Why Straight Men Hate Astrology: ErosBlog Edition

ViceUK has an article currently bringing in the hate-clicks under the title Why Straight Men Hate Astrology So Much. No link for them! Do they conclude that it’s because astrology is total bollocks, like homeopathy and Gwyneth Paltrow’s jade pussy eggs? Nope nope nope! Instead they claim that astrology has become a gendered belief structure, important disproportionately to women and gay people, so (they argue) straight men belittle it for reasons of masculinity. Nothing to do with astrology being empty nonsense!

A problem with this theory: the evidence they cite for the existence of a gendered disparity in the popularity of astrology suggests that the numbers only began to diverge along gender lines a few years ago. Whereas the people in the reality-based community that I know have disparaged astrology as being dumber than flat-Eartherism for much much longer than that.

Here, let me show you the only solid astrological chart and horoscope you are ever going to see:

The chart is not mine, but it’s been floating around the internet since forever and I don’t have an attribution for it.

Similar Sex Blogging:

• Balloon Girl, Sandra Evens
• Nonsense, And How They Build It
• A Breast For Every Star
• Gwyneth Paltrow Upskirt

Sex “Research” Stories That Aren’t

Way back in 2002 when I started this sex blog, I imagined that many of my posts might point to online news stories about sex. There weren’t so many sex blogs back then, and online writing about sex from “mainstream” journalists was still rare enough to be notable.

What I quickly discovered, though, was that these stories were generally crap, especially when they pretended, badly, to be based on “the latest research”. Scientists usually don’t do sex well, and reporters usually don’t do science well, so a reporter’s view of sex research usually turns out to be hideous insulting nonsense and tripe. (Exceptions do happen. But man, you gotta dig for ’em.)

Pretty soon, it got to the point where I don’t even read journalism about sexual science. The noise level is too high; it’s all spam and no eggs.

Therefore I am amused to discover two articles in two days that discuss the whys and wherefores when it comes to bad reporting about bad sex research. This morning it was Thomas Roche blogging at Violet Blue’s Tiny Nibbles; yesterday it was How To Spot an Internet Sex Research Hoax at The Sexademic.

If you still read “Newest Research about Sex Reveals…” stories, you’ll want to read these, too.