Sex and the internet, our two great obsessions. Which one would you rather have? A new study surveyed 1,000 people in 20 countries, and the results were surprising. Americans, as it turns out, like sex a whole lot, and wouldn’t give it up even if it meant losing the internet for a year. Only 21 percent of Americans ...
If you thought geishas were as dead as the dinosaurs, think again. Increasingly, Japanese women are rejecting the conventional path of love and marriage. Some choose to focus on career advancement, and becoming a geisha is now a very real aspiration for some young women. In Shimoda, a hot spring resort on Japan’s Pacific coast, which ...
My first encounter with Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto’s 1988 novel (translated into English in 1993 by Megan Backus) was in the late 90s when I discovered a copy wedged into the corner of a library shelf. It’s a small novel; only 150 pages. Yoshimoto’s language is simple, with short sentences describing action in unromantic language. Despite ...
Well folks, the apocalypse may finally be upon us. It isn’t anything fancy or dramatic like a zombie attack or tidal wave from 2012. It isn’t aliens or monsters. It’s gonorrhea. Scientists have found a new strain of super-gonorrhea that has shown resistance to antibiotics and other cures. The new form is called Ho41 and ...
Soon lonely astronauts will have a naughty nurse sexbot to keep them company in space. The Japanese space agency is looking into sending “humanoid” robots into space. Their function will be to tweet interesting things to those of us watching from Earth, but also to “watch the mission while astronauts are asleep, monitor their health ...
Women in Japan are suing for their right to have a different last name than their husbands. Currently the law says that families must have the same name. Although it’s up to the couple which name they have, it inevitably leads to women taking their husband’s name. Four women and one man are suing the government ...
Young Japanese people don’t like sex and married couples aren’t doing it either. A survey found that for 16 to 19-year-olds, 36.1% of men and 59% of women “had no interest or even despised sex.” And for married couples 40% of them had not had sex in the last month. What are the reasons for this? “Reluctance after ...
Manga comics and anime have now been regulated in Tokyo to protect under-18s from their sexually violent themes. Now any of these comics with rape, incest, or other sex crimes will not be allowed to be sold unless the buyer is 18 or older. Retailers will be charged up to $3,500 if they break these ...
As you look out of your hotel window across the sea-side town, you smile nervously at your girlfriend. “What do you think?” you ask, taking her hand. Only instead of her hand you take a stylus and poke at a screen. Your girlfriend is a Love Plus+ character but your vacation with her is real. ...
It begins with an “I do,” lovingly staring into each other’s eyes. But when it ends, mountains of paperwork must be sifted through and signed off on. At best the couple avoids each other, but at worst they hurl invectives down telephone lines and internet cables. But Japan has a better idea — the divorce ...
The latest film in the American Pie series, American Reunion, contains a shocking scene – male full-frontal nudity including...
Dear Madame X, I have just started seeing this girl. She seems great, but she recently told me she...
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved arrived in my hands via a public library, when I was a broke teenager with...
My attention was drawn this week to an article about the reaction at a Canadian university to proposals to...
Airport security. Bloody nuisance. Also a conspiracy designed to subjugate women. Allow me to elaborate. Despite flying quite a...
The Cannes film festival has kicked off this week with controversy over the lack of films made by women...
Dear Madame X, I seem to be only attracted to men who are macho assholes. I like them at...
When A Clockwork Orange was published in 1962, the term sexualized violence wasn’t in use. The distinction between sexualized...
