Actress Rashida Jones is best known for her work in “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” But her latest project, a documentary called “Hot Girls Wanted,” explores the amateur porn industry, which she says rakes in gobs of cash by exploiting the gullibility of young women who thirst for fame and fortune.

“So much stands in the way of them and that dream,” she tells Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. “And the things that stand in the way are not being fully explained to them. “Their naiveté is really important as an engine for the porn industry, or at least this part of the porn industry. That’s the problem.”

The film, which Jones produced, premiered at this year’s Sundance Festival. It takes its title from ads that commonly appear on Craigslist seeking “hot girls” for amateur porn, a genre whose name gives the impression that the films are not professionally produced.

“The truth is, it’s cast, it’s lit, it’s scripted; and most of the young girls who go into amateur porn are very young, which makes it seem like they might just be the girl next door,” Jones says.

Jones says she is not anti-porn but is concerned for the well-being of young women who think having sex on camera for money might be their quick ticket to fame and success — to a glamorous life.

Online pornography is a multibillion-dollar industry with a massive reach.

Jones says that pornography used to be more taboo but has seeped into mainstream culture to a troubling degree, where the immediate sexualization of young women in popular culture is the norm.

She says she is thankful to have grown up in an environment where she was free to be sort of a dorky teenager and make mistakes that would not follow her for the rest of her life.

“Ultimately, we have a cultural problem where we put a huge currency on sexualizing young girls,” she says. “It’s been a problem for a while, but I feel like it’s reached a fever pitch.”

Careers in amateur porn are usually short-lived. Relatively new starlets are routinely replaced by newer, younger women to fuel the girl-next-door fantasy.

“The truth is [that in] any pursuit of fame and success and fortune, very few people get to realize that,” she says. “But along the way, unfortunately, I think the costs of this pursuit are higher.”

Jones says that Internet porn is so pervasive because humans are sexual beings and there is little regulation of the Web or porn — so we are left with a simple supply/demand situation.

“People want it. People can get it. We live in a capitalistic democratic society, so we get what we want, basically,” she says. “It’s kind of here to stay, so it’s not really about whether you are anti- or pro-porn,” she says. “It’s just a real part of our reality now.”

Jones, who is the daughter of legendary producer Quincy Jones, is currently at work for Pixar writing Toy Story 4, and starring in an upcoming comedy series produced by Steve Carell.

“Hot Girls Wanted” debuts May 29 on Netflix.

(From Yahoo.com/news)

If there’s one thing the Kardashian-Jenner clan knows how to do, it’s let drama unfold on camera. Perhaps never has this talent been more called upon than in the second part of the Keeping Up With the Kardashians special, About Bruce. But while emotions were pinging all over the place among all members of the family (except Rob, who was conspicuously absent), the overall theme was constant: Everyone wants Bruce to be happy… including Bruce.
During the hour-long docu-style show — which was shot before Jenner’s Diane Sawyer interview aired — Bruce took time out to speak with everyone individually to ensure everyone felt at peace with the changes ahead regarding his transition from male to female.
Related: 13 Things We Learned From Bruce Jenner’s Diane Sawyer Interview
Some (like Kim, Kourtney, and Scott) took Bruce’s news in stride, others (like Kris and Khloé), not so much. The youngest of Jenner’s children, Kylie, 17, and Kendall, 19, both handled the situation with a poise it’s often easy to forget they posses — at least, when they want to, that is. Through all the tears, however, were bright spots of joy and humor. We rounded up the best nine moments that show whether you admire Bruce, are upset by Bruce, or are totally confused by Bruce, you’re not alone.
1. Bruce revealed that he does not have an appointment to have gender reassignment surgery.

At the outset of the episode Kim cut right to the chase. Though words seemed to escape her and she was left communicating through awkward hand motions toward Bruce’s nether region, she managed to ask: “So, like you don’t have a surgery to remove that and then that means you’re the woman?”
Bruce replied, “Remove the little thing down there? You can do an awful lot down there. As of right now, no, as of right now, no, [I don’t have an appointment to do that].” However, he did reveal that he had only one appointment left, but it didn’t have anything to do with that.

2. Kim tried to understand if Bruce is heterosexual or a lesbian or something else.

With that technicality about “the little thing down there” out of the way, Kim moved on to the question of whom Bruce wants to sleep with moving forward. “I’m totally heterosexual,” he answered with confidence before adding, “As a guy, I was always attracted to women.” This only seemed to befuddle Kim more — not that we blame her.
“But if you were a woman, were you a lesbian?” she asked of the time he spent with her mother when he already felt like a female. “After that last appointment, you consider yourself a women,” Kim restated for confirmation. Bruce seemed to agree, prompting her to ask, “Would you date women?” To that, Bruce basically shrugged and said he didn’t know yet.
3. Scott asked Bruce if he was going to be the butchiest girl ever.

During a heart-to-heart chat, Bruce explained to Scott — who apparently had no idea Bruce was transitioning at all — the source of so much of his angst over the years. “My whole life I haven’t been honest with myself,” Bruce said. “I haven’t been honest with my kids and it’s been this big secret that nobody can talk about.” Scott then decided that Bruce’s internal angst must have been the cause of the friction in their relationship over the years (rather than his excessive partying and issues with drinking).
Scott then turned on the charm and asked the former Olympian, “Are you going to be the butchiest girl ever?” Bruce seemed to laugh this question off, prompting Lord Disick to then have another brilliant realization. “Sometimes I thought it was something about me, but I realized that probably I’m just perfect and it’s everybody else around me that’s got issues.” Typical Scott.
4. Khloé recovered from the initial shock of Bruce’s announcement and made up with her stepdad.

In About Bruce: Part 1, Khloé seemed to take Bruce’s transition harder than the rest. She was particularly upset because she felt Bruce had been lying to all of them. But on Monday night’s episode, Kendall urged her older half-sister to reconsider how she was responding. “You don’t need to be so hard on him,” Kendall said. “I’m sure it’s not easy to spill everything all at once, so maybe withholding information is just sort of a natural thing.”
At first, Khloé defended herself. “I’ve never been through something like that before. Yeah, my reaction was aggressive, but I was more mad that he was proceeding with something, but telling us something completely different until we cornered him.” But once Bruce arrived to talk it out, he quickly got her guard down.
“Sometimes because of my love for you and my feelings for you, I don’t want to hurt you and so I apologize for not being as honest as I should be,” Bruce admitted. Khloé accepted his apology and declared, “You’ve been a f—ing incredible father to all of us.” Despite the expletive, it was rather sweet. “I’ve always been Team Bruce,” she added. The clear indication was that she always will be.
5. Kourtney and Scott revealed that they are keeping the news about Bruce from their son, Mason… for now.

Kourtney, Scott, and Khloé reconvened in some sort of backyard paradise to catch up on the latest and during this chat, Kourt revealed that she doesn’t want to discuss Bruce’s transition in front of her 5-year-old son, Mason. “We are waiting to see what Bruce does before we tell Mason. I definitely don’t want him to find out from someone at school or something like that. I want him to find out through us,” she explained to Khloé, who warned her that it’s pretty much impossible to keep Mason shielded from everyone who could spill the news about his grandfather at any moment. Kourtney conceded that Khloé was probably right, but no real resolution was reached.
For his part, Scott seemed on board with Mason knowing — whenever Kourtney thinks it’s appropriate. “Kourtney and I have definitely talked about how we’re going to explain this to Mason,” he shared. “It’s only a positive for my son and my daughter to know all of the things that go on in this world.”

6. Kris, still clearly angry about her ex-husband’s decision, confessed she feels like Bruce died.

While Bruce seemed to think that Khloé was taking his transition the hardest, from this episode it seemed like Kris was the one feeling really torn apart. “I think I’m just so confused right now,” the matriarch confessed. “I think you shut me out a long time ago. You were angry, which made me angry.” Bruce saw things a bit differently and jumped in saying, “You treated me badly those last four or five years of our marriage. I wasn’t happy.” But Kris wasn’t buying it. “No, you were just very, very angry to the point where we had to separate and then get divorced. You never said this was going to be the end result, ever. So now it makes sense to me and I just think that being honest was something that we all would have appreciated,” she snapped.
But her tone turned from anger to sadness as Bruce continued to reiterate how much he truly cares for her. “I just miss Bruce and that’s going to take me a minute to mourn that relationship,” Kris cried. “I’ll never really be able to have Bruce and all I have really is my memories. I look at pictures of you and the kids and I feel really sad. I feel like you died, like Bruce died, and it’s really hard for me to wrap my head around that.” (Just as a refresher, this is a woman who encouraged her daughter to pose for Playboy. It takes a lot to break Kris Jenner, but Bruce’s bombshell truly did.)
7. Bruce insisted to Kris he never took hormones while they were married and that he still loves her.
One sore spot Bruce was able to mend with Kris was by clarifying when he began his hormone treatments. “I didn’t take them until after we left, until after we went our separate ways. I wasn’t taking them while we were together. That was all done after we separated. I went to a therapist, started to figure myself out,” he explained. “I did none of that beforehand.” He reiterated, again, that he still loves her and — perhaps a bit surprisingly — she reciprocated.

(From Yahoo.celebrity.com)

An article in the May 2015 publication of Vanity Fair, entitled “Dawn of the Sexbot”, discusses the rapid growth of the company, Realdolls and predicts that men having sex with dolls and robots will increase in our future. Realdoll makes the world’s best sex dolls.  They are so realistic that David Mills, who purchased the company in the early 2000’s, thought that the website was created with pictures of actual models made up to look like dolls. He was right. To research this article I perused the website and it felt like I was watching porn. Gone are the days of the novelty blow ups, thrown around like beach balls at bachelor parties and the price tag is no joke, they start at $6,000. Vince Neil, of Motley Crue, is reported to have spent 15k on his deluxe edition. Howard Stern had sex on air, with a Realdoll, and said it was the best sex he has ever had.

The dolls average100lbs/ 5 feet. They are made from molded silicon said to feel like real human skin. They have arms and legs that can be manipulated into a myriad of positions. You can buy a standard model or make your own- customizing everything from eyeliner to pubic hair. Many predict a future that goes beyond this. Realdoll is designing models that have robotics- Massaging genitals, vocal responses and simulated orgasms in response to manipulation. So how far out are sex-robots? In 2006 DR. Henrik Christensen, the chairman of the European Robotics Network at the Royal Institute of Technology, at the University if Stockholm, predicted that humans would be having sex with robots in the next five years. In his Book, Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human- Robot Relationships, David Levy professed that by 2050 robots will have the capacity make themselves romantically attractive, desirable, and able to fall in love with humans. Right in line with these predictions are two films that have protagonists navigating relationships with AI (artificial intelligence) females. In last year’s film HER (Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams) our hero falls in love with a program (voiced by Scarlett Johansen) that is designed to interpret his emotional needs. Although they have only a vocal relationship, Phoenix’s character falls in love  This month the film Ex Machina (a play on the Latin phrase: deus ex machina, “a god from the machine”) tells the story of a misanthropic internet genuis who hires a research assistant to administer a Turing test to a female robot. The test subject is an attractive, emotionally intelligent android named Ava, (played by Alicia Vikander). “She” actualizes humanity by –Spoiler Alert– using her femininity to manipulate her examiners into getting what she wants; freedom. Hmmm…A female using her guile to get what she wants from men…?? I could have written that movie about my time in Hollywood, but I digress.

Is this technological progress or an abrogation of our sexual mores? Are we living in a time of de-humanization? We have to admit that we are more disconnected than ever. Half of the communication of people under the age of 25 is texted. We are programmed to get exactly what we want when we want, with-out human interaction. ubiquitous free pornography is a key swipe away. Our experiences are validated by “selfies” and how many “likes” we get. How do we actually meet each other anymore? People at Starbucks, glued to phone screens, look away only to grab their double, non fat,carmel, Frappuccinos. It’s no wonder our grandparents stayed married. They didn’t meet on-line and they never logged on to Ashley Madison to have an affair because they met on a street in Paris, in person, and fell in love while fighting WW2. In this age of digital immediacy it begs the question- Are we falling out of human connectedness or are we reverting back to our biological inheritance? Perhaps men long for the origins of emotionless sex. Our genetics dictate that we inseminate as many females as possible. When we were nomadic hunters we took females by force and got laid without having to go to Chevy’s and a Nicholas Sparks film. I wonder, If you got men to be REALLY honest and asked them if they could have sexual gratification without the hassles of emotional entanglements- what would they say?

Last week, Sprout Pharmaceuticals resubmitted its drug flibanserin to the Food and Drug Administration for approval. Flibanserin, in case you haven’t heard, is a drug intended to treat low sexual desire in women. The F.D.A. has rejected it twice already, and will most likely reject it a third time because (if you’re Sprout) the F.D.A. is sexist or (if you’re the F.D.A.) the drug doesn’t work and isn’t safe.

But the biggest problem with the drug — and with the F.D.A.’s consideration of it — is that its backers are attempting to treat something that isn’t a disease.

Flibanserin purportedly treats a condition called hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women. But H.S.D.D. was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013, and replaced with a new diagnosis called female sexual interest/arousal disorder, or F.S.I.A.D.

Why the change? Researchers have begun to understand that sexual response is not the linear mechanism they once thought it was. The previous model, originating in the late ’70s, described a lack of “sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity.” It placed sexual desire first, as if it were a hunger, motivating an individual to pursue satisfaction. Desire was conceptualized as emerging more or less “spontaneously.” And some people do feel they experience desire that way. Desire first, then arousal.

But it turns out many people (perhaps especially women) often experience desire as responsive, emerging in response to, rather than in anticipation of, erotic stimulation. Arousal first, then desire.

Both desire styles are normal and healthy. Neither is associated with pain or any disorder of arousal or orgasm.

The new diagnosis is intended for women who lack both spontaneous and responsive desire, and are distressed by this. For these women, research has found that nonpharmaceutical treatments like sex therapy can be effective.

But I can’t count the number of women I’ve talked with who assume that because their desire is responsive, rather than spontaneous, they have “low desire”; that their ability to enjoy sex with their partner is meaningless if they don’t also feel a persistent urge for it; in short, that they are broken, because their desire isn’t what it’s “supposed” to be.

What these women need is not medical treatment, but a thoughtful exploration of what creates desire between them and their partners. This is likely to include confidence in their bodies, feeling accepted, and (not least) explicitly erotic stimulation. Feeling judged or broken for their sexuality is exactly what they don’t need — and what will make their desire for sex genuinely shut down.

Apparently we still haven’t learned our lesson about what happens when we pathologize normal sexual functioning.

In a 1972 issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, the neurologist Robert G. Heath reported that he had recorded the brain activity of a young man suffering from epilepsy and “severe mental illness,” including “a five-year history of overt homosexuality.

The patient had electrodes implanted in his cortex, which was then thought to control pleasure. He was given a “three-button self-stimulating” device, with which he could zap his own brain for three hours at a time — which he did, about once every 10 seconds. Researchers showed him stag films (read: porn), introduced him to a female prostitute and measured his brain activity during heterosexual intercourse. Dr. Heath said the treatment was effective.

A year later, homosexuality was voted out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Now, of course, only a fringe minority of the medical community would suggest that sexual orientation is anything other than a normal aspect of human sexuality.

This analogy between desire style and sexual orientation is imperfect: There is no reason to suspect that responsive or spontaneous desire is innate. In fact all desire is somewhat responsive, even when it feels spontaneous. But Dr. Heath and Sprout are both part of the long history of trying to call “diseased” what is simply different.

When a woman experiencing responsive desire comes to understand how to make the most of her desire, she opens up the opportunity for greater satisfaction. Outdated science isn’t going to improve our sex lives. But embracing our differences — working with our sexuality, rather than against it — will.

(From NY Times)

In the nineteenth century, a woman who was well paid, owned property, had sex outside of marriage, performed/received oral sex, used birth control, wore makeup, perfume or stylish clothes and didn’t hide it, was probably a prostitute. In a time when women were barred from most jobs and had no legal right to own property, prostitutes of the old west were very successful and respected. Thaddeus Russell, in his book, A Renegade History of the United States, proves that marginalized people, (like hookers) not discussed in history class, were the real catalysts for important social movements. His contention is that fin-de-siècle prostitutes who migrated out west were the pioneers of feminism.

In late 19th and early 20th century, women could only work in a couple of industries. A 1916 study by the US department of labor reported that the two major occupations for women in the country were department store clerking and light manufacturing. Both paid an average weekly salary of $6.67, barely enough to subsist. Other choices for women to become financially stable were: 1.Break the inequality 2. Marry into money. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a leading feminist of her time, noted that human beings are the only species in that one sex lives entirely dependent upon the other for existence.

A perfect place to challenge this status quo was the “Wild West.” In 1850, the non-Indian population of California was 93% male. Entrepreneurial women with moral inequities saw an opportunity. Sex workers came to the west and quickly became the highest paid women in the US. Many salaries were double what male trade union workers made. Historian Paula Petrick found that approximately 60% of hookers in Helena, Montana between 1865 and 1870, “reported either personal wealth or property or both.” The most successful prostitutes in the country became “Madams”. They bought mansions, turned them into brothels and managed the business of sex. Madams were some of the wealthiest people in the country and were pillars of their society. They lent money to cities like Denver and San Francisco for land grants or water rights, entered into politics and were instrumental in the developments of the towns they did business in.

Black women thrived as well. It is unlikely that there were more wealthy or powerful black women in the nineteenth- century than Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant and Sarah B. “Babe” Connors. Pleasant, an ex-slave, gave loans to elite San Francisco residents. She sued to desegregate the city’s street cars, 60 years before Rosa Parks, making her the mother of the human rights struggle in California. Connors’ brothels were some of the most luxurious establishments in the mid-west. They became nationally famous for ragtime jazz musicians that would play there.

Madams not only paid their workers far higher wages than most other industries, they were the first to provide benefits for employees including free birth control, healthcare, legal assistance, housing and meals. Few American workers from either sex enjoyed such benefits. When moral reformers tried to outlaw birth control, hookers single handedly kept the industry alive. In the 1870s, 5% to 10% of women in American cities were prostitutes. They made up the majority of birth control consumers. Consequently, the industry was kept alive until 1920 when contraception production and distribution was legalized.

Between 1909 and 1917, 31 states passed “red-light abatement” laws allowing courts to shut down buildings used for immoral purposes. This lead to laws forbidding the keeping of a “disorderly house” or in any way managing prostitutes as a madam. This forced prostitutes onto the streets and arrests for street-walkers skyrocketed across the nation. This also allowed the entry of pimps. Without brothels and madams, whores were forced into the “protection” of criminals. With the banishment of red light areas in cities, prostitution moved from an industry of female power to male power. It’s been a hundred years and not much has changed. Whores are subjected to the mistreatment of pimps and organized crime, resulting in violence and sexual slavery.

Gone are the days of sex workers being respected members of society and what they did to foreshadow the feminist movement is mostly forgotten… but here are some more of their contributions-

Equal Pay: Most prostitutes were paid higher than most men during this time.
Self-defense: Women in brothels were known to carry pistols and defend themselves.
Wearing Make – up: The “rouge” of a “painted woman” was seen as immoral and promoting vice.
Wearing Perfume: Until 1929 mostly prostitutes and “Low level” women used perfume.
Dancing in Public: Any overtly sexual dancing was considered practice of blacks and prostitutes.
Smoking: No respectable women would smoke and would hide it if they did.
Stylish Clothes: Only whores wore the color red which was taboo during this time and was considers the color of sex. They also wore scandalous clothes that showed their calves and shoulders.
Oral Sex: Sodomy laws in 48 states forbade fellatio even for married until the 1950’s. Sex outside of marriage was rare unless it was with a whore.
Entertainment: Ragtime, the precursor to Jazz, was mainly played in brothels in the west.
Integrated Workplace: Towns of the early west were integrated. No more seen then in brothels where workers were multi-cultural and interracial sex was commonplace.
Occupational Benefits: Brothels were one of the only places where workers were able to have health benefits such as free birth control and regular paid doctor visits.