Good News: Bad News

  

 

The Good News:

Sex Might Cure Migraines as Well as Medicine

According to a German study recently published in Cephalagia (part of the International Headache Society), over half of migraine and cluster headache sufferers who had sex during their headaches reported at least some decrease in pain during and after the act.

The Bad News…on the same website:

Lions Fatally Maul Woman Having Sex with Her Boyfriend ‘in a Bushy Area’

A woman and her boyfriend were attacked by as many as seven lions while they were having sex “in a bushy area” near the Zimbabwean town of Kariba

 

Gay and lesbian athletes at the Summer Olympics and fun statistics

Outsports: The number of openly gay and lesbian athletes at the 2012 London Summer Olympics is on par with the totals for Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.

The nine openly gay and lesbians athletes are Matthew Mitcham (Australia, diving); Edward Gal (Netherlands, equestrian); Judith Arndt (Germany, cycling); Seimone Augustus (U.S., basketball); Imke Duplitzer (Germany, fencing); Megan Rapinoe (U.S. soccer); Marilyn Agliotti (Netherlands, field hockey); Maartje Paumen, (Netherlands, field hockey); and Jessica Landström (Sweden, soccer). In addition, Pia Sundhage, U.S. women’s soccer head coach, is openly gay.

…and now the statistics:

London 2012: Olympians plan to have lots and lots and lots and lots of sex

The biggest takeaway from the highly entertaining ESPN the Magazine pieceon sex in the Olympic village is that if you want to have fun as an Olympian, be single.

“My last Olympics, I had a girlfriend — big mistake,” swimmer Ryan Lochte says. “Now I’m single, so London should be really good. I’m excited.”

Former U.S. soccer player Judy Foudy remembers the village cafeteria, where she would “graze over our food for hours watching all the eye candy, wondering why I got married.”

How much sex will there be among Olympians? U.S. women’s soccer goalie Hope Solo Lochte guesses that 70% to 75% of Olympians will hook up, and the organizers are prepared by having 100,000 condoms on hand in the village. The best bodies? Swimmers and water polo players, according to one U.S. female athlete, while another called male gymnasts “lovable little Ewoks.”

When It Comes to Mattresses, People Are Opting for Good Sleep Over Good Sex

Jezebel: It feels like, in this modern world, you shouldn’t have to choose between having good sex and having good sleep, but apparently mattress consumers are, in fact, being faced with this dreadful choice. This is an issue because of memory-foam mattresses, which are becoming hugely popular as a result of their unique way of forming around your body and supporting you while you sleep. The only problem? They’re terrible for having sex.

Unlike traditional spring mattresses, which offer plenty of support off of which to launch your sexual moves, memory foam is a bit too squishy. According to sex therapist Sari Eckler Cooper, who spoke to Barron’s, “There’s a lack of resistance for the knees and feet. And whoever is on the bottom is sinking into the bed.” Nothing like a little quicksand sex to finish off a night.

p.s. There’s a cat and a Labrador in our bed also…kinky.

Lady Bonobos Totally Kiss and Tell

Jezebel: Okay, they do more than kiss. When female bonobos are banging other female bonobos, they really want everyone to know.

The BBC reports on a new study published in Scientific Reports, showing that the female chimps, who frequently have sex with other females, are not bashful at all. In fact, they’re kind of a cross between the nerdy guy who totally wants everyone to know he made out with a cheerleader, and the wannabe mean girl who’s always cozying up to the queen bee. The study found that lower-ranking lady bonobos were especially psyched to have sex with higher-ranking members of their group — and they made loud, excited chimp-sex-noises to let everyone know. They were especially vocal if the alpha female was around — apparently they want her to know when they’re getting it on with someone impressive. Says study author Zanna Clay, “As a low-ranked female, advertising [a] social-sexual bonding with another dominant group member may serve to strengthen their social position, and signal this to the alpha.”

Clay also offers this somewhat hilarious precis of her findings: “Using vocalisations, females only advertise sexual contacts with important group members. It’s all about climbing up the social ladder for female bonobos.” Chicks, man. All they care about is status. Why can’t they just love me for me?

If Straights Don’t Have Sex With Their Spouse Every Day, Do the Gays Win?

Jezebel: You know Christian conservatives don’t believe in sex before marriage. You probably know they also tend to believe in having lots of sex aftermarriage. But a new argument is emerging: the sex isn’t so much about making babies as it is about pleasure. Not pleasure for its own sake, however, but for the purpose of strengthening Christian marriages so that they can be bulwarks in the culture war against the gay menace.

Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy With Your Spouse and Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together sound like standard advice manuals of the sort found in every bookstore’s self-help section. But as Tracy Clark-Flory explains, the two books (each authored by conservative male pastors and their wives) hide a profoundly reactionary agenda behind their ostensible concern for helping couples achieve marital bliss. Both books are hostile to pornography, homosexuality, and masturbation. Anything other than monogamous, heterosexual married sex is, the authors promise, a recipe for enduring misery.