A hand on the neck

There is something I find incredibly erotic about this image.  I just ran across it again in the film "Deception" with Hugh Jackman, and it's just... unbelievable.  It is very clearly the power of it -- you don't know if he is going to kill her or have his way with her.  It so happens that in "The Tudors", there is going to be both, and in the film it's the latter (and I am not ruining anything, given that the film is about a sex club).  

It helps that Hugh Jackman is effin gorgeous, of course, but he also does a very good job of being an evil, evil bastard.  There really isn't anything redeeming about his character.  Normally in movies and books, I like a little more realism -- I want people who are like the real people in the world, but then again, I don't know any sociopaths, nor would I sleep with any.  But dang, is he hot when he is standing behind Michelle Williams, wrapped around her, with one hand at her throat as he very threateningly whispers a song to her, and then at the last second when you think he is going to snap her neck, instead throws her on the bed and pushes her legs apart...

It's better than all the other on-screen sex put together.  

Gamers and kink and fetish wear

I'm pretty sure few are surprised by the duality of gamers and kink, but hey... here's some more proof.  Take a look at this World of Warcraft ad.  More specifically, check out the droolworthy outfit -- the beautiful corset, the belt, the gloves.  We already know Why Geeks Make Better Lovers, and this just goes along with the points about consensual role playing and already knowing kinky people.  

Incidentally, in case anyone needs this warning, if you begin to date a gaming geek, you end up listening to a lot of gaming talk.  I know way more about WoW than the average female...    

Is a kept woman a whore?

I feel a variety of things about "Keeping Up with Being Kept" in the NYTimes today.  At the very least, I think the author did a good job of writing a descriptive article that isn't overly judgmental of either party.  I'm not sure I would be capable of doing the same.  

On the one hand, everyone involved is an adult, who certainly has a right to do and live as they wish.  Let's call a spade a spade though.  If you're exchanging sex for money, that is prostitution.  And I'm willing to take that to the extent that if you set up that same sort of relationship as advertised on the site without the site, it's still prostitution.  If you're a 20 year old girl who meets a 50 year old man on a regular basis to have sex and receive presents or money, you're a hooker.  You might tell yourself that's classier than being a streetwalker, but it's still the same basic thing.  

If you're 20 and you fall in love with a 50 year old who happens to be wealthy, and you go on to have a real, full-fledged relationship in which of course you reap the benefits of having a wealthy partner, that's different.  If you fall in love with a rich 20 year old, by the way, it's the same thing, but it happens that it's a lot harder to find rich young men (unless you're talking about trust fund babies).  The trust fund babies usually don't have to pay for sex though.

I'm not passing judgment on practitioners of the oldest profession.  It certainly provides more money in some instances than working minimum wage.  But these girls on the web site are delusional if they think this isn't whoring themselves out.  Just admit what you're doing.  This web site is putting a slightly nicer face for it is all.  

The practice is negative for the same reasons prostitution is generally said to be negative.  I feel sad for these men, who feel they must buy the semblance of love and affection they aren't getting at home.  The time they spend with lithe young girls could be spent fixing their marriages, which are now rather broken.  I'll also pull out the other argument that if society provided other options, women would not have to resort to prostituting themselves.  I do like that one guy does a cost analysis of a wife, a girlfriend, a mistress, and a whore.  That's entertaining.