Army of Lovers

Today I'll make it in a happy and not so serious tune – let's listen to some music! I recently rediscovered Army of Lovers (happens every once a year or so), and wanted to share their brilliantness with everybody.

Vagina Dentata

Over at the local art museum, Aros, there's a particular piece of art that continues to intrigue me. Consumer's Guide to Safe Sex by Thomas Bruun (1988) is actually just a box. It has on its front a picture of the female intimate parts, cut out from, presumably, a porn magazine. It carries instructions on how to use the paper and a round hole cut where the vulva would be, with some very graphic language at that. Also, in my opinion, rather objectifying, but I'll get back to that. The hole in the paper fits a hole in the entire box, thus constructing a sex machine into which you may insert your penis (be you in the possession of a such). So to speak. For if curiosity overwhelms you and you look into the hole meant for the penis, you see – a mouse trap. If you use the machine: Snap. Ouchy. The machine bites back. A Vagina Dentata.

Blowjobs, Rape and Preeclampsia

Hello again! This time around in English, perhaps some of you will appreciate that ;)

Today the subject will be more serious, I'll be discussing science! And it's implications for society, and I'll even touch upon censorship of science. But let me start with a little story about how I got to find the particular piece of science that lead to all these reflections.

So, there I was, procrastinating and flipping through random web pages, when I came upon this article, ”Eight things you didn’t know you could do with human sperm” - fascinating reading, though I personally wouldn't eat anything cooked with sperm, and also... skin softener. Seriously? Just.. ew.

Men wink at me

And it annoys me. Immensely. Except when it sends my heart racing and I smile like an idiot for the rest of the day. And perhaps even then. Most of the time it annoys me.

Today I shall philosopher a bit about winking. Why do people do it, what do they want to tell the world, and why do winkers generally seem to be men?

Now, much has been written about this topic (just try googling it), and I have done a bit of research besides my involuntary fieldwork (being female in Barcelona). Below I will present to you some of my most important findings.

First, the statistics, after the jump.

The Catholic Church and reproductive freedom in Italy, part 2 of 2: Abortion and legislation

First of all, excuse me for the long absence. A full-time job out of nowhere interfered with my plans of spending all day long writing blogs about Italy! But now, on to the second instalment of my theme on the catholic church and reproductive freedom in Italy.

Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978. Due to lobbying from Catholic organisations a condition was put into legislation which allowed doctors to refuse to carry out abortions on grounds of their religious beliefs. This is also the case in other European countries, but after the jump I will get to why it is particularly problematic in Italy.