Posted on 05/08/2005 3:09:58 PM PDT by wagglebee
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - From bondage to "breath play" and zoophilia, it's not easy keeping up with society's fast-developing sexual trends.
That's why some of North America's top sexologists are hunkered down with academics and therapists at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel this weekend: to swap findings about everything from teens with underwear fetishes to transgender couples.
"These couples have problems that I didn't know how to deal with," said Olga Perez Stable Cox, president of the Western U.S. region of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. "You have to understand the culture, otherwise you're an outsider, and you don't get it."
The theme for the society's four-day conference is "Unstudied, Understudied And Underserved Sexual Communities." Presentations range from discussions from autoerotic asphyxiation, or "breath play," to zoophiles, or animal lovers, to more mainstream topics like sex motives of dating partners.
"Let me tell you, it was not easy finding these pictures," Hunter College professor Jose E. Nanin told his audience in a seminar about "specialized" sexual behavior among gay men.
Nanin's photos are more than an explicit how-to of exhibitionism and sadomasochism, he says; they are examples of safe alternatives to sexual intercourse that need to be de-stigmatized in order to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS.
Researchers say their greater goal is to help the medical community, the public and legislators figure out what behavior is merely out of the norm versus downright dangerous.
"As sex researchers, one of our concerns is distinguishing what can be harmful and what is not -- so that instead of being based on myth, public policy can be informed," said Charlene Muehlenhard, professor of psychology and women's studies at The University of Kansas.
When authorities caught a Midwestern U.S. teenage boy stealing girls' underwear, they immediately demonized his underwear fetish, Pennsylvania State University researcher Patricia Barthalow Kosch said. Many clinicians attribute the boy's crime more to broken family relations. The crime was theft, not his sexual fantasies, conference attendees said.
Teen sexuality draws sensational headlines, but suffers from a lack of academic study, researchers said.
Kim Openshaw, a psychology professor at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, who studies teenage sex offenders, said the limited amount of research so far has found that girls make up only 5 to 10 percent of all underage sex offenders.
The numbers are underreported, Openshaw says, because many people are reluctant to acknowledge the problem.
Victims of girl sex offenders tend to be in the immediate family circle. Most perpetrators are victims of family abuse. By contrast, boy sex offenders tend to be more macho, violent and attack outside of their immediate family.
I am too scared PETA is going to get you......
A fairly common female act called "let's just be good friends" lost big time.
"The only thing I want to know is who is paying for all this"
That was my first thought, too! One way or another, all of use are, since all the academic types at such conferences are living off the public dole and pretending to do significant teaching and research. There are so many better uses for the money that goes into these people and such conferences.
Why am I not surprised thet in order to, ahem, "study" that which is perverse, they head for San Francisco?
PERFECT!
Sex researchers shed light on unpopular sex actsCrawling around in people's bedrooms with flashlights? That could get you shot.
Post of the day?
ah, but any cop can tell you that these things "escalate"...first he breaks into houses to get underware, but with time many of these men act on their fantasies. So you see kidnapping, rape and murder.
If he merely wanted ladies underware, he could easily buy it or shoplit it. Mail order catalogs and festish-R-Us stores are on line...and he'd probably be merely a fetish type, and stay that way.
But breaking into houses implies there is a fantasy involved of force...and that fantasy of force is the dangerous part. It's NOT just theft. It's a sex crime.
It never ceases to amaze what discusting acts some people (especially leftists) can sink low enough to do.
Sex with Helen Thomas must be in the retchaphelia category.
As one redneck to another, let me put this in terms our people understand. Remember in Deliverance when those fellas told Ned Beatty to "squeal like a pig boy" and what they did to him right after that? Well, it's kinda like that, only these guys prefer real pigs and other animals instead of Ned Beatty. : )
Teen sexuality draws sensational headlines, but suffers from a lack of academic study, researchers said.This sentiment was strongly echoed at the conference when the group took up the chant: "Show us the money!"
I'm offended that people would think I'd ever get offended.
They were able to use the money they save to buy "souvenirs" and other assorted "educational material."
Close too necrophelia.................
you mean all the vaginophobics ?
Caliope music? Dude, that's sick.
PETA? they don't care about animals. If they did they would be stopping this and other vile acts against animals. Zoophilia needs to be punished harshly. Life in prison or a bullet to the head.
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