According to this news report, Cuba (well, technically President Raul Castro), has authorized free sex reassignment surgeries (often called "sex change operations") for those citizens who qualify. This is really important news and certainly separates Cuba apart from other countries, such as the United States, in terms of taking a progressive look at providing support for transgender individuals. In the United States, transgender individuals who wish to either use hormones, aesthetic procedures or surgical procedures to change their sex characteristics (e.g. genitals, voice, body hair) often have an extremely high financial burden and little insurance or governmental support. What are your thoughts - should individuals in the US who want to have sex reassignment surgery be able to qualify for government-supported free or reduced rate surgeries?

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Check out this, as Spock himself might say, "fascinating" clip on Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and how his character relates to masculinity. A hint? Here’s an excerpt from the NPR piece:

" ‘I think that’s one of the most interesting things about Spock,’ says Nimoy. "It’s not what you’re getting, but what you don’t get — what peeks out occasionally."

What peeks out occasionally are Spock’s emotions. One of the series’ favorite gambits was to have him lose his mind. Writers would put him under the influence of an urge to mate, or a flower spore, or a germ that eliminates defense mechanisms, as in an episode called "Naked Time."

"I’m in control of my emotions, in control of my emotions," Spock insisted in that episode.

Read (or listen) to the NPR piece on their web site.

[Image via this site.]

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In this week’s Time Out Chicago, I answer questions from readers about a partner grappling with gender identity issues, and to what extent marathon vaginal and oral sex sessions may contribute to yeast infections. Read the full column here.

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Okay, now this is bad. While playing Scrabulous on Facebook, I saw this ad that one could click on to "learn how you can shrink your waist." And the ad is for a muffin top (e.g., fat sticking out over the top of one’s jeans). Why make women feel bad about their "muffin top" the way men feel bad about their "beer bellies"? Yes, women have abdominal fat but that is a good thing when it comes to health and fertility (at least in small amounts, anyway). Plus, when fashion transitioned from high rise pants to low rise pants a few years ago, suddenly many more millions of women who would have never previously known the muffin top effect suddenly were experiencing it. Tyra Banks, on her show, talked about her own muffin top.

When women and men feel bad or self-conscious about their bodies, sex suffers. Plain and simple. Can we please help each other to feel good about our bodies?

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The Louisville C-J article (mentioned below) makes reference to a SNL skit for "Annuale" - a pill that, like Seasonale and Lybrel, keeps women from having their period. Check it out here:

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Some women’s bathrooms have machines from which you can buy a tampon or menstrual pad for roughly 25 cents or so. In the Philadephia airport yesterday, I walked into the bathroom and there was a pile of tampons sitting on the counter (see above photo). It reminded me of my boarding school which had a bathroom in the main administration building that some of us girls learned had a free stash of tampons in the cabinets underneath the sink where the extra rolls of toilet paper were kept. Quite a few girls hoarded tampons over the years at boarding school and even had enough for breaks, or summer time, or their post-high school years in college. Why buy them if you can get them for free?

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What is particularly interesting about this (too funny) clip is that a couple of years ago I attended a talk where the speaker made points about the homoeroticism displayed in talk (it was a "gender studies" talk). She wasn’t saying that it was "gay" - just that it was homoerotic. The shower scenes… the tanned, sweaty, shirtless volleyball scenes… but then there are also these moments where Top Gun is super stereotypically straight, like when the female instructor is talking and the wind is blowing her hair, but apparently nothing else in the room (like, none of the guys’ papers on their desks, and none of the guys’ hair… though perhaps that could be because of the amount of product in their hair, which is another issue altogether).

Anyway, here is the clip (thanks to reader Michael for sharing):

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Girl babies remain generally undesirable in some cultures, particularly given the expense that a family may later have to pay for her dowry, that some families opt to abort female babies. It is not a new trend and certainly some governmental groups have tried to prevent this from happening from placing restrictions on the use of ultrasound technology, which would reveal the sex of a fetus (and thus facilitate parents’ "selective abortion" if the fetus is female). This article describes a new governmental program in India that offers cash incentives for female babies and even more cash if the girl reaches age 18 - the latter incentive, I assume, so people won’t start killing babies but will actually let them live through to adulthood. Yikes.

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Courtesy of Esquire magazine, a dad/writer - with the permission of his wife - helps his beautiful nanny find love (or at least a date) via online dating and gets a lesson in what it’s like to be an attractive woman. Read the full article - including his lessons learned.

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This New York Times article reports on research - or at least the media’s willingness to pay attention to research - that suggests that teenaged boys, like teenaged girls, want relationships. They are not just all about sex though of course they  experience sexual desire and arousal. 

This is what I see among the college students I teach too. Publicly, in class, young men may act like they are all about sex but when they are able to write papers about their experiences and what they want, they say that they want relationships, they want to date, and they want to fall in love and find a committed partner. Do some of them also want a period where they can explore, more physically, without commitment? Yes, some do (like some girls). But overwhelmingly, men and women both seem to want affection and commitment and relationships in which they can flourish. Then again, in order to get and maintain these relationships, they also need the support of their parents, teachers and other caregivers so that they can develop the communication skills that will help them with their relationships.

It’s a good article and I highly suggest you take three minutes to read it here.

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