The film also highlights a program that gets it right, the New York City Gynecological Teach Associates, in which specially trained women talk medical students through a pelvic exam on their own bodies. The independent film still needs to raise money for the editing and distribution process; you can learn more here.


At Your Cervix [Official Site]

Weiss writes:

Sitting in Schiller’s, I…suggested that we could change sexual norms to, say, encourage New York waitresses to look on being mistresses as a cool option. “That’s fringe,” my friend said dismissively. Wives weren’t going to allow it, and we men grant them a lot of power; they’re all as dominant as Yoko Ono. “Look, we’re the weaker animal,” he said. “They commandeer the situation.” He and I love our wives and depend on them. In each of our cases, they make our homes, manage our social calendar, bind up our wounds and finish our thoughts, and are stitched into our extended families more intimately than we are. They seem emotionally better equipped than we are. If my marriage broke up, my wife could easily move in with a sister. I’d be as lost as plankton.

Despite his potentially-wandering weiner, Weiss stays with his wife. Why? Because he's weak? Because she plans his vacations and deals with his mother? Perhaps I'm naive, but I'd like to think that most men stay with their wives because they have things in common with them; because they appreciate their human qualities. Not because their wives are their jail house wardens, keeping their free-floating sexuality under heavy lock and key. I don't have some romantic view of marriage: I don't think it will satisfy every urge and create a state of ecstasy populated by unicorns and sunflowers. But Weiss's description of his wife's role in his life is so ultimately mercenary.

I think some people will read this article and think all men feel the way Weiss does. As previously established, women think about fucking other people, too. I'm even willing to grant him the biology — that men are more tormented by their sex drives than women are. But even if that's the case, marriage is about compromise. And if the agreement you've made is to be faithful, then you need to compromise your desire to fuck other people. I'm sure Weiss's wife is currently compromising her desire to punch him directly in the nuts.

The Affairs Of Men [New York Magazine]

Earlier:Chronic Male Horniness Is Not An Excuse For, Well, Anything

The saga of me and David Seaman started in April, when I hired David, a young Hunter College student and the compiler of a book on the, ahem, "meaning of life," as a Jezebel intern. I sensed in him a slightly uncomfortable amount of ambition, and wrote him at one point explaining in idiotically earnest detail that there was more to "this business" than self-promotion. Unbeknownst to me, however, David had a few side gigs, namely, the authorship of whole book on self-promotion, along with the liberation of Paris Hilton and more to the point, that brand of pointless, vacuous fame the internet people exist to self-loathingly perpetuate. Angry at the idea that I had been somehow used or punked, I posted a pre-emptive strike on this blog. And maybe went a leeeed-le bit too far...

"I get it," he said when we arrived. "I mean, I can't work for a media organization." I had never really thought of Jezebel as "media organization" before, but okay. David's eyes were dark and bright and earnest; eyes that could make you feel as though everyone was on the same page when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. But I wanted to trust him again. I drank until I trusted him again.

"I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with asking for a plug when you have something you're trying to promote," he continued. To which I pointed out that we were not in the business so much of trying to build hype at Gawker Media, more in the business of trying to build hype couched deeply in the context of "puncturing" hype, which was more confusing and anyway I couldn't have him planning fake Paris Hilton protests and writing books about how to be a self-promotional whore while his name and bank account were attached to Jezebel. He understood.

"I guess," he said, "It just felt abrupt."

"I'm sorry about that," I said. "I'm not exactly the best with the bedside manner in this job."

We discussed his book. As it turned out, quite a few publishers who'd passed on his proposal had requested to take a second look after I wrote my little missive. "Glad to be of help," I said.

"What is that you're drinking?" he asked.

"Jim Beam and soda," I said. Did I offer him a sip? I was feeling avuncular again. "It was only three bucks. That's crazy. You picked a really good choice of venue. I realize it's happy hour and everything, but.." Was I proud of him? Anyway.

"And I'm sorry, it must have really startled you. I just got this overwhelming feeling of panic when I saw you'd been writing this book. But I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't thought you'd benefit from the notoriety despite me. I'm not malevolent."

Young Seaman had aged ever so slightly since I'd seen him last. Shopping around a book proposal had taken its toll. "My book proposal is, like 50 pages," he said. "With my first book, I didn't have any of this. No agent. No proposal. I thought a proposal would be, like, six pages."

"No one reports the civilian casualties in Iraq," he mused. "Why don't they do that? Why is it always about how many Americans who got killed?" Civilian casualties, he explained: that was the type of issue he wanted to use his self-promotional instincts to spotlight. "Like one of my chapters is on Cindy Sheehan. She's the type of self-promotional whore who really came from nowhere, she was nobody special, but she became this powerful person." Free Paris, he explained, wasn't an endgame; it was more like an experiment. His next stunt would be more sophisticated, and multilayered, and he gave me the date on the condition I didn't reveal it. I suggested he read Bill Wasik's Harper's story about how he invented the flash mob, and why. "It's right up your alley," I said. "I don't really remember his reasoning, but it's very well-written."

"Pretty much every one of my girl friends sent me a text that day, just like, 'OMG,'" David said, briefly returning to the topic that had brought us here to begin with. "It went around fast. You're doing a good job I guess. I mean, I know I said in that email that I'd be sticking to TMZ and Jossip from now on, but who really reads Jossip? I just needed to say some other website."

Earlier:
Self-Promotion Guru David Seaman Totally Got Our Memo; Shat All Over It