Sexuality

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Tickled (2016)

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Tickled (2016)

Tickled (2016) is essentially a film about how the YouTube-based world of “competitive tickling” is run by a secretive exploitative millionaire named David D’Amato, a man who inherited his fortune and served as an assistant principal to 8 different high schools over the course of just 10 years. D’Amato would pay young straight men to tickle and be tickled by their friends, all on film, all completely clothed, and all under the guise of a homophobic, pseudo-religious media organization called Jane O’Brien media.

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Voyeur (2017)

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Voyeur (2017)

The documentary Voyeur (2017) has two subjects. The first is Gerald Foos, a voyeur who secretly observed guests at his motel. Foos built an observation platform above the motel’s rooms and spent decades spying on guests through fake ceiling air vents. In violating the privacy of his guests, Foos witnesses their unmanaged backstage selves in addition to sexual acts, heated arguments, and even a murder. Even more intriguing, Foos considers this to be his “research”

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Intersex and De-medicalization

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Intersex and De-medicalization

CBS Sunday Morning, 2023, 8:38… According to statistics cited by the U.N., .05 to 1.7 percent of the world's population is intersex, defined as having external or internal sexual organs that are not clearly male or female. As a matter of course, doctors in the past performed surgery on babies, ostensibly so that they would live a "normal" life.

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LGBT Mormons

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LGBT Mormons

Vice News, 2018, 7:27… A schism is riling America’s conservative Christian denominations: The young and the old cannot agree on same-sex marriage. The disagreement is particularly apparent in the Mormon church. Although the church has softened its rhetoric opposing same-sex marriage since its support a decade ago for California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage, a majority of Mormons still oppose same-sex marriage.

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Exporting Homophobia

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Exporting Homophobia

Vice, 2020, 4:58… A set of laws known as the penal code was exported from Britain to its colonies and is still affecting LGBTQ politics to this very day. The penal code laws made being gay a criminal offense, and while Britain decriminalized homosexuality in 1967, it’s still illegal in over 30 former British colonies. These countries didn’t have a history of homophobia before Britain enforced their own ideas of morality, but thanks to the empire these laws mean many live in fear.

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The Intersex Justice Project

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The Intersex Justice Project

Vice News, 2019, 10:21… Pidgeon Pagonis’ childhood memories include surgeries, hormone therapy, and repeated inspections of their genitals. When they turned 18 and got a copy of their medical records, they finally understood why. The first page had a handwritten note: “46 XY male pseudohermaphrodite.” The procedures that followed were also listed: a clitoral reduction, vaginoplasty, and surgery to remove undescended testes. For Pagonis, the results of some of these procedures have been both physically and psychologically damaging.

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Sex and Race Bias in Medicine

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Sex and Race Bias in Medicine

Last Week Tonight, 2019, 22:37… The intersection of sex and race bias is particularly deadly for women of color who are often not believed by their physicians. Medical students are often taught there are biological differences between the races in terms of skin thickness, pain tolerance, and nerve endings. There are also the problems of implicit biases and structural problems in medicine. For example, the male body has traditionally been the default reference in medical research. In other words, most medical studies have been done on male bodies.

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The Right to Sexuality

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The Right to Sexuality

The Atlantic, 2019, 13:28… Paul and Hava met at a performing-arts social event for people with intellectual disabilities. With the assistance of their parents, they went on a few successful dates. The connection was immediate. After some time, they decided to make their strong, loving bond official. The couple made each other so happy that their parents saw no good reason to deny the proposal. The group homes where Paul and Hava lived, however, stood in the way of the couple’s union. “They want us not to get married—not to live together,” says Paul in a new short documentary.

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Sugar Daddies

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Sugar Daddies

60 Minutes Australia, 2019, 25:03… For the so-called “sugar daddies”, the equation is simple: the wealthier they are, the more attractive they are. But as Sarah Abo finds out, it’s not hard to read between the lines here. The term sugar baby is often code for sex worker, and the male moneybags are often crinkled-up creeps. And that leads to a very important question: is this sugar baby phenomenon about empowering women or exploiting them?

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Pregnant Women & Sports

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Pregnant Women & Sports

The New York Times, 2019, 5:29… Being a mother and a champion was a crazy dream. But it didn’t have to be. Olympic runner Alysia Montano had accomplished all her dreams but one: being a mom. When she finally went for it, she faced her biggest challenge yet — her sponsors. When Montano approached her sponsor to announce her pregnancy, they told her that they would just pause her contract. She famously ran a national championship and eight months pregnant to prove that pregnant women could compete. Now, she’s speaking out so that no one has to suffer like she did.

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Sexual Double Standards & Employment

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Sexual Double Standards & Employment

Vice News, 2019, 6:49… Lauren Miranda, a former math teacher at Bellport Middle School, was fired after a topless selfie sent to her boyfriend in 2016 — got into the hands of students. It’s a private matter that has thrust her onto a public platform where she refuses to be shamed. Lauren’s situation isn’t unique. According to a 2016 study, roughly 10.4 million Americans have had their nude photos posted without their permission. Now, she’s speaking out about the double standard of sexualizing the female body.