So … ejaculation. It turns out that where you do it can greatly affect a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant. Like: If you ejaculate straight up into her vagina, she’s more likely to become pregnant; if you ejaculate into a condom or anywhere else in the world, she’s less likely to conceive. Every 16-year-old boy knows this to be true, and now those 16-year-old boys have grown up to become the Guttmacher Institute’s Lead Pulling-Out Researcher, Rachel K. Jones. Jones published her findings in the June issue of Contraception magazine [via NYT]:

“If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time a couple has vaginal intercourse, about 4 percent of couples will become pregnant over the course of a year,” the authors write.

For condoms, used optimally, the rate is about 2 percent. But more significant, the authors say, are the rates for “typical use,” because people can’t be expected to use any contraception method perfectly every time. Typical use of withdrawal leads to pregnancy 18 percent of the time, they write; for typical use of condoms 17 percent of the time.

Hey, that’s information that helps us become better informed about our sex lives. Great, right? No. IT’S BAD, says the Daily Beast’s Tracy Quan, who calls the study’s results “folk wisdom” with a lack of “supporting evidence” and infers that the Guttmacher Institute is no longer “sane” for publishing this no good very bad information. Why? Because withdrawal is “caddish,” “insulting,” and it’s FOR BOYS, NOT GIRLS. And we all know we can’t trust boys to do anything. What else can’t we trust? Science, for one! And while we’re at it: We can’t trust grown women in mutually monogamous relationships to make this choice for themselves, either, even though it’s free, accessible, and feels better than a condom. THERE I SAID IT.

But enough about ejaculating outside of vaginas. Oh, wait, no: It’s time for Sady of Tiger Beatdown and I to discuss ejaculating outside of vaginas some more! Join us!

Read More “Sexist Beatdown: Wherever to Ejaculate? Edition” »

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Lars von Trier’s new film, Antichrist, follows a husband (Willem Dafoe) and wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) as they grieve their son’s death. What better way to endure the ultimate tragedy than to destroy both of your baby-making parts?

For those who don’t actually want to have to see this happen, New York Magazine has got the very, very graphic details of the scene in question—appetite spoiler alert— below:

After knocking him unconscious, Gainsbourg bores a hole in Dafoe’s leg with a hand drill and bolts him to a grindstone to keep him from escaping. Then, she quickly smashes his scrotum with some sort of blunt object (the moment of impact happens slightly below the frame). We don’t actually see his testicles become disengaged from this body, though it’s apparently implied. Next, she brings him to a climax with her hands and he ejaculates blood (yes, it’s shown). But that’s not all! Later, in an extreme closeup—lensed by Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle!—Gainsbourg cuts off her own clitoris with a pair of scissors.

So, as you might’ve guessed, Antichrist is one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies.

Hey, and I had no idea that men could ejaculate while they are unconscious*, and no longer have balls. Lars von Trier is a visionary.

* CORRECTION: Okay. I know full well that men can ejaculate while unconscious (Mom, my sheets need to be washed, no no don’t worry I’ll do it, etc.) I’m still iffy on the possibility of the unconscious-due-to-trauma-of-castration ejaculation, however.