Research

Research. pic.twitter.com/4fTvPvBxGP

— Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) April 1, 2014

Who Was the First Sex Blogger?

Sex blogger Lilly has an interesting post in which she presents: "A Brief History of Sex Blogging":

"Erosblog, run by Bacchus, started in 2002, is primarily a mash-up of aggregated sexy photos and commentary on sexuality things of all types1. I believe this is the first thing that can be considered a 'sex blog', and he recalls being the first to use that terminology.  Susannah Breslin with her Reverse Cowgirl site came shortly after Bacchus started. ETA: I was off by a few months! Reverse Cowgirl came first, but as Bacchus said, we’re not sure Ms Breslin would consider her site a sex blog. Do you?"

ErosBlog did some digging:

"Susannah Breslin’s blog The Reverse Cowgirl’s Blog (which you might or might not consider a sex blog, though it had a lot of sex-blog-like content, and rocked the subtitle 'in which a writer attempts to justify the enormity of her porn collection') got started a month plus five days before ErosBlog did. That’s why I have always acknowledged that blog as a possible contender for 'the first sex blog' even though nobody called it a sex blog before I first coined the phrase."

As I pointed out on Twitter this morning, I was preceded in sex blogging by Daze Reader, whose first blog post dates back to May 2002. I didn't launch The Reverse Cowgirl until August 2002. I've always seen Daze as the first sex blogger. I don't know that I would've ever created my blog if it weren't for Daze's pioneering sex blogging.

In regards to Lilly's question, would I consider The Reverse Cowgirl blog a sex blog? Yes. At the time, I was a freelance journalist and my primary beat was sex. I created the RCB to share my crazy life working the sex and porn beat, from Porn Valley to the Playboy Mansion, and I was intoxicated by the opportunity that sex blogging afforded me: an uncensored venue where I could write and express whatever I wanted -- without censorship.

Someone should write an oral history of sex blogs. It would be fascinating.

Trigger Warnings

Slate critics Stephen Metcalf, Julia Turner, and Dana Stevens discuss FX's Cold War throwback TV show The Americans, whether Amazon is ruining literature, and the matriculation of trigger warnings into the college classroom.

This week's Slate's Culture Gabfest mentions my "stupid" writing on the topic of trigger warnings. [29:08]

Guntucky

I took this photo in January at the SHOT Show. The man in the photo is Winfred Sumner, also known as Gran-pa Biff Sumner, who appears on CMT's "Guntucky," a reality TV show that focuses on a family-owned shooting range that's "more like a theme park for gun lovers." The show's second season premieres April 15. According to Sumner's bio: "He's small in size but big when it comes to his temper, gun knowledge and lust for the ladies." Earlier this month, Sumner, 77, was arrested for pointing a firearm at a police officer and charged with "alcohol intoxication in a public place and first-degree wanton endangerment of a police officer."

Obama Loves America

In January, I took this photo at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. I shot several photos of men wearing T-shirts with messages on them: "COME AND TAKE IT," "I SHOOT ZOMBIES IN THE FACE," "MINE'S BIGGER THAN YOURS." A vendor who did not want his face photographed was selling T-shirts with slogans on them, including one that read: "CHRISTIAN AMERICAN HETEROSEXUAL PRO-GUN CONSERVATIVE ANY QUESTIONS?"

I Get Email

"Hey Susannah,

In your Forbes article on the subject (http://www.forbes.com/sites/susannahbreslin/2014/02/25/duke-porn-star/), you wrote,

'At this point in her career, the Duke porn star speaks with as much authority about working in porn as a Nordstrom employee speaks with authority about what it’s like to work at McDonald’s.'
 

I haven't seen her video or know her name or whatever (I've only read her interview a few days ago), but I think you miss the point. To me, she's playing with powerful symbols to further the noble agenda of aligning the reality of the human condition with the hyperreality/simulacrum of our dominant cultural framework. I mean, Duke in the public eye is a school for rich, white people. That's not the 'truth,' but that's generally what our broader culture perceives it as. If that happens to not be the case, it's at least what her polarizing persona dictates to be the case. Freshman year of college I had a difficult time discussing the rape culture that undergirds our society and the imaginary walls and lanes of social conduct and thought and blah that keep us constrained from helping out those that can't be helped. I went through a period of depression and sadness a la Melinda Sordino of Speak (the novel) because I felt as if I didn't have a voice... and I've struggled over the past year or so because of that. But learning about this Duke freshman, coupled with help from other people and personal therapies of sorts, really helped to save my voice... and for that I am thankful. I don't know how to reach out to this freshman to say thanks, nor do I feel the need to do so (because it seems to me that she has a fairly good/healthy support system of her own), but I'd like it if you didn't compare her cause and the cause of sex workers to that of Nordstrom and McDonald's employees. While they have their own sets of issues, which may or may not be comparable, the fact of the matter is this: sex workers are undocumented. What you or I may see on the Internet is just the tip of the iceberg. By opening up dialogue about the nature of human/female sexuality and our society's relationship with porn, we can open up further dialogue about the nature of our society and the people at 'the bottom' who had their voices taken away or never even had a voice to begin with. You know, the drug addicts, the rape victims, the murdered, etc. Who knows, maybe eventually people will realize that 'evil' (or at least the normative notion of evil) is without center, void yet ever present, an insidious threadwork pervasively stitched through us all.

Best,

[redacted]

P.S. Yeah, she's probably in the .01% of sex workers that are treated well, but who else is going to speak up? Where else? If she's able to secure her continuance as a student at Duke, then I hope she speaks as loud, and as far, as possible. Because that is a voice that will be heard. Hopefully this last comment doesn't seem incongruous to you, because to me it kind of ties my whole message together. It's from Kanye West's Twitter, and it's something he posted a couple weeks ago: 'Ten years later I am still the same kid from Chicago, still dreaming out loud, still banging on the door. The doors may be heavier, but I promise you WE WILL BREAK THEM.' Replace the word 'Chicago' with any place, and the message is applicable to anyone trying to understand and trying to help. She secured her position as a student and they can't take away her voice or her right to be a student because of her polarizing position in the sex industry. Kanye West secured his position as a hugely successful artist and 'they' can't take that away from him, either. If anything, the last question on my mind before I head off to bed is, Why all of the hate? What are 'they' afraid of? That, to me, is the question that strikes at the core heart of the matter."

Duke of Porn

"Once upon a time, porn stars changed their names and compartmentalized their lives. You were one person in the real world — with a birth name, a mortgage, a family — and you were another person in Pornlandia — with a stage name, a box cover, a fan base. Decades ago, it was a way of protecting yourself, your family, and your future from the near unilateral disdain the culture had for your occupation. In recent years, porn stars’ personal information has been disseminated online, making it increasingly difficult to be a porn star with a private life."

[Forbes]