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Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
"Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
Sex Writers Are Experiencing The Dark Side Of The Carrie Bradshaw Effect

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MizJenkins
07/17/09

In reply to Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
I dunno, judging from the number of hipsters pictured on her blog I don't have high hopes.

I'm all for erotica and for demystifying sex...I'm not sure what "de-sensationalizing" it means and I'm not sure what the benefit of taking the romanticism out of it is. I guess it depends on what you replace it with. If it's just a lot of coarse/faux-edgy description of the banalities of sex that doesn't sound very appealing to me.

For some reason I just get the feeling this will be very Diablo Cody-esque. If so I'm gonna have to stick with porn.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
07/17/09

@MizJenkins: It's like an American Eagle Outfitters catalog!
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Cafezinha
07/17/09

In reply to Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
I'd love to snag one, but I only have 2 weeks 'til we transfer overseas and I doubt it'd get here quick enough.

I love the concept.
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bluebears
07/17/09

In reply to Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
so what do you guys think? would you pose naked for an artist you respected? I don't think I would. No judgment, I just would not want a naked image of myself floating around out there in perpetuity. I sort of wish I was the sort of person who would though.
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labeled
07/17/09

@bluebears: Looking at her work, yes. Absolutely.

Er, looking back at 18yo labeled with a hard glare, at that.
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JLady
07/17/09

@bluebears: I might do it if it could be annonymous. I know that kind of sounds like a cop-out, but I don't think it is. I mean, if it were of my body and not my face I think I'd be alright with it. It would be a way to both put myself out there and remain a little mysterious at the same time.

Plus, wouldn't it be fun to have people speculate about who that photo of the breasts/bum/vagina/whatever belonged to?
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Cafezinha
07/17/09

@bluebears: I have, and I would again. I'd love to be a part of art.
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bluebears
07/17/09

@JLady: yeah I've thought about anonymous but then again the idea of obscuring my face or head seems sort of odd or creepy.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
07/17/09

@bluebears: I totally would, but then I have no shame. If I had artsy friends who lived nearby, I'd do it now.
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sassyredhead
07/17/09

In reply to Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
This is really beautiful. I like that she thinks of sex much like I do...almost all of us do it at one time or another...it's something almost every human has in common with one another. Which can't be said about most things.
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Scout
07/17/09

@sassyredhead: pooping. I'm sorry, your post was encompassing and mine is just...silly.
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sassyredhead
07/17/09

@Scout:I completely agree. Can't we all just agree on sex and pooping!!!
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Khrushchev
07/17/09

In reply to Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
I try to make sex every day, too, but sometimes I get sore. Do you guys see what I did there?
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BearDownCBears
07/17/09

@Khrushchev: You = 300 Pulitzers
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Mary McCarthyite
07/17/09

@Khrushchev: Come again?
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Khrushchev
07/17/09

@BearDownCBears: All of them deserved.
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bluebears
07/17/09

@Khrushchev: whenever I go into my local craft store and ask the employees how to "make sex" they just act all offended.
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CurtCole
07/17/09

@bluebears:Really, they always make a sad face, hand me a crocheting kit, and point me towards the cash register.
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bluebears
07/17/09

@CurtCole: well it probably doesn't help matters that I follow all questions with a slap on the ass.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
07/17/09

@Khrushchev: "Make sex" just sounds like something Borat would say to me. "I come from beautiful republic of Kazakhstan for to make sex to Miss Pah-mella Anderson."
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labeled
07/17/09

In reply to Artist Rasha Kahil Makes Sex "Everyday"
Good lord, talk about a truckload of talent. Seriously - awesome.
eta: I cannot tear myself away from her photography. This will be my all-day thing.
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Moishe
07/17/09

@labeled: i fully agree.
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labeled
07/17/09

@Moishe: This is what I find fascinating: Most people taking this shot = sloppy facebook drunk-shot. But this... isn't that. It makes me want to be there, or be her.
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Moishe
07/17/09

@labeled: exactly! there's a deliberate composition, which takes that drunk shot look away. it's a great combo of "realness" and just genuine, great photography
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debbyherbenick
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
Her comments also seem to suggest that there is only one way to write about sex and that is "steamy", whereas sex is highly nuancedd... with at least hundreds of reasons for engaging in it and numerous ways of enjoying it (or not).
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clevernamehere
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
I'm kind of shocked that she thinks men write better sex stories than women do, I think the exact opposite is true.

When I was in high school and college, I used to read a lot of erotica on the internet mostly of the fanfic porn without plot variety. I hadn't read any in a long time but recently went searching for some outside fanfic (it now seems a little creepy to me) and 99.9% completely groses me out. Most of the sites I've found seem to be male dominated and are basically porno movies written down. If I wanted traditional porn type stories, I'd watch porn! Personally I find porn really unerotic, there isn't a real focus on female pleasure and a lot of the time the male lead seems to actively dislike the female lead. I don't need to read stories where the male lead gets a blow job from the little slut who need to be taught a lesson, they don't do it for me.

I don't know how someone who spectilizes in erotica could think men do it better.
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bowleserised
06/15/09

@clevernamehere: I think that the trouble is that some people think that they, and only they, know what is GOOD SEX because they, and only they, can have had such marvellous feelings, and therefore everyone else who says they get their marvellous feelings some other way is wrong.

This is why it's much better to have an editor who's considerably less dogmatic in their opinions, and who commissions an array of stuff. A magazine dedicated to one person's idea of a turn on is going to appeal to one person.
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Maulleigh
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
Shirley Conran, who wrote Lace, faked it pretty good. Those were some of my earliest secret readings! I found the book at a garage sale and only read the dirty parts because I didn't understand all the other stuff.
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BlackFrancine
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
A classmate of mine gave a presentation on Memoirs of a Beatnik by Diane Di Prima, a book that has a lot of unromanticized sex in it. Part of her presentation included giving the class some excerpts from erotica and literary sex writing, and having us try to figure out whether they were written by men or women. Some were really raunchy, some were middle of the road, some were beautiful, honest, hot (ie, more literary, but still very sexy). I guessed that about half were written by women, and half written by men. After the class had discussed it, the girl giving the presentation revealed that all of the excerpts were written by women. That was the punchline. If you take the names off the writing, you can't tell.

People have said this crap before--about EVERY kind of women's writing. That's why we have George Eliot and George Sand and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). Because no one would take them seriously if they knew they had vaginas. For Copstick to pretend that this is anything other than run of the mill discrimination is ridiculous.
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bowleserised
06/15/09

@BlackFrancine: Ridiculous, but entirely in character.
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PennyArcadia
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
"Determined not to let the magazine be "drowned in estrogen," she said she would have almost exclusively male writers as they knew a lot more about sex."

O RLY? How's that then?

She doesn't know, does she? I wonder what she's read, or rather, hasn't read. I must say that most of that supposedly 'straightforward' erotica isn't particularly erotic to me. It's even worse in my language, which uses diminutives and in which erotic writers ALWAYS feel the need to put a diminutive on female bodyparts. NO.
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rmric0.wedding.photographer.and.manny
06/15/09

@PennyArcadia: So now they're just going to drown it in testosterone.
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Ipomoea
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
Good lady sex writers?

Kristina Lloyd

Anais Nin

Emma Holly

Susie Bright and everything she edits

Lora Leigh (I don't generally like her men, but the sex is hot)

Bish, don't act like you're the only one who can write about sex because you're the only woman who enjoys it. PLZ.
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SomeAuthorGirl
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
Huh. She doesn't want it "drowned in estrogen?" I read that as she doesn't want to be "drowned in sales."
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
Aha! Here are the authors who've won the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Only 2/16 are women. John Updike got a 'lifetime achievement award' last year.

[en.wikipedia.org]

(yes, I'm aware I over comment in any post about sex. I'm working on it.)
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bowleserised
06/15/09

In reply to "Women Can't Write About Sex," Says Female Sex Writer
It pisses me off that all of the so-called saviours of the post-Pelling Erotic Review have sought to relaunch it by trying to slag off Rowan.

On whose talents the magazine was pretty much built.

And of course these new ER owners will be quids in when the film of Pelling's time at the Review comes out - again, thanks to her talents.

I could say a lot more, but I think I won't. I think you get the jist of the situation from Copstick's article.
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