Tampa’s Creative Loafing Recruits More Bloggers from roblimo on Vimeo.

Last month, TampaBay.com posted this video of a blogger meet-up inside the Tampa Creative Loafing offices. Among the attendees at the City Paper parent-company shindig—I spy red solo cups—was Shawn Alff, CL Tampa’s “Sex and Love Editor” —me, but more Florida-y. Alff, who has written on bothstrong vaginas, and huge penises—and I got all that just by searching “Shawn Alff vagina penis” on Google—appears around the one-minute mark. “What do I expect from the bloggers? I expect a lot of full frontal, to be honest,” he says. “If they want to write for us, they basically have gotta go balls to the wall, have gotta show me what they’re working with. It’s really, it’s part of the job description.”

I guess that explains this?

(Having trouble with the video? Click the “HD” button).

Take It With a Grain of Assault: Palmer finds humor in her rape.

Hint: Frat boys, check; Victims, no.

Amanda Palmer’s new single, “Oasis,” is a sunny tune about a tumultuous time in a teenager’s life. After enduring rape, abortion, and a schoolwide slut-shaming, the girl receives an autographed headshot of her favorite band—Oasis—in the mail, and everything is again peachy. On her blog, Palmer posted a note from her British record label, Roadrunner, saying the video—which features a brief comic rape scene—had met with “fierce opposition” from the U.K.’s major music networks:

Meanwhile, back home, Jamie Foxx’s latest single, “Blame it (On the Alcohol),” is currently No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its video, featuring Ron Howard, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Samuel L. Jackson, enjoys a heavy rotation on U.S. MTV—despite an equally frothy date-rape theme. The song details Foxx’s pursuit of an increasingly drunk lady. The track also features T. Pain, who chimes through his hallmark vocoder: “Couple more shots you open up like a book.” The song is, essentially, an attempted date rape by a movie star and a dude who sounds like a robot:

Who is allowed to make light of rape?

Read More “Who Can Make A Rape Joke?” »

Slate’s year-old female blog, the wonderful XX Factor, will come of age this spring when it blossoms into a beautiful full-fledged Web ‘zine. The project shall be known henceforth as Double X, and those who want to offer up ideas, writers, or a managing editor can make their case at doublex.slate@gmail.com. A full description of Slate’s “post-election adventure,” after the jump.

Read More “Female Blogs March Boldly Toward Web Domination” »