sexuality
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Online map shows North Carolina's transgender-friendly bathrooms
Oppressed groups have a knack for writing guides to avoid discrimination, and that's truer than ever in the internet era. MIT web designer Emily Rae Waggoner has created a Google map that helps you find transgender-friendly bathrooms in North Carolina, where a recently enacted law (commonly known under its bill name, HB2) makes it illegal to use facilities that aren't intended for the sex you were assigned at birth. Waggoner is taking submissions from across the state, but she's not just posting them without question -- she's using evidence from social networking to help prove that a given establishment really is welcoming. A post resisting HB2 can work, for example.
The massively multiplayer online role-playing orgy I never had
It was supposed to be my first orgy. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
The incredibly sad world of niche dating apps
When I exited the market in 2006, online dating was akin to wearing sweatpants in the club. It was a sign that you'd given up on the "real" world; a symbol of existential surrender.
Sex censorship breeds a fetish-focused social network
She lay back on a tan leather chaise lounge in a luxury suite in a Las Vegas hotel, a VR headset covering her eyes, surrounded by strangers and coworkers. She squirmed with embarrassment, screamed, giggled and covered her already-obstructed eyes. Engadget's Director of Production, Heather Frank, was experiencing the future of pornography firsthand, and I captured it all for posterity. When I went to add the video to my collection of #VRPorn reaction posts, I did what any socially responsible millennial would and asked our hosts for their Instagram handle. As it turns out, Instagram was a touchy subject.
Kink.com's VR porn experiment is a lesson in extreme anatomy
Six years ago, I exited the porn industry after the studio I worked for succumbed to a decline in DVD sales. Toward the end, I was one of two employees. I answered phones, designed box covers, scripted Brazilian gang bangs and spent hours airbrushing razor burn and other skin conditions in Photoshop. I thought I'd seen everything until I saw inside Ella Nova's anus.
![[Image Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sakuma]](https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/4ypDdSJ8Zx3N.bTJrYynTg--~B/Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQ2ODtweW9mZj0wO3c9ODMyO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://o.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/GLOB/crop/4079x2720+0+0/resize/1200x800!/format/jpg/quality/85/https://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/c3ab7977bfe9304d2496035e34eb161a/202136671/5fdf4b1a9f7c47119e6e0d7ce48ce389.jpeg.cf.jpg)
Dear first-generation sex robot ...
It appears we're on the brink of a robo-sexual revolution. Some have claimed that you'll be, like the selfie, a socially derided mainstay by 2025. Other, more conservative, estimates posit that having sex with you will be either commonplace or more popular than human-on-human sex by 2050. Whatever the case, you're coming -- or should I say arriving -- soon.
Let's talk about sex: This is Computer Love
Computer Love is a semi-regular column exploring the weird world of human sexuality in the 21st century. That's me four months ago, emerging from the frozen tomb of a near decade-long relationship. OK, that's Brendan Fraser, but when I finally surfaced from the cold-comfort coffin of love lost, I was thrust into a strange new world, where courtship starts with a dick pic, dating is done by phone and text messages are the preferred mode of romantic communique.
Masquerada's gay characters are defined by humanity, not sexuality
In Masquerada: Songs and Shadows, the city of Ombre resembles a fantastical, medieval Venice: elegant stone towers are lined with heavy wood furniture and the people dress in lush fabrics, wielding swords and spears. But Ombre is not Venice; it's an entirely secular society whose citizens put no stock in the idea of an afterlife, and it's a land where powerful magic stems from a collection of rare masks. The Inspettore, Cicero Gavar, returns from exile to investigate an earth-shattering kidnapping, with the help of spells, weapons and his team -- including Kalden Azrus, a man the city considers a "deviant." "While having the main character be gay and allowing a romance, as BioWare does, is very empowering to a gay player, we hope to serve them in another way -- to show our audience the beauty and humanity of a gay character and how it would translate to real world situations," lead developer Ian Gregory says.
Facebook lets you specify any gender you want
Facebook already has a range of gender options for those who don't fit neatly into male/female categories, but it just took that accommodation one step further. Much like Google, Facebook now lets you specify any gender you want -- you're not limited to the social network's definitions. As before, you can choose who sees that sexuality in case some of your visitors are less tolerant than others. The move won't please those upset with Facebook's real name policy, which sometimes makes people use names that are out of sync with their sexual identities, but it's at least a step in the right direction. [Image credit: Facebook]
Google Plus lets you define your own gender
Facebook gave its gender non-conforming users a better way to express themselves early in the year, and now it's Google's turn. An update to Google+ rolling out over the next few days will let you type in a custom gender for your social networking profile instead of having to settle for "other" -- you won't have to constantly explain yourself just because you don't fit into the male/female binary. You can also choose a pronoun, and it's still possible to limit who sees your gender. This is a small tweak to the code, but it should make a big difference if you haven't been comfortable with your G+ identity so far.
OKCupid test lets you choose nearly any sexual identity
If you don't conform to historical definitions of gender or sexual orientation, online dating can be tough. You frequently have to shoehorn yourself into a category where you aren't comfortable, and you'll probably get many unwelcome advances. OKCupid should soon have a fix, however: it's testing an update that dramatically expands the range of identities you can associate with your dating profile. You can declare yourself as gender non-conforming or pansexual, for example, rather than having to choose from binary options like male/female or heterosexual/gay. The site is only showing the new options to a subset of its users and hasn't said if or when they'll be available to everyone, but it might not be long before you'll have an easier time finding partners that accept who you are. [Image credit: Alamy]
Tim Cook says he's 'proud to be gay'
Tim Cook has long topped lists as the "most powerful" gay person in the world, and today he's publicly addressed his sexuality for the first time. "Throughout my professional life, I've tried to maintain a basic level of privacy," the Apple CEO says in a letter published by Bloomberg Businessweek. "While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven't publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."
My VCR taught me about sex
Sex. The word alone still makes me giggle. But that's more to do with my status as a self-described man-child, and a proud one at that, than any real sexual immaturity. Blame my parents. They never sat me down for a serious talk about the proverbial "birds and the bees." Neither did my older brother and sister, the supposed torchbearers of all pre-teen sex how-tos. So I got my education elsewhere; from a keen bit of advanced (for the time) videocassette-recording technology called the VCR and premium cable. Timeshifting made me a man.
Heroes of the Storm director apologizes for response to interview
Dustin Browder is the game director for Blizzard's upcoming MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. The game features heroes, heroines and plenty more from Blizzard franchises, and it's Browder's job to oversee and, as his title might suggest, direct its development. When Rock, Paper, Shotgun interviewed Browder and specifically addressed the artistic direction of many female MOBA characters, Browder gave a response he is now apologizing for on the Heroes of the Storm website. "I responded poorly to a statement the interviewer made about over-sexualized character designs in games, and I want to apologize for that," Browder wrote. "This is a serious topic and I don't want anyone to think that I, or anyone else at Blizzard, is insensitive about how we portray our characters." Browder went on to state that he wants every player to find a character they can identify with, and thanked RPS for their feedback. The topic of sexualization in video games has been particularly prevalent as games continue to gain mainstream attention. Sometimes it results in a distressing moment with a mermaid. Sometimes it results in an apology.
The Anvil of Crom: Family unfriendly
There's been a lot of lip service paid to family friendly MMORPGs over the last couple of years, and deservedly so. Games like Free Realms, Mabinogi, and Toon Town Online have all done well for themselves by realizing that the first generation of gamers are all grown up and busy popping out future button mashers of their own. Free-to-play doesn't have the market cornered on family friendliness either, as pay-to-play titles like City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and (I'm betting) the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic are or will be hugely popular with kids and their parents due to a lack of objectionable content. Isn't it refreshing then, when a game like Funcom's Age of Conan comes along and completely turns its nose up at all the political correctness? Even though that's a bit of a rhetorical question, I'll answer it for you. Yes, yes it is, extremely refreshing. Hit the jump to find out why.
Gender differences in armor
A few readers sent us this post over at Border House that has laid bare (heh) the oft-mentioned differences in armor between the genders in World of Warcraft. While there are some exceptions, in most cases, the exact same set of armor (like this chestplate above) shows up as much more skimpy on female characters than it does on male characters. To the point of absurdity in some places -- even plate leggings, designed to serve as solid protection to the legs, appear to be more like plate thong underwear on the ladies. As Border House points out, this isn't just WoW's problem. Fantasy and sci-fi in general have been the domain of boys in the past (even if that is changing quickly), and the sexual depictions in the genre have reflected that, for both traditional and financial reasons. As I pointed out the other day, all of Blizzard's luminaries thus far have been men -- is it any surprise that the game is designed from a mostly male perspective? And as BH also says, fortunately, WoW has lots of different gear. If you don't like what your character is wearing, then you can find something else.
GLAAD fights homophobia in online communities like WoW
We've talked here on the site before about this issue -- the anonymity in online communities like World of Warcraft often leads to people throwing out offensive statements that they usually wouldn't in normal company. Most people shrug these off as just what happens in online games ("kids will be kids, and idiots will be idiots"), but this type of undercurrent behavior still signifies and perpetuates prejudices and hatreds that affect society at large. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has recently started up a campaign to try and stamp out hatred and homophobia in communities like World of Warcraft, and they've published an op-ed on exactly why this is such a problem and what we can do to stop it. They don't mention WoW specifically, but we're one of the biggest online communities out there, and if nothing else, here's a chance to show just how tolerant we as a community can be.The good news is that as the practice of online gaming grows, both players and policymakers are becoming more and more aware of the problem -- Microsoft met earlier this year with representatives from GLAAD to determine how better to combat offensive statements on Xbox Live, and the organization held a panel recently to discuss exactly this issue.Thanks, Joshua!
New Korean PSP bundles inbound, ads include giant system and 'hotness'
Three new PSP bundles are bound for Korea, two containing the popular fighting title, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. The Tekken bundle is available in with either a white or black system along with the game and a 4GB memory stick. The third bundle, called the DMB Pack, includes a South Korea-specific (Read: Not import friendly) TV tuner and 32MB memory stick and the unit. Wait, a 32MB memory stick? Is that still a thing? Each bundle is priced at 278,000₩ ($218 US).Oh, and as you would have guessed by the headline of this story, Sony is using a giant PSP with a teaspoon of sexuality to promote the bundles. Makes sense to us!%Gallery-67142%
Anti-Aliased: Virtual worlds as the great equalizer pt. 2
Social situations shattered How many times do we have a young player in our guild who act more like a 30-year-old than the 30-year-olds do? How often do we cross cultural boundaries and forget that we're speaking with someone who might be across the world, in a completely different time zone? To us, they're simply standing in the same room as us, and that puts them in the same place we are.I know that I don't consciously think about where someone lives or who they really are when I meet them in Second Life or Metaplace. I'm too busy chatting with them about shared interests, because obviously if we're meeting one another while standing inside of a fantasy roleplaying simulation, then we both enjoy fantasy roleplaying.This is doubly true when I'm playing something like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI. Not only do we now have something in common, but we can be united with our goals as well. You're here to run Nexus? So am I! Let's work together to get through this dungeon. I don't question where you come from, who you are, or how old you are. I may question you if you're not pulling your weight or bringing down the party, but even then I'm going to help you so we can get through the task together. "In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to. In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to. While the condition of anonymity can lead to some really destructive individuals, it can also lead to being able to connect to one another without the hangups of social barriers that exist in real life. We can meet individuals who are very different from ourselves, find common ground quickly, and then learn from one another, rather than avoiding those who are different because it scares us.Beyond that, the experiences we gain from being in virtual worlds do not exist in a vacuum. We take what we learn and we apply it to what we do in everyday life. With enough time, I have no doubt that this too will help melt some of the social stigmas that we carry in real life, simply because we can come in contact with others in a more controlled online environment.If you want evidence, look at the decreasing age barrier. We let younger kids and teenagers into positions of power and responsibility in our guilds and online activities, and that in turn has slowly lead to more adults listening to kids when they have something to say. We use to completely bar kids from offering advice to us "more knowledgeable, older adults" but it's been slowly changing. While it may not be the only factor that has lead to this, it certainly is one of them.So I think it's time to give credit where credit is due. Virtual worlds, online games, and the Internet are bringing us together, and many of us are slowly finding out that we're really not so different from one another after all. We're learning about culture, gender, age, and sexuality, and it's certainly about damn time. Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased isn't that different from anyone else and is darn proud of it. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.
MSNBC wants mature sex (and more penis!) in games
Let's be honest: The mainstream press aren't exactly known for handling sexuality in video games with any amount of couth. But hey, neither are we! And if Winda Benedetti of MSNBC gets her way, we'll all be seeing a lot more loose skin. We're finding it hard to disagree with her when she says, "Adults in movies have sex. So why shouldn't adult characters in video games get it on or, you know, appear in their computer-generated birthday suits?" Bringing up the serially sensationalized Mass Effect sex scene, Benedetti calls it, "a sexual encounter between two adults that actually furthered the story and was tastefully depicted," while pointing out, "still, it was vilified by some in the media." Though we'd argue that the sex minigame found in the original God of War is clearly the most tasteful depiction of sexuality in a video game yet, Benedetti makes a good point. Couldn't we all stand for a little more context in our video game sexuality? Benedetti surmises that the entire industry could use some maturing to help handle this kind of content going forward -- and we're inclined to agree.
