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Cover up, men! You’re distracting women

Shocking neuroscience news this week, as a rousing new study discovers women have sex drives. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany analyzed brain-imaging findings from a wide body of research and found that the “the neuronal response to visual sexual stimuli … is independent of biological sex”. In other words, women and men get just as horny when they look at erotic imagery. These revelations were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I’m 34 and still a virgin. What’s wrong with me? Read more

While the conclusion of this study may seem blindingly obvious to most women, it counters previous research which found men were more likely to respond to visual sexual stimuli. The study hypothesizes that this is because of small sample sizes, and because a lot of previous work on the subject relied heavily on self-reporting rather than biological responses. “Female sexuality has quite a lot of stigma around it,” Hamid Noori, one of the study’s senior authors, told the Guardian. “Maybe the main reason is that for the woman there are secondary inhibitory effects that keep them away from expressing what they really feel.”

If men and women’s brains respond the same way to erotic imagery, then why do most statistics find men are far more likely to consume porn? The social stigma around female desire that Noori notes is one big factor, but another obvious explanation is that porn is largely designed by and for men. As sex tech pioneer Cindy Gallop told me over email “any industry dominated by men at the top inevitably produces output that is objectifying, objectionable and offensive to women”. Gallop runs a user-generated videosharing startup called MakeLoveNotPorn, which she says is enjoyed by women and men equally. “So much so, that with those of our MakeLoveNotPornstars who are straight couples, we’ve found it’s usually the woman who’s decided she wants to socially share their #realworldsex, and persuaded the man.”

But enough about porn. What makes this new study important isn’t really what it says about pornographic consumption, it’s what it says about patriarchal control. We’ve been trained to believe men are biologically wired to be far more sexual than women, and this junk science is used to excuse a lot of bad behavior. Women shouldn’t dress “provocatively”, we’re told, because men are visual creatures who are easily distracted and can’t control their urges; if you wear skimpy clothing, you’re asking for it. Indeed, a survey conducted for the Independent earlier this year found that 55% of men in the UK believe “the more revealing the clothes a woman wears, the more likely it is that she will be harassed or assaulted”. Depressingly, 41% of female respondents also agreed with this view.

There’s still a lot of work to be done when it comes to debunking the idea that men’s brains are wired to see women as sex objects, but this study is a good step in the right direction. It’s yet another reminder that the policing of women’s clothing has nothing to do with “biology” and everything to do with society.

#IceBae’s viral fame is more proof we live in hell

On Monday, Mike Pence toured the detention camps on the Texas border. The pictures of caged migrants that were released from this visit were horrific. Also horrific is the fact that Kiara Cervantes, a female US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, who appeared in one of those photos has now become an object of lust. The internet has dubbed her #Icebae and Cervantes seems to be reveling in her new-found fame. She’s posting selfies in her CBP uniform and has started a Twitter account to engage with fans. The CBP has said they are fine with her doing this. As, of course, they would be – having an attractive Latina woman as the face of a racist and inhumane organization is the best PR they could hope for.

‘Good family’ rapist judge is fired

New Jersey’s supreme court has finally taken action against a judge who didn’t want to try a 16-year-old rape suspect in adult court because he was a nice boy from a good family. “This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well,” Judge James Troiano said in his July 2018 decision. On Wednesday, the court terminated the judge’s temporary assignment. The court also recommended state superior court Judge John Russo Jr be removed. In 2016, Russo told an alleged rape victim that she should have closed her legs if she didn’t want to be assaulted.

‘Exemplary’ man couldn’t help rape

A former University of Toronto medical student convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman simply “availed himself of an opportunity,” his lawyer argued in sentencing hearings. His client couldn’t resist raping the woman because he was so stressed from “leading an exemplary life,” apparently.

Berkley city council un-genders official language

The California city voted to un-gender its municipal code on Tuesday. Words like “manhole” will be replaced with “maintenance hole” and “manpower” will apparently be replaced with “human effort”. The code will also use “they” and “them instead of gendered pronouns.

Penguin sushi criminals strike again

Look, I know penguins have nothing to do with the patriarchy but it’s been a rough week and I think we all need some cheering up. So let’s head to New Zealand where two little blue penguins keep breaking into a sushi restaurant. Police dealt with the “waddling vagrants” on Monday morning but the well-dressed criminals returned just a few hours later. Authorities are now keeping an eye on this fishy situation.