Leatherati

Interview with Dr Richard Sprott of CARAS

I had the pleasure to spend some time with Dr Richard Sprott, the Executive Director of CARAS (Community Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities) talking about their projects and upcoming conference in Washington, DC. 

Founded in 2005, CARAS is a national-level, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports research addressing understudied sexual communities, with a current focus on BDSM/leather/kink/fetish sexualities and consensual non-monogamous relationships such as polyamory. CARAS employs a community-based research model through a network of academics, clinicians and respected members of these communities who will work directly with researchers to promote scientific and other forms of scholarly research.

It's especially cool that CARAS is researching the kinds of topics that few other researchers will touch.  Check out the interview after the jump

Sexology Seminar - How Cool Is That!

Isadora Alman, MFT, reports in a blog on Psychology Today about a recent Sexology Seminar.  Really interesting stuff in here.

The very first sexual science symposium I attended was  more than twenty years ago.  It has remained memorable to me for the following event: The room was  filled to capacity.  A dignitary from a related field was presenting to the rapt audience of fellow professionals his research on the estrus cycles of apes, their influence on the apes’ mating habits, and its relevance to human sexual choices.  “Early every morning,” he began, “I would approach the cages of the female bonobos and, with a very long cotton swab, I would collect a sample of their vaginal secretions…”  From behind me a loud whisper interrupted with the comment “For this he went to graduate school?”

The Sexology Symposium for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Western Region took place in Palm Springs mid April 2010. Here is a smattering of  tidbits I garnered from various presentations, none of which involved the vaginal secretions of apes but struck me as interesting nonetheless.

Sex and the Eco-City: Getting It On Is Getting Greener

I'm not so sure I'm on board with vegan condoms or hand crank electrical toys (trying to imagine cranking my 312 to pleasure the Boy??? WTF???) but it's always nice to see sex and BDSM going mainstream, in only to tweak the Talibangicals...

In many ways, choosing a sex toy is not unlike buying a car. Walk into most adult shops, and the new-car smell is undeniable. Salespeople tout motor speed and durability. And then there are emissions to consider.

Full article here