Slut PhD

This episode provides a very brief survey of some interesting and occasionally significant figures from bisexual and polyamorous history, primarily targeting people who were born in the nineteenth century.

Here are links to many of the sources:

⁠ Virginia Woolf⁠

⁠Eleanor Roosevelt⁠

⁠Cole Porter⁠

Julie D’Aubigny

JD cont

Alfred Kinsey

Morning Glory Zell Ravenheart

MGZR cont

Ma Rainey

Josephine Baker

Frida Kahlo

William Moulton Marston

WMM cont

Erwin Schrodinger

David Garnett

DG cont

Jack Parsons

This episode is a continuation of the previous one where Julie and Remy discuss their book, Violated: Sexual Consent and Assault in the 21st Century (with obvious trigger warnings for discussion of sexual assault). They begin by discussing aspects of the BDSM subculture that can might be able to inform consent practices in the broader culture. Then they focus on the discussions of rape law in the book, which include the historical development of rape and sexual assault laws, followed by their take on mens rea (intentionality) and the desperate need to "grade" rape laws more like we currently grade homicide--by intent, not just offense.

For the book:

Amazon link

Publisher's link

Picking up from an earlier episode where Julie read the first chapter of Violated, Julie (a sociologist) and Remy (a lawyer) discuss their book, Violated: Sexual Consent and Assault in the 21st Century (to be continued in the next episode). They talk about how they came to write the book, things that surprised them as they worked on it, and the key themes of the book. The three most important of those themes are: (1) how gender norms end up inevitably creating sexual mistrust and encouraging sexual violations (2) how the construction of sexual assault law doesn't take really take intentionality into account and (3) how we should be exploring the concept of "consent hygiene" and asking, in a world where so many initial sexual encounters take place while one or both people are intoxicated, what's "good enough" consent?Mentioned in this episode:

⁠Hong (2018)⁠

⁠XKCD

Building on a previous episode about sexuality and gender (with Doug Robinson), this episode explores more ideas and themes around this weird and complicated topic. This breakdown includes things like some of the emotional and psychological dimensions of sexual attraction and identity, and how much of modern dating has come to be defined by willingness--or reluctance--to conform to a norm of three-dates-then-sex. They focus on grey areas of gender non-conformity, ace-spectrum experiences, and the nature of attraction.

Previous related episodes: Season 2, Episode 3: Born this way!

Season 1, Episode 7: Chatting about FemDom

In this episode, Julie reads the first chapter of her book, Violated: Sexual Consent and Assault in the 21st Century. Next month, she will have two episodes with her co-author Remy Green discussing their book. This episode provides the introduction for that conversation. Enjoy, and stay tuned!

Violated link

In this episode, Julie and her friend Doug Robinson chat about some of the things they love about group sex (threesomes, foursomes, and moresomes). Whether it's enjoying the freedom that comes with embracing queer sexuality or new ways to share bodies and friends, they talk a lot about the bonding that comes from group sex. They also talk about the Bad Stuff--problematic community and relationship dynamics that can really get in the way of the good time.

In this episode, Julie speculates about some of the reasons there's apparently such a high overlap between BDSM/polyamory and neurodivergence. There's very little published research on this topic, but there's a great deal of interest within these communities, so she considers some of the reasons these things might be related. She also takes a lengthy detour to discuss aphantasia and rope.

Mentioned in this episode: ⁠The Body Keeps the Score⁠ by Bessel van der Kolk

⁠The Prosocial Sadist?⁠ by Jennifer Erickson and Brad Sagarin

Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes Information

Sadly, there's no full audio recording (yet!) of my sociological book on the American BDSM scene, Please Scream Quietly: A Story of Kink. But here's chapter 1, Introduction: Your Fantasy Is My Reality, read by the author.

You can buy my book on Amazon, or you can buy it straight from the publisher. (If you're purchasing internationally, I believe the publisher is your best bet).

Traditional BDSM culture has tended to ignore the artistry of being a good switch in favor of pure-dom/pure-sub identities and dynamics. Contemporary BDSM culture places a much higher value on switches and switching, but the specific skillset remains less understood and appreciated. In this episode, Julie and ElsieXO describe some switch identity journeys and unpack some of the skills good switches need. (Also, the Doug described in Elsie's story is in fact Doug Robinson, previous guest of the show). Apologies that some of the sound quality in this episode deteriorates a bit at the end--even extensive editing couldn't quite fully save it :-(

Julie and her sub Artifiction have both been writing erotica for years. In this episode, they share their wildly different journeys to the same destination of writing smutty stories. They discuss the qualities of good erotica, share perspectives on erotica reading and writing, and end with tips, tricks, and games for writing it for yourself, an audience, and/or your partner.

Julie has published stories in:

⁠Best Women's Erotica, volume 8⁠

⁠Big Book of Quickies⁠