Once or twice before I’ve gotten inbound links from the very hip and very cool Autostraddle, which describes itself as “an intelligent, hilarious & provocative voice and a progressive online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies.”

I tend to take links from sources like this as a sort of “mission accomplished” compliment. Yes, I’m a straight guy who blogs mostly male-gaze porn with male-gaze commentary. Does that mean I have to be creepy and boys-only about it? I’ve never thought so.

But I’ve got to say, this particular inbound link had some curiously prudish and distancing anchor text that’s got me scratching my head.

The post in question was this one, and contained this line:

THIS is how they used to take a photograph of a pussy. (Emphasis and link in original.)

When they linked this post at Autostraddle, here’s the line of anchor text they used:

“This is how they used to have to take a picture of a p*ssy”

Notice what’s different?

First of all, they added the phrase “have to”. Like there was something repugnant about that perfectly delicious pussy. WTF?

And then, they asterisked the spelling of “pussy”. Again, WTF?

I’m not complaining — I’m happy for the link and the attention. But a site like that’s the last place I would expect to be pussy-squeamish. Maybe there’s another explanation I’m not getting?

Update: Riese from Autostraddle explains.

Entirely unsure what-all we are looking at here. But it looks like fun is being had:

Found it at All Shapes And Sizes.

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I like the way this vintage picture manages to suggest a bondage/dungeon scene without actually being one. To me, that hints at an origin in one of those timorous black and white fetish magazines of the 1970s or early 1980s, when mixing fetishes in print was considered legally dangerous. So she’s up against the wall like she’s been arrested, and there’s an attachment point for some chains, but no chains:

From Usenet.

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There’s a risk this will reinforce some of the negative memes that were in that yucky Atlantic article, but I’m going to post it anyway, because it strikes me as honest and unfiltered, and because it illuminates something about men that many women don’t act as if they are aware of. A lot of us men have sexual narratives like this running in our heads a lot of the time, not necessarily narratives as aggressive or as self-possessed as this, but running nonetheless:

99% of most days I wake up with an insanely raging hard on, something my new girlfriend rarely understands or helps relieve. She always has to run to work, and I watch her most mornings get dressed in heels and a dark skirt, toying with me.

I often fantasize about jumping her as she’s leaving, pulling her back by her hair and dragging her to the couch, ripping off her clothes and fucking her, bent over the table, forcefully, never letting go of her hair. After a little while, I’d pull out, force her to her knees and then cum all over her face and blouse.

She’d obviously have to take another shower.

But I mean, she’d only be a little late, right?

From Don’t Move.

And speaking, as I just was, of how things were done before the invention of the internet:

THIS is how they used to take a photograph of a pussy:

I’m not saying it was better, exactly. I’m not one of those living-in-the-past “in my day, sonny” people, oh no. Far be it from me to denigrate the dramatic progress of the pornographic arts and sciences.

But it sure was different.

Sonny, you know what they used to call a picture like that? “Split beaver”, I shit you not. I don’t miss that one little bit. Pornographic rodent metaphors, happily, are as dead as 8-track players.

Always Aroused Girl has posted a horrifying exchange she had with a guy on a dating site. His scintillating 20-character initial contact greeting?

“show me u can squirt”

It doesn’t get any better from there.

I left a comment musing on the possible merits of this “cheap as sperm” contact strategy. You know, it might work (depending on how you define “work”) if he sends it to enough women…

While I was posting that, I remembered a probably-apocryphal story I heard when I was a kid, still too young, in theory, to be worrying about picking up girls.

In those days, short term sex hookups (which weren’t called that) were mostly arranged in bars, the web not having been invented yet. Pickup lines were much discussed and mocked, and guys paid some attention to optimal strategies for arranging “one night stands”.

I kept hearing (“friend of a friend” style) persistent rumors about a guy who couldn’t be bothered with pickup lines and buying drinks for the ladies. Supposedly his schtick was to just walk up and ask “Wanna fuck?” Usually, he’d get a cold stare; sometimes (this being before the days when minor, provoked personal violence was considered a matter for police and courts) he’d get a slap in the face.

Which he would take in stride, before going up to the next prospect: “Wanna fuck?” Rinse, lather, repeat.

Supposedly, he never slept alone.

Urban legend? Very possibly.

Just by its hastily-drawn pulp qualities, this lubricious drawing looks like it might have been an illustration in one of those cheap swinger-contact magazines that proliferated before the internet ate their lunches. The interracial angle would suggest it was one of the specialized ones, if so:

From Kinky Delight.

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