Sexual Scientists and Superheroes
I first became acquainted with the world of sexual research while working on my masters' thesis paper last year. It was about what happens when counselor's have bi-phobic attitudes in therapy with bisexual male clients. When reading the literature on male bisexuality, there were many controversial views, but also many gaps! I was reading journal article after journal article, each with a new slant on the nature of male bisexuality, when I ran across this article in the New York Times. It was really excited to get a "behind the scenes" view of the research I'd been pouring over for the last six months.
Part of what takes place off the page of any research journal is the funding. Part of how the American Institute for Bisexuality is seeking to illuminate issues facing bisexual individuals is through funding research studies about them. Many sexual minorities struggle with feeling isolated, however, and the stories - qualitative research- of other sexual minorities brings comfort. That's why I was excited to learn about this new book, Recognize: the Voices of Bisexual Men. The only goal of such a book is to lift up the lived experiences of bisexuality from diverse people.
It hasn't just been topics facing LGBTQ people that have been difficult to fund research, but sexuality in general! Some of this is due to stigma and puritanical societal standards (which have always posed a struggle for sexual research), but some problems just come with the territory. For example, who participates in sexual research? A certain "kind" of man or woman, right? Sexual research projects have sampling issues because the participants are too few (resulting in a low-powered study) and there is a question about if someone willing to undergo plethysmography is someone representative of the larger population.
Enter.. THE INTERNET! You are probably already familiar with the practice of data mining. Truly, we are taking a giant voluntary survey with every click and mouse stroke. Some of the funnest infographics I have ever found are from OkTrends. Some have accused OkCupid of conspiring to keep its users single so they can continue to extract endless amounts of strange correlations from them. Did you know Pornhub also keeps up with its data? You are a sex research participant every time you visit by casting your vote for what YOU find arousing. Suddenly we have data from vast samples of incredibly average human beings.
Now, there is a book about such data. Not just compiled from Pornhub but from the entire internet. Every strange and squicky fetish entered into google and lots of gems taken from comments left on X-rated videos and erotic fanfiction. It is A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. I am in the midst of reading it right now and LOVING it. Suddenly, a neglected field of human behavior is blown wide open by piles and piles of quantitative and qualitative data!
I will get the privilege of hearing Ogi Ogas give a keynote address this Spring and I had the privilege of recently attending a conference hosted by the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. ATSA is a professional organization for counselors, researchers, and law enforcement officers that prevent sexual abuse. It was there that I got to hear Jesse Bering give a keynote address titled Does Lust Makes us Stupid? (hint: it does!). It felt refreshing to hear from a man so well versed in sexual research! And to be sitting in a room with a thousand other sex nerds! Riding this high, I bought his newly published book, Perv: the Sexual Deviant in All of Us. I also came up with a new professional goal for myself: give a keynote address and plug my book - the guy cleaned up! Perv is about sexual research that would seek to explain some of the oddities of sexual behavior, but sadly relies mostly on animal research.
Luke Malone was also among the keynote speakers present at ATSA's 33rd annual conference in San Diego, California. He discussed the year he got to know Adam, the young man behind Virtuous Pedophiles. Malone obtained interviews from Adam and his friends to write this note worthy piece about Adam's dedication to the project. This in turn got the attention of This American Life podcast. This coverage uplifted the story of enormous sexual controversy, struggle, and stigma. This prompted many more people to reach out to Luke and Adam for support and help finding resources to deal with their attractions. However, for adolescents a stark lack of resources became obvious to everyone. This prompted a new initiative, one which Adam will be an adviser for, to provide more services for pedophiles who have not yet sexually offended! This focused area of prevention will save many from heartache.
Therein lies a very tangible example of why research in the area of sexuality is so important.
Keep on exploring and making discoveries,
- The Sexpert
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| If you would like to read my literature review described above, email me a request: thesexpertsadvice@gmail.com to receive a copy |
It hasn't just been topics facing LGBTQ people that have been difficult to fund research, but sexuality in general! Some of this is due to stigma and puritanical societal standards (which have always posed a struggle for sexual research), but some problems just come with the territory. For example, who participates in sexual research? A certain "kind" of man or woman, right? Sexual research projects have sampling issues because the participants are too few (resulting in a low-powered study) and there is a question about if someone willing to undergo plethysmography is someone representative of the larger population.Enter.. THE INTERNET! You are probably already familiar with the practice of data mining. Truly, we are taking a giant voluntary survey with every click and mouse stroke. Some of the funnest infographics I have ever found are from OkTrends. Some have accused OkCupid of conspiring to keep its users single so they can continue to extract endless amounts of strange correlations from them. Did you know Pornhub also keeps up with its data? You are a sex research participant every time you visit by casting your vote for what YOU find arousing. Suddenly we have data from vast samples of incredibly average human beings.
Now, there is a book about such data. Not just compiled from Pornhub but from the entire internet. Every strange and squicky fetish entered into google and lots of gems taken from comments left on X-rated videos and erotic fanfiction. It is A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. I am in the midst of reading it right now and LOVING it. Suddenly, a neglected field of human behavior is blown wide open by piles and piles of quantitative and qualitative data!
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| A vaginal plethysmograph |
Luke Malone was also among the keynote speakers present at ATSA's 33rd annual conference in San Diego, California. He discussed the year he got to know Adam, the young man behind Virtuous Pedophiles. Malone obtained interviews from Adam and his friends to write this note worthy piece about Adam's dedication to the project. This in turn got the attention of This American Life podcast. This coverage uplifted the story of enormous sexual controversy, struggle, and stigma. This prompted many more people to reach out to Luke and Adam for support and help finding resources to deal with their attractions. However, for adolescents a stark lack of resources became obvious to everyone. This prompted a new initiative, one which Adam will be an adviser for, to provide more services for pedophiles who have not yet sexually offended! This focused area of prevention will save many from heartache.
Therein lies a very tangible example of why research in the area of sexuality is so important.
Keep on exploring and making discoveries,
- The Sexpert
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