Tag Archives: pleasure

Entertainment

Pinhead And The Lament Configuration Bring No Pleasure, Only Pain – Deadline

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Based on the Clive Barker novel The Hellbound Heart, David Bruckner’s Hellraiser (2022) takes the original concepts of addiction, pleasure, and pain and tries to update them for Gen-Z. However, the initial ideas get lost in translation, losing all of what makes the 1987 film, starring Doug Bradley, so fresh, fringe, and meaningful. The movie starts promising enough, but by the third act, tricks, tropes, and story issues pile on, and becomes too much to bear. However, some redeeming qualities include Jamie Clayton, the cenobite costumes, make-up, and set design. 

Riley (Odessa A’zion) is trying to stay sober by staying with her brother Matt (Brandon Flynn) and his partner Colin (Adam Faison). But the stint doesn’t last long as now she’s with Trevor (Drew Starkey), breaking into the abandoned Voight manor to steal a strange golden box called The Lament Configuration box that might be of some value. With the celebration of her stolen item, it’s right back to boozing. She eventually gets caught by her brother and is thrown out of the apartment with the box.

Riley takes her things and camps out at the local playground, pops four pills, and begins to play around with the box. She gets the contraption to quickly open. She begins hallucinating as the pills kick in, seeing strange figures and apparitions. Feeling guilty, Matt hits the streets looking for his sister, and when he finds her laid out on the park asphalt, he comes in contact with the configuration, and things go downhill for everyone close to the siblings.

In a video essay created by Youtube page WhatisAntiLogic? they break down why Clive Barker’s 1987 film is an allegory for drug addiction and BDSM. Writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski aims to make the same connection with Riley, but the idea never takes true form like in the first movie. The Lament Configuration isn’t treated like the mystery it’s supposed to be in this. The box should be like a drug to her. Every time she uses the box, it’s like getting a hit. Unfortunately, the leads are written as dunces, incapable of being rational. They yell, fumble, and tumble about that it borders on slapstick comedy.

The only thing about this reboot that feels new is Clayton, who is incredible as The Priest/Pinhead. The costume/character look gets an upgrade that’s much more elegant, domineering, and intricate, with added melodic vocal effects that give the horror icon a different sound. The look of the Cenobites has also improved. Their costumes and makeup define their personalities. The group isn’t portrayed in gray but includes color in their devilish appearance that highlights the artist endeavors of those who made these looks come alive

Hellraiser 2022 is a lackluster attempt to revive a stagnant franchise. The story is prime for exploration and a way to push the story to its limits, but the script chooses to stay in the safe zone. This limitation prevents the film from standing on its own and standing out amongst the previous eight films (yes, Hellraiser has 10 movies previous to this one). Nothing is more disappointing than another reboot that brought nothing to the table.



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Health

Does Squirting Contain Pee? Man Recruited to Pleasure Women to Find Out

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  • Urologists in Japan wanted to understand what’s in squirting fluid.
  • They recruited 5 women to be pleasured by a man to find out.
  • In the experiment, all 5 women released fluid from their bladder while squirting. 

Urologists in Japan wanted to get to the bottom of a long-held sex debate — when a woman squirts, is the fluid that is released urine, or something else? To find out, they conducted an experiment that involved injecting an indigo-colored liquid into five women’s bladders.

Two of the women were in their 30s, two were in their 40s, and one was in her 50s, and all of them said they had previously squirted in past sexual encounters.

Unlike vaginal lubrication, where a person’s vagina secretes a white and milky fluid when they’re aroused, squirting involves a clear and odorless fluid. Squirting can happen before, during, or after an orgasm and has a geyser-like quality, sex educator Marla Renee Stewart previously told Cosmopolitan.

After the doctors drained excess urine from each woman’s bladder using a urethral catheter, they injected them with 50 milliliters of a blue-dyed saline solution. In another room, women received manual penetration from a male subject the doctors recruited. They instructed the man to use his fingers and penis “in a way to facilitate squirting.”

When each of the five women squirted, the doctors saw blue liquid come out of their genital areas in videos that captured the experiment. Their findings suggest the liquid women produce when they squirt comes, at least in part, from the bladder, the urologists wrote in their August 24 paper published in the International Journal of Urology.

Squirting has long baffled sex experts

There’s little research on squirting and how it actually works, but evidence suggests it’s related to specific glands in the urethral sponge, which is embedded in a person’s vaginal walls and part of the urination process, Mind Body Green previously reported.

Researchers have long debated whether squirting liquid contains pee, or if it’s a substance all on its own.

To test this, the urologists who conducted the experiment tested and found PSA levels in the liquid each woman secreted during penetration. PSA is a chemical found in semen, and some researchers believe it’s evidence that squirting fluid is not in fact pee, but a substance related to arousal.

Still, there are other chemicals in squirting liquid that are also found in urine. Some researchers believe people may involuntarily release small amounts of urine while squirting.

The amount of urine depends on when the person peed last and how hydrated they are, New York University sex researcher Zhana Vrangalova told Mind Body Green.

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Health

Researchers Uncover 3 for Female Pleasure

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  • Researchers uncovered three anal-sex techniques in a new study of thousands of women.
  • The techniques are anal surfacing, anal shallowing, and anal pairing.
  • Focusing on anal-sex strategies, rather than types of penetration, could empower women sexually.

It could be time to rethink your anal-sex strategy, according to a first-of-its-kind study published June 29 in the journal Plos One.

Researchers at Indiana University and For Goodness Sake, a sex-research company, pinpointed three techniques — one of which doesn’t include penetration — for pleasurable anal sex, after surveying and interviewing thousands of women.

Prior to conducting the study, researchers noticed that most anal-pleasure research focused on the body parts people inserted into a woman’s anus but not the techniques used to create feelings of pleasure.

They wanted to find out if anal-sex strategy mattered, so they gathered data from sex surveys around the world, including the OMGYES Pleasure Report. Ultimately, they collected results from 3,017 women between 18 and 93, and interviewed 1,000 of these women themselves.

Since the majority of women cited anal-sex techniques that didn’t involve penetration, the findings could help other women feel empowered to explore their pleasure preferences. The study findings also showed that “new pleasurable touch techniques can be discovered at any age and may encourage women to continue exploring their pleasure throughout the lifespan,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

Anal-sex techniques hundreds of women love include anal ‘surfacing’ and ‘pairing’ 

The researchers said three main anal-sex techniques became apparent in their interviews with women, so they created terms for them. They are:

  • Anal surfacing,  or sexual touch on and around, but not in, the anus. Forty percent of women in the study found this pleasurable.
  • Anal shallowing, or touch just inside the anal opening, no deeper than a fingertip or knuckle. Thirty-five percent of women in the study found this pleasurable.
  • Anal pairing, or touch on or inside the anus at the same time as vaginal penetration or clitoral touch. Forty percent of women in the study found this pleasurable.

If you want to try anal sex, take it slow and use lube 

For anal-sex first-timers, it’s important to ease into the experience.

You should start with fingers, butt plugs, and dildos before trying to insert a penis, Insider previously reported.

Since the anus isn’t self-lubricating, it’s also important to use lube.

And since sexually transmitted infections can be passed from partner to partner during anal sex, protection like condoms can stop STI spread. In February, the FDA approved the first-ever condom for anal sex.

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Health

Incorporating Sexual Pleasure in Educational Sexual Health Programs Can Improve Safe Sex Behaviors

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Summary: A meta-analysis study reports interventions targeting STI/HIV infection risk education could benefit from including a focus on sexual pleasure and desire.

Source: PLOS

Sexual health programs that include sexual desire and sexual pleasure can improve knowledge and attitudes around sex, as well as condom use compared to those that do not, according to research published in PLOS ONE.

The meta-analysis of research literature from 2005-2020 finds that incorporating pleasure in such programs can have positive effects on attitudes and safer sex behavior and recommends revisiting sexual education and health intervention approaches that do not acknowledge that sexual experiences can be pleasurable.

Billions of dollars are spent around the world each year on sexual and reproductive health and rights services and programs. Yet with fewer than ten years to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which target sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, there is still a huge global burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.

Researchers from The Pleasure Project, WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research and colleagues review 33 unique interventions targeting STI/HIV risk reduction that incorporate pleasure, and meta-analyze eight.

They find evidence that including pleasure can have significant positive effects across information- and knowledge-based attitudes, including participants’ self-belief in behavior change, and motivation to use condoms, as well as in behavior and condom use.

While the authors searched for interventions across a spectrum of sexual health interventions (including contraception and family planning interventions), the review ultimately included only STI/HIV-related programs targeting populations traditionally considered ‘vulnerable’.

The authors note that future work is needed to incorporate and evaluate pleasure-inclusive interventions in the reproductive health space and for general populations.

The team argues that continuing to avoid pleasure in sexual health and education risks misdirecting or ineffectively using resources. The researchers call for a fundamental rethink of how programs are oriented.

Billions of dollars are spent around the world each year on sexual and reproductive health and rights services and programs. Image is in the public domain

The authors add: “Pleasure has been over-looked and stigmatized in health promotion and sex education, despite its obvious connection to sexual health and well-being. Our systematic review and meta-analysis, the first of its kind, shows that including sexual pleasure considerations in sexual and reproductive health services improves condom use and so may also improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

“Policymakers and program managers should more readily acknowledge that pleasure is a key driver of sexual behavior, and that incorporating it in sexual and reproductive health services can reduce adverse outcomes.

“Eight years out from the Sustainable Development Goal deadline, innovative strategies that can accelerate progress towards SRHR targets, including for STI and HIV prevention, are urgently needed.

“Programs adopting a sex-positive and pleasure-inclusive approach is one such innovation that should be urgently considered.”

About this sexual behavior and psychology research news

Author: Hanna Abdallah
Source: PLOS
Contact: Hanna Abdallah – PLOS
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.
“What is the added value of incorporating pleasure in sexual health interventions? A systematic review and meta-analysis” by Anne Philpott et al. PLOS ONE

Abstract

What is the added value of incorporating pleasure in sexual health interventions? A systematic review and meta-analysis

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Despite billions of dollars invested into Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) efforts, the effect of incorporating sexual pleasure, a key driver of why people have sex, in sexual health interventions is currently unclear.

We carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis following PRISMA guidelines across 7 databases for relevant articles published between 1 January 2005–1 June, 2020. We included 33 unique interventions in our systematic review.

Eight interventions reporting condom use outcomes were meta-analyzed together with a method random effects model. Quality appraisal was carried out through the Cochrane Collaborations’ RoB2 tool.

This study was pre-registered on Prospero (ID: CRD42020201822). We identified 33 unique interventions (18886 participants at baseline) that incorporate pleasure. All included interventions targeted HIV/STI risk reduction, none occurred in the context of pregnancy prevention or family planning.

We find that the majority of interventions targeted populations that authors classified as high-risk. We were able to meta-analyze 8 studies (6634 participants at baseline) reporting condom use as an outcome and found an overall moderate, positive, and significant effect of Cohen’s d = 0·37 (95% CI 0·20–0·54, p < 0·001; I2 = 48%; τ2 = 0·043, p = 0·06). Incorporating sexual pleasure within SRHR interventions can improve sexual health outcomes.

Our meta-analysis provides evidence about the positive impact of pleasure-incorporating interventions on condom use which has direct implications for reductions in HIV and STIs. Qualitatively, we find evidence that pleasure can have positive effects across different informational and knowledge-based attitudes as well.

Future work is needed to further elucidate the impacts of pleasure within SRHR and across different outcomes and populations.

Taking all the available evidence into account, we recommend that agencies responsible for sexual and reproductive health consider incorporating sexual pleasure considerations within their programming.

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Science

Female dolphins have sex for pleasure: study

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The organ has a special porpoise.

A big brain isn’t a dolphin’s only human-like attribute: Massachusetts scientists have discovered that these marine mammals have large and well-developed clitorises, which apparently provide as much pleasure as a human’s. The study was published Monday in the journal Current Biology, according to Eureka Alert.

“The dolphin clitoris has many features to suggest that it functions to provide pleasure to females,” said Patricia Brennan, an assistant biology professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, who authored the amorous article.

Brennan got inspired to conduct the research while studying dolphin clitoral evolution.

Dolphins use their clitorises for more than reproduction.
Patricia Brennan

“Every time we dissected a vagina, we would see this very large clitoris, and we were curious whether anyone had examined it in detail to see if it worked like a human clitoris,” Brennan explained. “We knew that dolphins have sex not just to reproduce, but also to solidify social bonds, so it seemed likely that the clitoris could be functional.”

To determine that dolphins’ sex organs are not just for procreation, Brennan and her team examined the anatomy of 11 bottlenose dolphins that were found dead on US beaches.

They found that their vulvas were surprisingly “similar” to the shape of a human’s, which Brennan found interesting given that “entire pelvis of dolphins is so different.”

Just like their bipedal brethren, the female bottlenose’s sex organ is enveloped in a hood, New Scientist reported. As the critter matures, this cover becomes wrinkled, potentially causing the vulva tip to become engorged with blood when aroused.

“Also, the size of the nerves in the clitoris body was very surprising,” Brennan said. “Some were larger than half a millimeter in diameter.”

Her dolphin pleasure theory is supported by the fact that their vaginas are located in a spot that would make coital stimulation nearly inevitable. Not only that, but the animals have sex year-round — even when they can’t conceive — and have even been observed probing each other’s genitals with their flukes, flippers and snouts.

Brennan ultimately hopes that her research will help broaden our understanding of both human and animal sex lives.

“This neglect in the study of female sexuality has left us with an incomplete picture of the true nature of sexual behaviors,” she said. “Studying and understanding sexual behaviors in nature is a fundamental part of understanding the animal experience and may even have important medical applications in the future.”

Researchers were surprised at the size of the nerves in the dolphin’s clitoris.
Patricia Brennan

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Science

The Dolphin Clitoris Is Full of Surprises, Scientists Discover

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The bottlenose dolphin (Tersiops truncatus) appears to have a very large and well-developed clitoris, potentially better placed for coital pleasure than the clitoris of humans, according to new research.

 

The visible tip of the human clitoris is but the size of a pea and located slightly north of the vagina and urethra (although much of the structure remains hidden in the pelvis or under a ‘hood’ of skin).

The head of the dolphin clitoris, on the other hand, is slightly larger and located right near the vagina entrance. What’s more, the whole organ has an ‘S’-shaped bend in it, which suggests it can stick out even further when erect.

During copulation, it would be almost impossible for a dolphin penis to avoid, experts say.

“The dolphin clitoris has many features to suggest that it functions to provide pleasure to females,” says biologist Patricia Brennan from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

“We knew that dolphins have sex not just to reproduce, but also to solidify social bonds, so it seemed likely that the clitoris could be functional.”

Computer reconstruction of the dolphin clitoris. (Dara Orbach/Mount Holyoke College)

Today, we still know very little about the human clitoris and even less about its counterpart in other species. All female mammals are known to have a clitoris-like structure, but we still aren’t sure how these organs function or if they give animals pleasure.

Like humans, female dolphins are known to copulate all year round, but only sometimes are they ovulating. This suggests the species mates for more than just reproduction.

 

In the wild, for instance, bottlenose dolphins have been observed partaking in group orgies, where male and females alike use their snouts, flippers, and flukes to rub the protruding clitorises and penises of their peers.

Direct stimulation of the clitoris has also been observed in sexual interactions between only females. 

Unfortunately, we can’t scan a dolphin’s brain during all this hanky panky to see if these creatures really are having fun, so researchers have turned to the clitoris itself for answers.

When scanning the sexual organs of 11 naturally deceased female dolphins, the team found an abundance of erectile tissue, blood vessels, and nerve endings in the clitoris.

Similar to the human clitoris, the glans of the dolphin clitoris is also enclosed in a hood. In dolphin adulthood, this hood becomes wrinkled, possibly allowing the tip of the organ, which includes erectile tissue, to swell with blood when aroused.

Arteries in the clitoris were also found to closely trace clitoral nerves, which is an indication of orgasm function in humans.

“Since the entire pelvis of dolphins is so different to humans, it was surprising to see how similar the shapes were,” says Brennan.

 

“Also, the size of the nerves in the clitoris body was very surprising. Some were larger than half a millimeter in diameter.”

Given that the penis and the clitoris develop from the same structures, the findings could help explain why dolphins of all sexes have been seen masturbating on the sandy floor. Some have even been caught using ‘sex toys’, in the form of dead fish or wriggling eels.

Dolphin sex is clearly a kinky affair, and it’s drawn the interest of researchers for years now. Still, most experts have been interested in the dolphin penis, investigating what it looks like, and examining how it fits with the dolphin vagina.

In comparison, the dolphin clitoris has been all but overlooked. And that’s the case for most female mammals.

“Very little is known about female reproductive morphology in most wild vertebrate species,” said researcher Dara Orbach, when announcing the preliminary results of her dolphin dissection in 2019.

“This research provides a comparative framework to explore other functions of sex that may not be unique to humans.”

If sexual pleasure really does hold evolutionary significance, female pleasure among mammals might tell us how. Ignoring this side of sex will give us only half the picture, and as we all know, it takes at least two to tango.

The study was published in Current Biology.

 

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