San Francisco hosts self-pleasure marathon
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco's Center for Sex and Culture played host on Saturday to the city's annual "Masturbate-a-thon," an event its organizers said could draw up to 120 people from across the United States aiming to have a good time with themselves.
The event was organized to help raise funds for the center, and, according to its organizer, provide an outlet for safe sex for those who enjoy pleasuring themselves in a semi-public setting.
Carol Queen, director of the center, acknowledged that the event is unusual -- even by San Francisco's standards. The permissive city, which helped ignite a debate on gay marriage last year, tolerates many sorts of sexual behavior but masturbation seems a topic that is off-limits, she said.
"Even people who are sexually frisky ... might have the bias that many Americans do, that it's second-best sex, that it's something you do if you can't figure something else out," Queen said.
The Saturday night event also had a competitive side.
One New York man arrived shortly after 5 p.m. seeking to break the endurance six-and-a-half hour record set at last year's event. The rules allow for a five-minute break every hour.
The female marathon winner last year, Norine Dworkin, chronicled her experiences in the women's magazine Marie Claire, saying hours later the activity was "about as pleasurable as rubbing an elbow."
This year, others like Tony, who gave only his first name, attended the event to indulge in exhibitionist behavior in front of other people.
"I grew up believing that this is a horrible, nasty thing you shouldn't overdo," said Tony who is from California's Central Valley. "The whole point is coming out and making love to your best friend."
Melissa Gira, a former peep show performer who oversaw the evening's Web cast, was considering joining in, as she had done last year. "It's interesting to be sexual in public," she said. "These aren't things we're sexually socialized to do."
Mom Indicted for Hiring Stripper for Teen
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son's birthday party. Anette Pharris, 34, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy's father, the stripper and two others also face charges.
"I tried to do something special for my son," Pharris said. "It didn't harm him."
About 10 people under the age of 18 were at the birthday party in September, including minors who were not related to the family, authorities said.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said minors are not permitted in adult establishments.
"A person shouldn't be allowed to circumvent that law by hiring a stripper, a lady who took all her clothes off and spent a good amount of time dancing around minors," he said.
Anette Pharris took photos at the party and tried to have them developed at a nearby drug store. Drug store employees notified authorities, police said.
"Who are they to tell me what I can and can't show to my own children?" the mother said. Dont we all wish we had a mom like that?
Gay Israeli artists seek Arabs to fall in love with
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two gay Israeli men have installed a huge double bed in a New York art gallery and are inviting Arab men to become their "lover" as part of an exhibition called "Sleeping with the Enemy."
But the artists who like to be known simply as Gil and Moti talk about the project in romantic terms, saying it's about "falling in love" rather than sex. Gil said visitors should not come to the show expecting to see pornography.
"The bed is there for us to live in. Artistically there are three pillows to symbolize unity of three people which goes along with the whole concept of make love not war," he said.
"We try to actually open up a dialogue and debate which is about more important issues than just sexual matters and if there's sex, OK, but it's not something we're interested in discussing," Gil said.
The sales pitch for the show in which the two live and work in the gallery surrounded by their art reads: "Israeli artists Gil and Moti are gay, married and in love. For 5 weeks, they court an Arab lover."
Since late 2002 they have made contact online with as many as 300 Arab men from across the Middle East. They typically send a message through a dating site asking if they can paint a picture from the man's photo and explaining who they are.
They then scan and e-mail the painting as a means of "seduction" and hopefully start a dialogue and meet, Gil said.
The gallery called Jack the Pelican, in Brooklyn, is displaying over 100 of the watercolors, priced at $700-$900, along with some transcripts of e-mail exchanges, photos and oil paintings and the bed.
"We felt frustrated with the political situation in the Middle East," said Gil. "As Israelis, we grew up with Arabs but we were encouraged by the education system to hate and abuse them so we thought we must do something about it."
"So we decided to fall in love with one of them."
STILL SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT MAN
Moti is coy when asked whether the bed might actually be put to use if they meet an Arab man they like.
"We want people to think about sex when they enter the show because we have a bed in the front and it's clear that we are living here, but we're not interested in showing that," he said, appearing a little bashful for a man standing in front of paintings of naked men in graphic sexual positions.
Gil said they had not invited anybody to join them yet but one local Arab man had invited them to his home.
The exhibit includes video and pictures of a Lebanese man called Oliver who lived with them for nearly a year in the Netherlands. One photograph shows the three men standing naked and covered in mud in a wood, holding hands.
"We actually fell in love, with the three of us," Gil said. "He saw us as one person because we're together 24 hours a day, I think it's no longer clear how individual we are."
"He said he loved not just us but the concept. But at some point it got complicated," Gil said, explaining that Oliver found the pressure of living with performance artists who consider their life a constant show too difficult, so he left.
Aged 37 and 33, Gil and Moti, who met 11 years ago at art school in Israel, dress alike, on this occasion in yellow tee-shirts embroidered by Gil's mother with flowers and their names in Arabic, and both wear their hair gelled into spikes.
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