Flying Sex Toys! New Podcast Episode! The Terrifying Nature of The Biological Clock!
H ey hi hello dear PULP-ers,
The truth is, I’m a little hungover today, which is a rather embarrassing thing to pen on a Monday afternoon, but there you have it.
I threw one of my best friends a birthday party yesterday — we made and ate about 30 pizzas in our tiny little cob oven in the backyard—before I quaffed 3 too many mojitos and Irish-exited a most excellent soiree, chock full of my favorite people, and curled up in bed.
I woke in the middle of the night, fully clothed, mouth puckered in what appeared to be a last chapter of red wine and I stood in my kitchen and drank glass after glass of cold water in the darkness.
And as I slated my thirst and felt the creeping self-flagellation that nearly always accompanies my nights of excess — and on a school night no less!—I instead felt a sudden surge of delight.
Sometimes behaving a little badly, feeling a little out of control, a little more is more (!) can be incredibly cathartic. I’ve been jangly and sad this creeping spring and I think my brain needed a little white rum-soaked respite.
I have a headache but my spirit feels sated.
Here’s hoping you get what you need to smile more, to feel more alive.
Ever and always,
Katie (+July)
‘Between The Bills’ Episode Five: The Criminalization Of HIV/AIDS, by Emily Rose Thorne
“Since the initial HIV outbreak in the 1980s, the U.S. government has denied acknowledgement, funding, treatment, and prevention of the disease and wrote laws about what HIV-positive folks can and cannot do, specifically due to its association with the LGBTQ+ population.
Discriminatory laws that criminalize HIV/AIDS are targeted attacks on the queer community, particularly transgender folks and men who have sex with men.”
My Body Tries To Have Children, But My Brain Won’t Allow It, by Jessica Carney
“I can feel my body trying to get pregnant each month. Halfway through my cycle, odd thoughts pop into my head about male friends and acquaintances. His arms look strong, and they have a nice amount of hair on them, I think. While I don’t hear the individual words, the idea enters my brain, full-bodied, without my permission or conscious thought.
What on earth, another part of my brain chimes in, the part that seems to be detached from my reproductive system. Loud and emboldened during this time of the month, my body sagely replies, You’ll change your mind about kids.”
PULP IT LIKE IT’S HOT: When Your Sex Toy Testing is Interrupted, by Demeter deLune
Or, the night I learned vibrators can fly…
On The “Nordic Model”: The Ongoing Criminalization Of Sex Workers, by Alek Nielsen
“Nordic countries use vague, broad laws to prosecute a wide range of people who associate with sex workers, including friends, family, and partners who simply share flats with a sex worker, and ,perhaps especially, any sex workers who choose to work collaboratively.
Northern Europe treats women “‘like they’re garbage needed to be cleaned away.’”
Self-Care For The Kinky, by Leah Roberts Peterson
“Us kinky folk are drawn to the more expressive types of sex and intimacy for lots of reasons, and one major theme is usually some type of trauma we’re working out. Emotional, mental, physical, childhood — you name it, we’ve probably had it, and we’re working our asses off in an effort to clean house, be stable, and live as productive citizens who put love out into the world in every kinky way possible.
You can take care of yourself if you make it a little bit of a priority. Just decide to do one thing.”
Arnold Viersen’s Parliamentary Stunt To Shame Canadian Sex Workers, by the folx at Slixa
“‘I have spoken at length with sex workers I know,’” stated Collins, in an interview with Slixa.com, “‘about their life experiences, and the damage that stigma does. It increases violence and it increases risk, and the laws of Canada, currently, really make their lives more dangerous.’”
She’s not wrong. Canada presently enjoys a modified Nordic Model of decriminalization that does little to help or advocate for providers, and instead criminalizes the buying of sexual services.”
