Where The Hell Did Silicon Valley Porn Go?! Depression And Orgasms! The Sexual Politics Of Rock And Roll!
Hi my dear PULP-y humans—
Happy Monday. (I hope.)
I’m currently in Santa Barbara visiting my nephew who just started Kindergarten—and cresting the hill of his schoolyard this morning, I was struck with the goose-bumped wind of nostalgia. Of the preposterous rush of time.
I could feel the grinning ghosts of children past; I could glimpse the little girls hidden in the lined faces of all the morning-tired mothers.
And I’m thankful for all that porousness. That my body is a vessel, a strangely shaped tunnel where light and darkness tumble. Where heat rises to be slaked by another’s thirst.
Love until you think your lungs will burst. Let every tumbling leaf slay you—let tears come when you glimpse two gnarled hands absently tangled on a bench. Smell your friends’ cooking—knowing you’ll be fed with cheap wine and leave feeling woozy and light. Run as fast as you can once in a while just to know you can, just so you feel your strength. And your limits.
Wake up and try to find the sun. Lift your hips and feel lips rise to meet them.
This past week we published all kinds of stories all about the beauty and betrayal, the wiles and wanderings and wonder of the body.
I hope they speak to your skin and to your spirit.
Ever worth the squeeze,
Katie (+July)
I Stopped Taking My Antidepressants So I Could Orgasm
By ZUVA
I instantly went into doomsday mode. I tried everything. From switching sexual partners to changing my vibrator batteries. I even went for the nuclear option — intense high vibrator masturbation sessions. But even that couldn’t get me a little wet. After around 30 minutes of failure, I did what all people are advised against and Googled my symptoms.
Luckily Google wasn’t too far off and correctly diagnosed my issue as a side effect of my antidepressants. It was then I decided I didn’t need orgasms. Surely the decrease of my depression was enough for life satisfaction? Orgasms were a gift I would just have to sacrifice for my joy, I thought. And I made it work.
“We’ve Always Been About Pleasure As Healing”: An Interview With Oakland Rock Band Copyslut
What are your core values as a band?
At our core, we believe there are radical healing possibilities through feeling pleasure. We are committed to self-love and healing our wounds and trauma through transformation.
Our deepest intention while performing is to create shame-free spaces for our Edgewalkers — a term we use to describe people who live on the margins of society. Our communities who are straddling the fringe are also often navigating multiple identities and marginalizations.
The Fall of San Fernando Valley: How Silicon Valley F*$%ed Over Silicone Valley
“We’re doomed”
In the past, a shift of both distribution and means of production had already caused a bit of a stir in the porn industry. During the 1980s, the Supreme Court in states like Oregon, Indiana and even California still regularly discussed the definition and legality of pornography, making its distribution so precarious that only a few companies ventured into it. But then the legal battles stopped — almost at the same time video cameras took off and easy-to-copy VHS tapes set the home entertainment market going — and those few companies saw their monopoly shrivel faster than Shawn Islander’s erection at the end of each sex scene in Shaving Ryan’s Privates.
These days, the porn industry in Budapest is as big as what remains of the industry in California.
On Being A Pregnant Carpenter
By Kate Hubbell
I’m not sure the jobsite or the lumberyard or the trades can handle a pregnant carpenter. Which is what I have become. Which has me and my body deep in a new conversation. It has me seeking a new relationship with the physicality of my work, re-defining what my current and future self are capable of, and very confused about what I ought to expect or accept from the rest of the world.
And Don’t Forget About Our New Reproductive Rights Podcast…Between The Bills!
‘Between The Bills’ Episode Two: The Painful, Underfunded, Misogynistic Mystery Of PCOS
Reproductive justice is about more than legal access to abortion. It also means ensuring everyone has the financial and personal ability to freely make choices about their bodies and lives in general. And that includes support for those living with reproductive health issues like polycystic ovarian syndrome, often called PCOS, a hormonal disorder that can cause pelvic pain, infertility and menstrual irregularities.
This week you’ll hear from Dr. Jamie Nodler, a reproductive surgeon based in Houston, Texas; Cryssy Dee, an author and advocate living with PCOS and endometriosis; and PULP magazine writer Katherine Fusco, who penned the wonderful essay, The Beautiful Monstrousness Of Motherhood: On ‘Aliens’ And Making Life.
