a social life here, and so last night was nice and rejuvenating, and I'm grateful to those people I was with.

That's what I wanted to say. Be well all my friends out there!

For your extra enjoyment, here are some stills from the OG movie to this blog, Science, Sex and the Ladies.

What I Might Change About 'Science, Sex, and the Ladies' (the movie) Now All These Years Later

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Hello my lady-gasm activist friends. As is the theme for my blogging the last few years, I'm more behind than I would like to be. There are tons of articles on everything from the Female Sexual Dysfunction questionnaire that is most commonly used in studies as well as therapy to assess a woman's, ya know sexual dysfunction to female ejaculation related stuff to post gender confirmation surgery functioning to old strange studies to just about everything - anyway, there are tons of those studies I want to summarize (and dish on if need be) in the ol' A Journal Article I Read series (which are all HERE). There's also tons of TV and movie depictions of lady-gasms or lady-gasm talk, or clits or cunnilingus that I need to review (all the TV ones are HERE and the movie ones are HERE), but to be honest, these are a little lower on my priority list, I'm more vibing with the journal articles right now, but I get the urge to review some shit orgasm depictions from time to time too. All that to say I don't have anything super big, but I wanted to post something, and it just happened that something sparked my need to write here a little.

Last night me and Charlie re-watched Science Sex and the Ladies with a good friend last night, and it was fun, but I was thinking about some things. First, I still like it. I think it's weird and what-the-fuck-enough to continue getting laughs into the future. Second, this was shot 13 years ago and released 8 years ago (it was a lot of post production work and mostly just Charlie doing it....it takes time), and there are is content I would do a little different. I still stand behind it 100%, but I've been continuing the activist work from that movie through this blog since 2009. I have more and deeper insight now. I mean shit's still pretty much the same and the problems are still pretty misunderstood in the same way, but there's been some progression, and the way I talk about some things has changes with more knowledge.  

So, below, I just thought I'd quick mention the updates I'd make, I've written about this in different ways before, but it's fresh for me right now and it's nice to pop it up every now and then. 

1 I'd talk about the idea that the 'inner clit' is responsible for orgasms-from-intercourse (or what people might call vaginal orgasm) and shit all over that fake news like I did the g-spot-as-a-vaginal-orgasm-giver fake news. 

The current progressive, sex positive, sexually educated (often very educated) crowd is big on the idea of the 'inner clit' or the 'clitoral bulbs' or 'clitoral legs'. It's the part of the clitoris that is deeper in the body - more than the clitoral glans that pokes out or the clitoral body you can feel under the skin just above the clit (before it bends down and separates into the larger 'inner' structure of the clit). They tout this 'inner clit' as a previously unknown or misunderstood part of female anatomy that is actually what causes orgasms. It is neither previously unknown/misunderstood, nor is it something that causes 'vaginal orgasms.' However, just like the now out-of-vogue-as-vaginal-orgasm-givers -the vaginal canal itself and the g-spot- the inner clit is a new, hip way experts try to explain why a woman might orgasm from nothing more than getting banged. Truth is there is not physical evidence in all of scientific literature of a an orgasm happening from nothing more than the stimulation of a penis/dildo in the vagina (for real - I explain more HERE), but that doesn't stop the sex research/sexpert world from desperately clinging to some piece of anatomy that might, maybe cause this type of orgasm, that actually doesn't seem to exist except for in faked bedroom activities and answers on surveys. 

This was true when the movie came out and is still just as true. It's just that the scapegoat in pop sexperting has moved from the g-spot to the inner clitoris since then, and so it's not really addressed properly in the movie. I would like to have it in there because I worry contemporary watchers might disregard the whole thing because they think we missed the inner legs info. 

Anyway, more specific info about why the inner clit is not some new discovery and not the cause of 'vaginal orgasms' is HERE.

2 I'd have added some info about male multiple orgasms. 

Most of the details about male and female orgasm and physical arousal in the movie are pulled from Master and Johnson's groundbreaking late 60's research. It's still super relevant on the physical detail level, but there are later papers that confirmed and also expanded on Master and Johnson's work. I would add more of that to modernize some of the terminology, etc. Mainly, that would mean there would be some info about physical evidence of males that can orgasm multiple times, similar to some women, until they ejaculate with their final orgasm. I'd tighten up that physiology of orgasm/arousal section with papers and info I've reviewed and read while writing this blog. Oh - here's an article with the male multiple orgasms. 

Alright - that's the big ones. There's of course some scenes we would tighten up too- I mean sometimes things happen by necessity, and we'd have preferred something a little differnt, but overall, I like that crazy movie. 

 

Science, Sex and the Ladies Goes To Italy!

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Okay, so this is gonna be a quick one today. Promise my next post will be better. However, this is something I'm pretty darn excited about. As you know, Science, Sex and the Ladies can be viewed in English or with Russian or Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. Well, it'll be available to Italian audiences soon as well. However, this won't just be subtitles. This bitch will be dubbed, and I'm so, so, sooo (I can't tell you how much) excited to see our actors dubbed in Italian. And more than that, I can't wait to show our actors themselves dubbed in Italian. It's, well, it's just a spectacular thing.


Science, Sex and The Ladies from AnC Movies on Vimeo.

So, the thing is though - and this is the drawback - it won't be available online for just anyone. It's being done for a run on Italian TV - late at night, I assume. The network may put it on their streaming site, but really if you aren't in Italy, you probably aren't going to see how amazing it is to see a hand CG character talking to a bunch of 80's teens about reasons why women may masturbate less...dubbed in Italian. I mean we're all missing out a bit, wouldn't you say?

I'm excited none the less. I hope over the next 5 years there are tons of Italian young folk out there up too late that happen to catch our movie. I hope their young sexual minds are formed with all that accurate info about lady-gasms and realistic understandings of female sexuality. I hope they talk to their friends about it, and I hope there is a generation of Italians that see sex differently, better. I mean, probably not that many people will see it, but who knows...

Oh, and I didn't even tell you the best part. Vatican City is in the realm of where it will play. That means there is a 100% chance that the pope will see our movie, and really, that's all I ever really wanted.

Watch SSL, Contact Me, Know Me

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I get asked every now and then where you can watch the movie or where you can contact me. I realized that this blog doesn't actually have an easy link to that stuff when you're looking at it on a mobile device, so I thought I'd re-up. I'll add this page into the dropdown for mobile and top links for desktop.

Watch Science, Sex and the Ladies!

On Vimeo (we love Vimeo - there's great stuff there. Also you can watch it with English, Russian, or Brazilian Portuguese subtitles): https://vimeo.com/ondemand/26160

Science, Sex and The Ladies from AnC Movies on Vimeo.


On Amazon: (We're new here, so and if you've seen it already and want to give us a customer review there, we'd love it.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5FZ1A2?tag=moviefone-20

For your classroom: You can buy the movie plus the Educational License and can stream or download at any time. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/sciencesexandtheladiesed

At An Event: Hey, we first and foremost want people to see this movie, so if you have someplace you'd like to show it, just contact me, Trisha (see below). 

Contact Me!
First off, I LOVE to hear from people. I LOVE it. Contact me. Say whatever you want. Secondly, here's ways to do it.

Email: trisha att ancmovies dott com

Twitter: @ScienceSexMovie (Follow me, baby)

Facebook: Here's our movie group's page AnC Movies. We made Science, Sex and the Ladies. We're working on our next full length...which will be a bit different than SSL.

Links 
Science, Sex and the Ladies Website

AnC Movies Website

About Me
I love lady-gasm activism. I love this blog. I love SSL Reviewing movies and journal articles and advice columns. I love finding and highlighting other people out there working (knowingly or unknowingly) for the Orgasm Equality Movement. I hope all the shit I fill this blog with can be a strange and wonderful resource for all kinds of people. I wish I had more time in the day to spend working on this blog.

Me and Tina having fun working on this blog

I have a day job though. I'm a biologist, and I actually quite like that job as well. I'd even call it a career.

I also LOVE making movies with 2 men, Charlie and Barnaby, I've known since high school. We're AnC Movies. Science, Sex and the Ladies (SSL) was our first full length movie, but we'd made lots of shorts and commercial work before that. It happened that our first full length was a doc about lady-gams, but we're not really doc makers necessarily. We just really liked the idea of that movie. Our next one is a narrative and probably the one after that will be as well.

L to R: Charlie, Me, Barnaby having an AnC meeting circa 2005ish - probably talking about the SSL script

I'm excited to make more movies, but SSL will always have a special place in my heart. It was my baby, and I fell in love with the subject. I've been doing this blog for years now, expanding on the subjects we touch in SSL, and I'm so grateful I get to continue exploring this subject. I think it's important. But I watched SSL again recently, and I still think it's a crucial companion to this blog. I find it hasn't lost much for me over time and further exploration. I just really love it because it puts the whole story I'm trying to tell together. That's hard to do in these blogs. It's too complicated and broad, and the movie says almost everything without getting too bogged down or being too light. Plus, I think it's funny as hell and weird as shit; something that is not quite a doc but definitely non-fiction. It's got its own special little style that we call a visual essay. I heart this movie hard.

On set for Science, Sex and the Ladies. It was almost all done in front of green screen in a run-down old building. All the wierd stuff hanging is lots of make-shift sound treatment, and this is the sexed up caveman scene - one of my faves. 

Charlie, me and Barnaby on set for SSL.  2009ish. We are doing important things (Charlie's little brother in the background).

AnC at the Gateway Theater Doc Week showing of SSL (April 2016)

I also have 3 cats. Charlie (of AnC Movies as well) is my husband. We have tons of nieces and nephews, and watch lots of TV and movies. We have worked and lived most of our adult lives in Indiana. It's where both our extended families mostly are. It gets a lot of shit as a location, but hey, this is where Kinsey did his sex research. Hoosiers have a solid history of pushing sexual culture forward through science. It's also pretty cheap to make movies here. We've recently moved to an even more midwesterny city, Des Moines, Iowa, and ya know what? It's much cooler than you might think. 

This is me and Ramona, the only of our cats we found as a kitten. She started it all. I'm sleeping. Anyone who has known me for any length of time will have seen me in this sleeping position at some point...in a meeting, in a class, at my desk, talking to you. I can sleep anywhere and anytime. 

I don't want to leave Eds out. She was the last cat we found, and she's sitting next to me on a copy of Masters and Johnson's Human Sexual Response there. Her full name is Edgar. We named her through a window well before we decided to take her in. Update: our sweet, food psycho Eds passed, but her picture still gets to stay on the blog, because well, I like looking at her.

Pictures 
Here's some pics related to me, AnC, and Science, Sex and the Ladies, for you to enjoy.

This is me with the trophies I won from baton twirling as a young girl. I got a 1st out of 1 and a 4th out of 4...but they were big impressive trophies none the less. This is just before I threw them out.

Amazing mash-up photo of Charlie, me and Barnaby at a 2008 Baltimore exhibition of our short Mustache II: The Second Mustache in collaboration with the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (Dude on screen is our other HS friend and early AnC member, Phil. I'm licking his tiny mustache) 

Still from our first post-HS short movie (2002) Him Her Roland. That's me and B, and the back of Charlie's head. Shot with our first digital camera the XL1 in the restaurant I worked in at the time.

Here at AnC Movies, we try our best to send out a yearly holiday (could be any holiday) card to let our mailing list know about our endeavors. This is our 2014 New Year one.

Me and Charlie on set for SSL as characters we both had to step in and play because the actor couldn't make it last minute. I am Marie Robinson, an opinionated female sexuality writer of the 50's. Charlie is a romance novel character. The romance novel shoot was epic. 

I've saved the best for last. This is me as 80's mom in SSL, a late (2012) re-shoot. We transformed Barnaby's living room for this and that is his cat Yancey. It is the most perfect picture of me in existence. 

SSL Takes Russia By Storm (or so we hope)

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Science, Sex and the Ladies has been around the good ol' US of A. It's had small screenings in places like England and Australia and India. It's been seen online through Vimeo On Demand in over 60 countries around the world.

СЕКС, НАУКА И… ЖЕНЩИНЫ (that's the title in Russian btw - Google translates it back to English as 'Sex, Science and Women...')
But for the first time, SSL will be translated into another language - and that language, my friends, is Russian. We've been talking and looking into translations for a while now, and I assumed we'd start with Spanish - ya know, 'cause that seems most relevant here in the Americas, but in the end we didn't choose it, it chose us.

Love.DOC Film Fest
The fab people at a super cool, Russian, green documentary film festival called ECOCUP started a new festival called Love.DOC, and they contacted us this summer to see if we'd like to be a part of it. We were like, 'yeah - that would be awesome. One little thing though, we only have it in English,' and they were like, 'Oh we translate all the movies to Russian, so no biggie. We just need a transcript, and you can have the translation when we're done.' Then we were all like, 'Hells yeah - we're totally in. We'll get that transcript to you ASAP.'

At that point we (well, Charlie did 90% of it) spent a week creating English subtitles - which was something we had been wanting to do for a while now, but finally had the fire under our asses to do. So after a variety of the normal types of BS that go with trying to get a giganto video file sent over the interwebs to someone, and getting that English transcript with time code created, we will be in this kick ass Russian film fest AND, we'll have a Russian transcript!

Москва, Санкт-Петербург and Екатеринбург
So, we'll be showing on Saturday, October 15th and Sunday the 16th in Moscow, and on the 15th in St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. There are some other really cool looking movies playing there that look like things I'd like to see. You can go to the movie page on the site. It's in Russian, but most of the trailers are in English or have English Subtitles (and if you feel like having fun you can copy stuff into Google Translate and get the gist of most of it).

Russian folks are gonna get to knowin' about orgasm equality, ya'll, and I love it!



Science, Sex and The Ladies from AnC Movies on Vimeo.

Thank You Columbus - It Was A Great Show!

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Seriously, though - I mean it. Thank you Columbus, Ohio. Let me list the reasons why:

• You have an awesome arts theater, Gateway Film Center, that invited us to be part of their Documentary Week. I mean, come on, that place is bad ass. If you live there and you don't take advantage of it, you really should start. As I said before. I'm jealous.

AnC (Barnaby, Trisha, Charlie LtoR) with our poster at the Gateway. I kiss the picture of our cast members because I love our cast members.

• You gave us a big ol' group of totally cool people who decided to come out to watch SSL on a chilly Wednesday night. They were super engaged through the movie. Seriously, like I said before, I LOVE watching SSL with a big group of people. They laugh and react a lot, and I don't know if this is strange or not, but it makes me smile and laugh seeing all the things that make them laugh - it really is super fun. 

• Almost all the crowd stayed for the Q&A until we were kicked out...and even after (Thanks again for the kind words and discussion; Mark, really interesting sexual educator from Brooklyn who's name I can't remember right now, and nice OSU Sexuality student!)

• The crowd was, for real, really awesome. They even laughed at a few subtly weird things we have in the movie that we hadn't heard crowds get that into before - like when they saw me writing in a diary with Prince Valiant hair while our cat, Ramona, sniffed around behind the bed post. I love when people just melt into the weirdness of it. 

• Our stay was great - the AirBnB place was fantastic, and the food at Katalina that the AirBnB people suggested was top notch, ya'll!

• You have a super cool guy named Robert Pyatt (who I found out was originally from Indianapolis, so we here in Indy will take a little credit for this) who kinda randomly heard about Science Sex and the Ladies a good while ago (he thinks maybe through another Indy area film director, Kate Chaplin?) and decided to watch it. Then while watching it, saw all the things in it that we so very much hoped people would see in it. He saw we were serious about the science we put in it. He saw how we used on-screen citation for transparency and saw that isn't something other documentaries are doing. He saw that the points we were making were things that needed to be heard but weren't being said like this anywhere else, and he saw we did our darndest for it to be entertaining.  He then, since he happened to be working with Gateway to bring in science programming, championed us. Talking with him at the show last night and hearing what he said about our film when he introduced it really meant a lot, probably more than he knows. This movie is a strange beast to program, and what I've found is that it really only gets attention from festivals and venues when it has a champion on the inside - Robert was one of those champions. He popped up for us out of the blue, and gave our movie a chance. We will always have a special place in our hearts for him.

• Also, let me just go back to Mr. Robert Pyatt He also really researched into the things written about this movie, my blog, and interviews and podcast I've done. He was really informed and engaged about the movie and this topic. He actually really appreciated the depth of the scientific research and integrity I strive for with this stuff. Honestly, it just felt awesome when I realized that about him last night. It makes me feel like the time and energy I spend writing about and researching all this lady-gasm stuff is worth it at least a little. Oh - and I feel like the work he put into getting SSL shown in Columbus, and the excitement for which he promoted and talked about it, well, by golly, I think he deserves to be a true blue Orgasm Equality Ally. So, you are now on the list, good Mr. Robert Pyatt. Thank you again, and check it out HERE!

Okay, that's about it. It was a fabulous experience from top to bottom. For those of you that were there, please tell your friends about it. Talk, talk, talk about this stuff.

And here are some links to things we discussed:

Here's a list of SSL reviews, where I rate depictions/discussion of lady-gasm in movies and give vulva ratings

Here's a list of Scientific articles about lady-gasm that I've reviewed so far

Here's my critique of a recent BBC article on female orgasm

Here's a list of other people out there doing the good work for Orgasm Equality

Here's were you can rent or buy a streaming version of the movie

Oh - and remember we are always willing to lend out the movie for free if you have a group you'd like to show it to, and I'm always open to talking about this topic. In fact I love talking about this topic. Feel free to contact me at trisha att ancmovies dott comm

Peace out Columbus! You've been great!

Columbus, OH: I'll see you at the Gateway Film Center!!!

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Come See a Real Live Showing of SSL!!!!
Hello my fabulous readership! I want to meet you. All of you!

Well, that is true, but really just those of you that live in the general Ohio area - Columbus, Ohio area to be more precise.

I'm excited to say that Science, Sex and the Ladies was asked to be part of The Gateway Film Center's Documentary Week. It will be playing on Wednesday, April 6th at 7:30pm, and guess who will be there for the ol' Q  and A. That's right, me and my crew. Me, Charlie and Barnaby, the directing trio of SSL, will be answering all your most deeply held questions about the movie and subjects related to the movie.

Seriously though, I really would love to meet people. We'll be staying the night, so we'll probably go have a beer after the show and all that. Hit me up at anc att ancmovies dottt com, tweet me, post something on the AnC FB page if you'll be there or you have a good suggestion about where to get beer afterward or whatever.

Gateway Film Center Documentary Week March 31st  - April 7th 2016

Or Let Others Know About It!
And if you can't be there, or even if you can, or if you know anyone in Columbus, please do a sister a solid and social media this shit, or just tell your Columbus friends directly about it, or however you choose, but please help me spread the word. It would mean a lot.

'Cause It's Gonna Be Awesome!!!!!
I really am excited about this. I love SSL of course. I mean, I made it and all, but I LOVE SSL in a big crowd. It's really fun. I'd almost describe it as raucous when there's a lot of people - tons of laughs and audible reactions from start to finish- that's why after I saw that a couple times, I started saying it has sorta a midnight movie feel, but it doesn't feel that way with just a couple people watching. The movie is weird, man. It's talking about an incredibly awkward subject. Every scene is doused with a small and strange amount of cheese but filled with scientific words, often spoken quite straight and seriously. It takes a minute to get the feel of the movie, I think.

It doesn't immediately fall into a genre so you can sorta associate it with the familiar rhythms and styles and humor of that type of movie. SSL is kinda out there on it's own, and you might just not feel sure about how to process it at first. But, man, things take off much quicker in a crowd. I don't know what it is. People always say that humor works better in a crowd because people feed off eachother's laughter, and I think that might be true with SSL. People sorta give each other permission to laugh, because, like I said, I think people aren't sure they're allowed to at first because it's such a serious and deeply personal subject sitting amongst the weird, cheesy, tongue-in-cheek stuff. Anyway, it'll be a good time. I'm excited.

Also, Gateway Film Center is Awesome
1. They programmed us, and let me just say I really really appreciate it. because more than a few places and festivals have straight up said to me something to the effect that their audiences would have a problem with the explicit parts (close-ups of real vulvas for demonstration, specifically), and they would like to program us, but it's too much of a risk. Some festivals contacted us saying we were on hold with hopes they could add in a late or midnight screening to put us in, but none ever could make it happen.

Well Gateway, on the other hand, found us and put us right into the doc week. They didn't see us as a risk. They saw us as a movie that people might like to see, and I love them for that. They are putting interesting and unique movies out there every. damn. day. Which brings me to:

2. They have a lot of kick-ass, bleeding edge movies playing all the time at the Gateway. Like right now they have a series of movies from rising French directors. It's called Young French Cinema, and it's just the beginning of the stuff they have there. I'd love to have a place like that here in Indianapolis (We miss you south side Key Cinema!). Don't get me wrong. I love a blockbuster Hollywood movie fo sho, but the newness, and experimentation, and diversity of viewpoint and style that comes from the truly outside Hollywood pieces is absolutely lovely and refreshing and so very worthwhile.  So, if you do live around Columbus, and you haven't been to the Gateway yet, I highly suggest you take advantage of what they are offering. It's over 3 hours away for me, but I imagine I'll be making a trip from time to time myself.

The Modern Sexual Revolution's Coming

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Let’s start the next big sexual revolution, shall we? Actually, it’s started. It’s a little fragmented still and young, but it’s there. Let’s be honest, sex, sexuality, and feminism are complicated – especially when all rolled together, so there are many intersecting prongs to this revolution that must unite.

Let me first tell you which prong I’m coming from. I’m part of a movie-making team that created a documentary about how very deeply the female orgasm is misunderstood. It’s called Science, Sex and the Ladies, and it came out less than a year ago. However, I’ve been researching for this movie since 2002, and I have been keeping a blog on the subject since 2009.

Science, Sex and The Ladies from AnC Movies on Vimeo.

Orgasm Equality

Here’s the deal. An orgasm caused by stimulation on the inside of the vagina has never been observed or recorded in scientific literature – not one caused by stimulating a g-spot, c-spot, the cervix, the vaginal wall itself, or by stimulating the inner clitoral legs through the vaginal wall (a currently popular way to talk about “vaginal orgasm”).

It’s not as if there just isn’t much research out there, either. There’s a pretty good amount of research focused on “vaginal orgasms,” but in all the 50 years that modern physical research into orgasms has been happening, no researcher has recorded one. There are, however, plenty of recorded and observed male orgasms through penile stimulation and female orgasms through outer clitoral glans area stimulation.

 Let me lay this out. Everyone – male, female, intersex, gay, straight, asexual, trans, cis, you name it – we all are born with an area on our genitals that is something like a penis or a clitoral glans. That thing can be stimulated to orgasm. Period. We can all orgasm, and statistically women do masturbate to orgasm, as quickly easily and reliably as men can. Women’s bodies are not less capable of orgasm, yet as a whole, we orgasm so very much less than our male partners, and our sexuality and sex drive is regularly labeled as less than. It’s not men’s fault. It’s not women’s fault. It’s bigger than that. It is bullshit, though, and it needs to change. I call this prong of the revolution, The Orgasm Equality Movement.

Cliteracy

“FREEDOM IN SOCIETY CAN BE MEASURED BY THE DISTRIBUTION OF ORGASMS” –Cliteracy Law  #31

We’re not the only ones working from this prong, though. Sophia Wallace calls it Cliteracy, and she created 101 Laws of it.

“A MAN WOULD NEVER BE EXPECTED TO GET OFF THROUGH SEX ACTS THAT IGNORED HIS PRIMARY SEXUAL ORGAN” -Cliteracy Law  #44 

“4 MINUTE: THE AVERAGE TIME IT TAKES WOMEN TO ORGASM THROUGH MASTURBATION” -Cliteracy Law  #45 

“THE VAGINAL ORGASM IS A MYTH INVENTED BY FREUD IN 1905”  - Cliteracy Law  #14

I hadn’t seen any other modern person out there speaking so boldly and directly on the cultural disappearance of the clit and its necessity to orgasm. I was immediately a fan. I love her work. It’s great activism, and it’s coming at the same problem we’re working on but from a slightly different angle.

But still, it’s not just us. There were bad-ass women in the 70’s saying this, Shere Hite, Anne Koedt, Betty Dodson and Alix Kates Shulman to name a few. Sadly, their work has been a bit marginalized in pop culture over the years. There are also others out there working this activism – ones I don’t know about and ones who aren’t necessarily focused on this prong, but do incorporate these ideas. I have a big ol’ list of them HERE.

So Many More Prongs

I would argue that this misunderstanding of how the female orgasm works is a fundamental problem that touches almost everything. However,  it in no way holds all the answers or addresses all the problems. There are many important prongs in this revolution. Rape culture and other’s feelings of entitlement over female and queer bodies? Over-sexualization of girls? Sex worker rights? Healing after sexual trauma? Too damn much low libido among women? Shitty sex education? Sexual public health? Hurtful ideas about what ‘sexy’ should mean for different populations? Double standards and slut shaming? Female Genital Mutilation? Craptastic depictions of sex, sexuality, and gender in media?

People are in the trenches working on these too. SPARK  – a bad-ass intergenerational Movement, Bish – Sex Ed website for teens, DodsonAndRoss – Sex Ed for everyone, Clitoraid – for FGM advocacy, UnSlut Project,  Slutwalk, Sex Workers Project, The Feminist Guide to Porn. These are just a tiny sampling. There’s TONS more. If you know more, then by all means,  promote, support, and unite with them.

A Modern Sexual Revolution

Let me put out a word of caution though. We need to stop fighting our mother’s and our grandmother’s battles when it comes to sex. The kick-ass well-intentions, smart feminists of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s made as much headway as they could on sexual issues, but they also created some traditions that are frankly a little poisonous. Think porn wars; anti-porn vs. pro-sex.  But it’s not just porn stuff. It seems like every time an issue comes up that involves sex and feminism, there are 2 sides that post up against each other with snide-ness and indignation ringing from all over.

Personally, the feminism I see tends to be much more nuanced and level-headed than that, so maybe it just seems this way because…media. Or, maybe the extremists take control of issues, and everyone else just shuts up because it gets too annoying to talk about. I don’t know what the problem is, but it can’t go on if we want anything to really change. Negative “anti  vs. pro” rhetoric on sex issues is a feminist tradition that has been handed down to us, but screw that. The issues are different than they were 40 years ago, and we are different. Let’s make our own traditions and define our own issues, and let’s base them on compromise and collaboration.

So, let us build upon and learn from the women who fought before us. Let us shun no-one. Let us disenfranchise no perspective. Let us not shy from thoughtful debate, but let us work together as feminist scholars, sex workers, grandmothers, teens, scientists, spiritualists, religious folk, kink communities, and traditionalist of every color and sexuality - males, females and intersex.

At the core, we do have common hopes, and we don’t have time to quibble about every detail. So let us work to see eye to eye. Let us swallow pride more, engage more, shut up more, listen more, give benefits of the doubt more, seek allies more, align more, collaborate more, bend more, gently critique more, use kind language more, conversate more, disagree without breaking more, and find points of agreement more – because people are ready for change and we have much work to do.

How are you going to contribute to the revolution? #SexRevUnite

5 Documentaries #DirectedByWomen to Enjoy This Weekend!

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This is my 7th 5-movie-list for the daily blogging thing I'm doing for the Directed By Women Worldwide Viewing Party. This time it's Docs. If you are feeling more comedy, check the Amy Heckerling List or the Friday Fun Movie List. If you are instead feeling dark or serious, check out the crime and bad stuff list or the Saturday Serious/Dark Comedy/Indie List or the DRAMA! List . If you want something fun to watch with the kids, check out the Family Movies List. These are all #DirectedByWomen and movies I have actually seen - there are surely a lot of other great ones out there, but sadly, I just haven't seen them all.

1 What Happened, Miss Simone - By Liz Garbus. I just saw this recently, and it's a lovely story of this intriguing and important woman.




2 Joan Rivers A Piece of Work - By Anne Sundberg and Ricki Stern.  If you don't already love you some Joan Rivers, you should. This is definitely worth a watch.





3 Science, Sex and the Ladies - Directed by me, Trisha Borowicz and the other 2/3 of AnC Movies, Charles Borowicz and Barnaby Aaron. What? Did you think I wouldn't add my own in the list? I'm proud of this bitch, and I promise you won't regret checking it out. You can find it on Indie Flix or HERE at Vimeo on Demand.




4 Magic Trip - Directed by Alison Ellwood and Alex Gibney. I recall this being quite fun and informative (cause I didn't know much about this situation). I think you will surely enjoy it.




5 American  Teen - Directed by Nanette Burstein. This follows HS kids in a town right here in the Hoosier State. It was a good doc, AND it's got local ties, baby! (Plus, she made one of my favorite docs of all time, that will probably be in tomorrow's list.)

The Diary of a Teenage Girl - The SSL Review

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I saw The Diary of a Teenage Girl last night. It is a #DirectedByWomen movie so it fits nicely into the daily posts I'm doing for the Directed By Women Worldwide Viewing Party - congrats on some fine work Marielle Heller!

Anyway, me and Charlie took our 19 year old niece with us. I mean, yeah, it's maybe a little uncomfortable to watch a threesome with your niece, but not really as uncomfortable as you'd think. The movie was good for her. Plus she thought it was fantastic, as did we. Also, and this was a real treat of a surprise, The Diary of a Teenage Girl and our movie Science, Sex and the Ladies have a little something in common. They both depict a penis ejaculating hearts. I don't know the specifics about why the director and team decided to go this way, but I would love to find out. I know that we here at AnC spent a lot of time and energy considering what was going to spew out of our dick. We did include stars in there too, but hearts are definitely spewing. Honestly most people probably don't even realize that they are hearts, cause they really ejaculate the hell out of there (see all the motion blur in the still below). It's part of our description about the physical properties of orgasm - the pelvic muscle is in there contracting and all that. The penis ejaculating hearts in The Diary of a Teenage Girl, on the other hand, is at the very end of the credits and the hearts are slower and sweeter, more like heart bubbles coming out, but even with the differences, I still feel like in some way our movies are heart-jism twins, and that's kinda sweet.

Now, let's get serious. This is an SSL Review, which means I'm only going to review depictions or discussions of female orgasm or female masturbation. I'm looking for realism and for what the depictions/discussions reflect about our sexual culture and what they add to the cultural discussion. However, I can also do whatever I want in an SSL Review, so I want to start out by saying just a little bit about the movie in general. This is a movie that needed to be made. It's such a fresh, raw take on the topics it touches upon, and it's entertaining, funny, and touching to boot. I recommend this movie to all. Seriously, go see it. If you don't have a theater around playing it, watch it at home as soon as it's released, and then tell other people about it.

The SSL review is somewhat simple. Although there is a lot of sex in this movie, there is only 1 SSL reviewable depiction. Let me set the scene. Minne is the 15 year old teenager from the title. She has been doin' it with a man 20 years her senior for a little bit now, and she likes having sex. In this scene she has hooked up with a boy her age, though. They start to skinny dip, and then it cuts to inside the pool house. They are on the ground, and the boy is on top of her, missionary style banging her, and I do mean banging. It's just him raised up on his arms above her going in and out rapidly. She seems a little frustrated, and she eventually switches the position so she's on top. Her pelvis is pressed close to him, and she's really moving those hips while staying in constant contact with his hips, and she fairly quickly works herself into an orgasm. I think it's always useful to see a woman who takes control of the movements in order to orgasm instead of her being in a situation where the dude just does things to her to make her come. There is a feeling that men can 'give' women orgasms with their dicks, but that's simply unrealistic. The idea that women need to be in control of the movements that cause their own orgasms is an idea that needs to be normalized and seeing that in our media is one of the best ways to do that.

Now, the devil is in the details here. It doesn't matter if she's on top or bottom or whatever, a gal coming from nothing more than a penis moving in and out of her vagina is not a realistic depiction, since, ya know, vaginally stimulated orgasms are most likely not a physically possible thing.  However, that doesn't mean it's unrealistic for a women to orgasm while a penis is inside her. There has to be vulva/clitoral stimulation though, so there needs to either be a hand or vibrator on the lady-junk, or she's got to be grinding her vulva against something while the dick's in there. I'm very happy to report that when Minnie is working up to and experiencing orgasm, she is clearly and consistently rubbing her vulva against his pelvis. In our movie, we have an animated depiction of grinding during intercourse that might cause orgasm, and the position and movement is very similar to Minnie's, so I thought I could use a gif of it as the example.

It's actually pretty unusual to see this kind of positioning in movies during orgasm. The only other one I can think of is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Usually women-on-top is depicted as a bouncing motion with no clitoral area contact at all. There is a cultural idea that women-on-top makes it easier for women to orgasm, and that might be true, but I always think the reality of why that might be is lost on people. It's not just that being on top is automatically orgasmic, and it's not just that she can control her own movements...I mean it is because she can control her own movements, but it's specifically that she can grind her clit against him in whatever way feels good. Controlling the way the dick moves in and out without stimulating the clit is still very unlikely to help a woman get off, even if she is on top.

My point here is that this was a realistic depiction of female orgasm. A girl or woman who mimicked that might have a chance of orgasming, and that's what we need to see more of in our media. I also appreciate the understatement of Minnie's vocalizations. It wasn't over the top porny and showy. It was within a spectrum I would argue to be realistic orgasmic vocalizations...which is also an unusual situation for movie lady-gasms.

I thought this movie was great. It was great for its look at teenage girl sexuality. It was great for its realistic depiction of the body movements that cause female orgasm. It was great for its subtle championing of women taking control of their orgasm, and it was great because it was a thought provoking and enjoyable movie. I give The Diary of a Teenage Girl a 5 vulva rating!
(!)(!)(!)(!)(!)

Good SSL Insight at Beatroute

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We got a pretty sweet write up at Beatroute. Jess Parker wrote a small but actually quite on-point post about Science, Sex and the Ladies. It said things like,

"(the movie) makes a great case for the need for a societal shift in the importance of understanding female sexuality so that, quite frankly we, as ladies, can get off! And regularly!"

I say quite on-point because sometimes I see things like this Beatroute review about SSL that seemed like the writer watched the movie and really thought about the argument the movie makes, and sometimes I see things that seem like the writer watched the movie but really only focused or cared about one or two particular aspects, and didn't seem to quite take in the full argument. And I'm not talking about the difference between positive and negative reviews or anything like that. It's just that sometimes I feel like the larger argument about an all-encompassing cultural misunderstanding of female orgasm and sexuality that needs to be remedies by a big ol' shift in perspective, is either not gotten through to a particular reviewer or they found it not worthwhile to talk about, so I like it when I see that point getting through.

She also wrote some pretty good quotes too that made me feel like our point of view was getting through the way we wanted it to.

"...while it’s not one to shy away from nudity, it’s done so as a means to reveal what’s really going on in the world of women and sex. That is, it’s done so tastefully and is not something you’re going to want to necessarily wank to."

So, to be fair the only nudity in the movie is some shots staring directly and close-up into spread-eagle vulvas (3 to be exact). Oh - there is pink, plenty of pink, so technically this kind of nudity does not make it into Playboy or R-rated movies, only hard-core porn and dirtier magazines like Hustler and Cheri. So, that's really it, but it's a big wallop of nudity. Anyway, It was actually incredibly important to us, when making the movie, that we didn't make it unnecessarily sexy like all the sex-umentaries we were seeing on HBO and the like where it's basically just people being interviewed about a particular aspect of sex and a lot of b-roll of women doing and moaning sexy things - like really soft-core porn. So, I was glad to see that she didn't feel like anyone would want to wank to it. It was kind of a goal of ours.

Then she's going over the route the movie takes in it's argument and during that says,

"It moves on to pornography, but manages to do so in a way that doesn’t make it sound too for or against it."

 I liked this too, because we really tried to be careful about how we spoke about and depicted porn and porn stars in this movie. Porn is such a contentious subject that the wrong vibe about it can turn of a large group of people from anything that is said from that time forward. Plus, the point we are making is not for or against porn, it's just about porn, and we really wanted to make it feel that way - that porn is a valid, fine thing, but there is an aspect of it that needs to get better. We also wanted to make sure we didn't seem like we were calling porn star ladies out for like ruining the sexual culture or being dumb or being too complacent/non-feminist - because we weren't, but that's a feeling, either intentional or not, that is given off from a lot of porn criticism. For porn, as with many of the other cultural institutions we critiqued, we see the problem as much larger and deeper than the current players in those institutions. We felt it important to lay the blame on no-one but make everyone feel responsible for change. So, my point is, it really felt good to me that she felt that sort of nonchalantness we were hoping to convey when speaking about porn...because it is actually something I worried a lot about during pre-production.

Okay, so I want to thank Ms. Jess Parker over there at Beatroute. It looks like she is often writing good shit over there, so check it out, and read the full SSL review HERE.

Honest Liars Podcast!

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Guess how I spent my 4th of July this year? Skyping into a podcast with an American and an English dude living in South Korea, that's how. It's The Honest Liars podcast, and it was, uh, super fun. I am a bit of a nervous wreck about talking. I prefer to write so that the thoughts have time to slowly move from my head down to my feet and then around to some other places and then out of my body before someone gets bored and asks another question. It just takes a while, ya know? However, I think it went well. The guys, Colin and Adam were really thoughtful and fun.

Plus their Honest Liars site is something I think is pretty cool. It's all about creating radically honest relationships in your life - and not like, "oh you should, like, always be honest with each other!" No, this is some deep honesty shit. It's about being honest about yourself and with yourself and then putting that honest version of yourself out there - often into relationships that were not founded on that kind of honesty. It's about accepting the honesty from others - and deciding how the relationship should begin, continue or end based on that honesty. I listened to some of their other podcasts, and I'm definitely for the shit these dudes are spitting. I also think that kind of deep, radical honesty is right in line with Science, Sex and the Ladies. Things gonna have to get preeettttty real about the female orgasm in a lot of people's minds and a lot of bedrooms if we want to see see much change in the sexual culture.

Anyway, we talked about all kinds of fun stuff; masturbating to Lady Marmalade, the female porn area of PornHub, Betty Dodson's advise about vibrators under pillows, sexual scripts, pee holes, you name it, we discussed it. There was tons more we could have talked about, but we talked so much it had to be split into 3 parts, so it's good for now. Plus, I think we got into some really good discussions. Have a listen.

Thanks again to Colin and Adam!

Science, Sex and The Ladies - Honest Liars interview with Trisha Borowicz PART 1

Science, Sex and The Ladies - Honest Liars interview with Trisha Borowicz PART 2

Science, Sex and The Ladies - Honest Liars interview with Trisha Borowicz PART 3

French love America and Science, Sex and the Ladies!

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Today, my friends, is July 4th - the celebration of American independence. This country will be filled with red, white and blue outfits, grilled meat, potato salad, fireworks, swimming, ball games, military bands playing patriotic songs and lots of drunk people and children being burned by sparklers. It's a good day - one of my favorites (seriously, I love fireworks - they are the ultimate of sparkles and glitter).

But where, I ask, would we Americans be without the French? With the cajoling of some great soon-to-be-Americans like my favorite of our forefathers Benjamin Franklin, the French did their best to screw over Great Britain and very much helped us win the war.

So, to honor the French on this day, I am posting a translation of a French article written about our very own Science, Sex and the Ladies. Now, as you might imagine, I cannot speak French. However, I internet-met a super interesting woman out in Switzerland named Lisa, and she, quite bad-assidly, speaks English, German, and French. She volunteered he services and did this translation. It's MUCH better than when I copied the article into Google Translate, but she tells me she did it quickly. I'm still pretty impressed, and one day she just might be helping us translate this darn movie. Interestingly, I can see that things move around the internet like a game of telephone. I can tell that this is largely taken from the Alternet article, which I was actually interviewed for, but it sorta adds some randomness in that wasn't in the article or the movie. For instance I would never say, "vaginal orgasm exists, but only for a small number of women." I would say vaginal orgasms have never been identified, EVER, in scientific literature, and if they exist at all, it's in many less women than we currently believe it to be. Also, the spasms in the vagina during female orgasm are not due to the inner clitoris as is insinuated in the article below, but because of the pelvic muscles spasming - the same thing that that causes orgasmic spasms in men - oh and there's really no actual evidence that vag-spasming would enhance the pleasure of the penis inside it... I find it very interesting how information morphs as it moves along. Anyway, without further ado - THANK YOU LISA, and here's a little French perspective on SSL: 

Women experience the strongest orgasms when they masturbate
Too often obsessed by their own performance, men neglect their surest ally to help their partner reach orgasm – the clitoris.  

The minutes following lovemaking are misinterpreted. Women are angry when men doze off (even when they do not snore), while men are annoyed by shows of tenderness following sex, which prevent them from recovering from their orgasm. For the American biologist Trisha Borowicz, the situation is much simpler to understand; the women were not sexually satisfied as a result of sexual practices that are not based on (or do not fulfill) their needs - and women reproach themselves for not having been able to reach orgasm.  

 In books, as in movies, sex is usually shown with the same scenario, during which a man and woman embrace and then the scene turns torrid (heats up) and the man penetrates the woman and both climax simultaneously and that’s it. In reality the scenario is often quite different from this and women are left short of achieving an orgasm.  

 The biologist is dismayed (angered) by the absence of studies on female orgasm, for which she nevertheless has a solution. So she used a crowdfunding platform for a light and funny documentary about female orgasms, entitled "Science, Sex, and The Ladies" which is especially for those women who doubt, are frustrated about, or ashamed of their inability to have orgasms.  

"Our culture is obsessed with the worship of vaginal orgasms and penetration as the ultimate sexual expression," she explained to the site AlterNet. "Everyone acts as if there were no definition of female orgasm, while there is definitely one."  

 She subsequently points out that most women, above all, enjoy the rubbing of their clitoris; vaginal orgasm exists, but only for a small number of women.
 She also emphasizes some points to remember:  

 - The vagina has so few nerve endings that it is possible to perform some vaginal surgeries without anesthesia. The cervix is so insensitive that 95% of women have no feelings when it is rubbed with a cotton swab.  

 - Women have the strongest orgasms while masturbating, and after that by the orgasms obtained by the hands of their partners. The vaginal orgasm comes last. Figures have been circulating since 1966 (in the study published by sexologists Masters and Johnson), but nobody actually seems to care about this. Nearly 50 years have not changed sexual practices; perhaps women are still struggling to assert themselves and to find a way to tell the truth when they are with their partners ...    

- Contrary to popular belief, it does not take more time for a woman to climax than a man. The only recipe is good clitoral stimulation. If women were content to massage the inner thighs of their partners, they would understand quickly. The key is not whether the woman may or may not have what are called vaginal orgasms, but to know that in most cases clitoral stimulation allows women to enjoy sexual activity faster and easier, regardless of the type of orgasm.  

 - For Trisha Borowicz, all women should know that they are normal and it is not desirable to cut off (curtail) their sexuality. Men also stand to gain by overcoming their concerns, and their performance anxiety – which stems from the erroneous belief that to penetrate and last for a long time is what makes them good lovers. This male fear is what prevents women from speaking out because they are afraid of damaging their partner’s egos. When all of this is cleared up, the couple can be free to enjoy each other in perfect harmony.  

- Let’s take the opportunity to add a little more about what men are fond of: whatever the source of the female orgasm, it causes spasms in the vagina that compress the penis and enhance enjoyment. These are due to the clitoris, 11 cm long, which surrounds the vagina.  

 - It only remains for women to find the words or gestures that will enable them to systematically include the clitoris in their sexual relationships, in one way or another ...

Original article HERE