__picture it & write

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creative writing prompt, fiction, inspiration, photography, poetry, stories, weekly writing prompt, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.

Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.

“How much longer do we have to stay out here for?” Yezus asked, folding his arms behind his head.

“You said you’d let me show you the woods for a few days. Try and enjoy yourself.” Richard kept his gaze steady, watching the trees.

“But how long is a few days?” Yezus looked over to Richard, waiting for him to look over. With no response, Yezus looked straight ahead at the trees again and tried to relax. “Aren’t you scared a witch will come out? Or a bunch of giant spiders? Or maybe the chainsaw massacre guy?”

Richard chuckled lightly. “Nature is the most peaceful thing to me and yet you manage to think about those things while looking at it.”

“I’m not saying that it’s the only thing I see, it’s just–“

Richard leaned over and kissed Yezus on the lips. He pulled away and took his hand. “We’ll go for a hike in ten minutes.” Then Richard went back to staring at the forest.

Yezus nodded, leaned back, and stared ahead too. He squeezed Richard’s hand. “If anything was to jump out, it’d definitely be that chick from the grudge.”

- Ermisenda Alvarez

Book Review: The Feminist Porn Book

Tags

feminist porn, feminist porn wars, human sexuality, journalism, non-fiction, pornography, psychology, sexology

The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure

edited by Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, and Mireille Miller-Young

genre: non-fiction, psychology, sexology, journalism, human sexuality

There were so many great essays in here, but I found some repetitive. Find out why I gave it 4 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

The Feminist Porn Book brings together for the first time writings by feminists in the adult industry and research by feminist porn scholars. This book investigates not only how feminists understand pornography, but also how feminists do porn—that is, direct, act in, produce, and consume one of the world’s most lucrative and growing industries. With original contributions by Susie Bright, Candida Royalle, Betty Dodson, Nina Hartley, Buck Angel, and more, The Feminist Porn Book updates the debates of the porn wars of the 1980s, which sharply divided the women’s movement, and identifies pornography as a form of expression and labor in which women and other minorities produce power and pleasure.

Review

It was excited to read this book because I wanted to hear the debate about pornography from an open perspective that would talk about the issues on both sides. Unfortunately, this book isn’t so much about the debate about pornography, but more about feminist pornography. Although the book talks about how feminist pornography differs for some, it is more or less ethically produced pornography that emphasises genuine sexual pleasure on screen (particularly the womans and other oppressed sexual minorities). I had heard about feminist pornography and this book really filled me in on the history and big debates in the field. For that, I found it fascinating, but I also wish there was more talk about mainstream pornography.

My favourite essays were from porn-stars-turned-directors and a psychologist. It helped me work through ingrained beliefs I didn’t believe I had. For example, that female sex workers are always victims or have somehow been ‘damaged’. Even though there is most definitely exploited women in pornography, there are also women (hopefully not a small minority) that genuinely love what they do and have not experienced any kind of trauma in their upbringing. Even though I had accepted that idea, I hadn’t really processed it as well until I read some of these essays. As a psychology student, I really enjoyed the essay from the psychologist and learning how pornography was able to help her clients through their identity and self-esteem troubles. It was an eye-opener because I had never considered pornography as a possible tool for counselling.

__picture it & write

Tags

community, creative writing prompt, flash fiction, inspiration, photo prompt, photography, poetry, weekly writing prompt, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.

Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.

Man in the suit by apaxngh on deviantart

As an Asian boy growing up in London, he was familiar to insults. They’d tease him for his eyes, the breadth of his shoulders, and made it clear that he would be useless in bed with women. He was never a man the way they were men. He had taken that anger and consumed its energy. He was known as The Man In The Suit now. He was a hot-shot lawyer and women draped themselves over him, he was known for his prowess both in the business world and in the bedroom. He was cold and distant but flicked on charm at a moments notice. He was ‘a man’ by the standards of the boys who would tease him. But one day he woke up being particularly aware of how empty and lonely his expensive apartment was, and he wondered whether this was the kind of man he had always wanted to be.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

Book Review: Secret Sex Lives by Suzy Spencer

Tags

bdsm, book review, case studies, interviews, journalism, living on the fringes of american sexuality, psychology, secret sex lives, sexology, sexuality books, sociology, suzy spencer, swingers, writing

Secret Sex Lives: A Year on the Fringes of American Sexuality

by Suzy Spencer

genre: non-fiction, psychology, sexology, journalism, human sexuality

An oddly intimate book that is quite confronting. Find out why I gave it 3 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

Suzy Spencer set out to investigate sex in America—to go beyond the talk and find out what people are really doing in their private (or not so private) lives. What she discovered online, at sex clubs, and elsewhere was truly eye-opening.She started talking to men and women—from across America of all ages and sexual orientations—who make no apology for how they fire their imaginations and satisfy their desires. Soon she found herself invited to be a voyeur—listening in on phone sex, reading e-mails describing sexual encounters in graphic detail, and attending BDSM mixers and workshops. It was all astonishing… and enticing. At every turn she felt herself pulled deeper into people’s secret lives and began questioning her own choices about relationships and sex. Secret Sex Lives is an intimate account of a journalist who is seduced by her subject; a woman who sets out to look behind closed doors but ends up on a personal, revealing journey to find herself…

Review

I thought this book was going to be a collection of scientific case studies. Instead, it was a memoir with Craigslist interviews thrown into the mix. Coming from a science background, I felt myself cringing at HOW subjective this was. When I finished the book, it took me a while to process what I read and what I gained from it. Even though it was very subjective, I feel like it was still a decent read. But I was disappointed at the lack of objectivity.

I think the strongest aspect of the book were the interviews she did. We met many interesting, confronting, and good-natured people. I feel like there were two main ‘kinks’ that she explored through the people who messaged her. Swingers and BDSM-ers. I found it interesting to learn more about these worlds and how they exist (in the context of America). I liked how some of the characters in the book received quite a lot of attention, showing how complex each and everyone of us is. Society often likes to shun ‘sex deviants’ and make them out to be one-dimensional, to define them by their kink, but I liked that this book showed them as normal people with normal lives. Although, in saying that, I disliked how often Suzy referred to her interviewees as ‘sex freaks’. I think she used it endearingly at times but… it’s still not cool.

__picture it & write

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community, creative writing, flash fiction, inspiration, photography, poetry, stories, weekly writing prompt, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.

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Forest Sculpture by Spencer Byles

“You need to stop seeing these things!” My father grabbed me roughly by the shoulders and shook me. “You need to close your eyes and tell yourself that they’re not real. I don’t care how real they look. I don’t care how tempting it can seem to walk towards them. You do not go near those archways of Satan! Do you understand?”  I kept staring out into the forest. Where did those archways lead?

I felt my father’s hands grab my chin. He snapped my head around to face him. My gaze fell on his anger-lit eyes. They were still there. The archways were in his eyes too.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

__a reading by a former heroin addict

Tags

drug stories, heroin addict, heroin feels nice, reading, reddit, upworthy, writing

I found this great reading on Upworthy. Very powerful. It’s very hard to understand the psyche of an addict when you have never been one. But this response gives a glimpse into that experience.

What did you think of it?

- Ermisenda

__picture it & write

Tags

creative writing prompt, photography, poetry, weekly writing prompt, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.

Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.

by HelloLanaya

“You two scrub up nice!” my grandmother reached up to pinch my cheek. I was two meters tall and had to hunch over so she could keep pinching my cheek like she had done since I was born.

“You two look so…” My mother looked at me and my twin brother with tears in her eyes. “So handsome.”

“Did we really have to have matching suits?” I sighed, still annoyed about my parents going out to buy the clothes without our knowledge.

My father stood with the camera to snap another fifty photos of us. I rolled my eyes at me brother and he smirked in reply. “Let them have their moment,” he said. Always the peace-keeper.

I sighed and straightened up for the photo. I tried my best to give my most genuine smile. But I wasn’t excited for tonight. Going to our end of year formal was going to be full of “You two look so alike!” statements. But I was done always being compared and connected to my look-a-like. I was excited to finally start my own path at university. I would no longer be a second half, I would be a whole piece. My own piece.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

__picture it & write

Tags

creative writing prompt, flash fiction, photography, poetry, stories, weekly writing prompt, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.

Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.

I pushed dirty locks from my eyes. I was still bleeding from the gash on my leg and I ground my teeth in pain. Peering out from the forest, I saw a mansion on the edge of a cliff. Lights flickered behind some of the windows. There were people inside.

I looked down to see my growing belly. Rubbing it, I made a prayer. Would the people inside help me or shame me? There was no turning back now. The village had made it clear what they would do to my growing child if I stayed. Taking a deep breath, I walked. With each step I took towards the mansion, another window was lit from the inside.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

Book Review: Perv by Jesse Bering

Tags

book review perv, human sexuality, jesse bering, non-fiction, psychology, science, sexology, sexuality books

Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us

by Jesse Bering

genre: non-fiction, psychology, sexology, science, human sexuality

A great book exploring big topics in human sexual deviancy. Find out why I gave it 5 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

Combining cutting-edge studies and critiques of landmark research and conclusions drawn by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and the DSM-5, Bering pulls the curtain back on paraphilias, arguing that sexual deviance is commonplace. He explores the countless fetishists of the world, including people who wear a respectable suit during the day and handcuff a willing sexual partner at night. But he also takes us into the lives of “erotic outliers,” such as a woman who falls madly in love with the Eiffel Tower; a pair of deeply affectionate identical twins; those with a particular penchant for statues; and others who are enamored of crevices not found on the human body.Moving from science to politics, psychology, history, and his own reflections on growing up gay in America, Bering confronts hypocrisy, prejudice, and harm as they relate to sexuality on a global scale. Humanizing so-called deviants while at the same time asking serious questions about the differences between thought and action, he presents us with a challenge: to understand that our best hope of solving some of the most troubling problems of our age hinges entirely on the amoral study of sex.As kinky as it is compassionate, illuminating, and engrossing, Perv is an irresistible and deeply personal book. “I can’t promise you an orgasm at the end of our adventure,” Bering writes, “but I can promise you a better understanding of why you get the ones you do.”

Review

This book on sexual deviancy caught my attention and I’m glad it did. I love that it focused so much on the psychology of sex and desire and also morality/ethics of sexual desire and behaviour. It covers a great range of sexuality topics from sexual orientations, chronophilias (desired age ranges), paraphilias, and partialisms. Fascinating and weird fetishes were discussed (there was a case study of a man who sexually obsessed over used boots) but so were to the uncomfortable and confronting chronophilias: pedophilia and hebephilia.

Jesse, the author, shares his experiences as a homosexual man who was a closeted gay child in the 80s. He often compares the treatment of the homosexuals then to how we treat other sexual deviants today. I think using homosexuality in this way was smart because culture in developed nations has been changing its attitudes towards homosexuals and for the better. Will the disgust we hold for other sexual deviants also disappear in time with social change?

__picture it & write

Tags

creative writing prompt, photography, poetry, stories, weekly writing prompt, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.

Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.

Resin stacking rings by daimblond

She presented a little box and opened it so I could see what was inside. There was a beautiful purple ring. It was simple but mesmerising.

“What is this for?” I asked, confused.

“Try it on!” she insisted and giggled.

“I really can’t accept that. I didn’t get you anything.” I shook my head. Guilt was settling in my stomach.

She grinned ear to ear and took my hand and pulled it towards her. She grabbed the ring and pushed it on my index finger.

“Wait, wait,” I mumbled. The ring was cutting into my skin. I retracted my hand but it was already on my finger. “Ow.” It bit into my skin like a row of teeth. I stared at my finger and blood seeped from beneath the ring. I tried to rip it off but it wouldn’t budge. I noticed that there were gold bits arising from the purple stone. “What is this?” I shrieked. The pain intensified.

She stared at the ring intently, as if waiting to collect it once it was done.

- Ermisenda Alvarez