ORGIES! PENGUINS! SPERM COMPETITION! Researcher Dr. Jamie Lawson, author Dr. Katherine Frank, and improv teacher Shawn Westfall join Sandra for part one of a wild ride through group sex and the animal kingdom! TOPICS: Improv, Pickup Artists, Doctor Who, Sexy Symmetry, Gay Penguins, Bed Bugs, Traumatic Insemination, Bonobo Penis Jousting, Scientific Bias, Interbreeding, Group Sex, Orgies, Tribal Ritual, Sex Party Context, Waiting in Line, Power, Newbies, Sperm Swamping, Religious Rituals, Hopeful Sex and the Significance of Being Watched. STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!
A LITTLE ABOUT THE GUESTS:
Katherine Frank is a cultural anthropologist (Ph.D. Duke University, 1999), sex researcher, and writer. Â Her most recent book, “Plays Well in Groups: A Journey Through The World of Group Sex” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), explores the phenomenon of group sex across time and place.
Dr. Jamie Lawson: With a PhD in the evolutionary psychology of human mating strategy, he is currently interested in all aspects of human sex and sexuality, but particularly in investigating the links between sex (as a biological category system) and gender (as a socially constructed one), and the ‘origins’ of same sex attraction in humans and other species. His approach is strongly interdisciplinary as reflects his training in anthropology, archaeology and psychology. Follow him on Twitter; Answer his super sex survey here.
Shawn Westfall: The exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv for more than six years, Shawn Westfall teaches classes in beginning improv, advanced short-form and long-form improv, as well as improv workshops focusing on character, long form, and non-traditional improv techniques. His classes (and the numerous performances they’ve generated) have been featured in the pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Post Express, Washingtonian magazine, as well on Washington Post Radio, DC 101, and WTOP Radio and most recently on The Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible.†Follow him on Twitter.
Thanks to photographer Darian Glover for taking shots of the live show!
Abrupt ending!
Ha. Or, even, not far from there…or their examples…
One comment which definitely resonated with my experience of the artwork of others was that of Dr. Frank, noting that the sexual “deviance” (though she was referring to group sex alone and I mean the term in its most blandly statistical sense) often shakes down into patterns that replicate the dominant traditions of the cultures of the participants…the previous discussion, notably fisting for enlightenment, had reminded me of Milo Manara comics, and the subsequent discussion also brought to mind Robert Heinlein’s more sexually adventurous novels, and those of Henry Miller (and to some extent the collections of Anais Nin), and not far from their to the Playboy Philosophy of Hugh Hefner and the films of such folks as Bernardo Bertolucci…where liberation through sexual freedom is sought or at least explored, but so often seems to be explored in such limited and limiting ways…or, at least, the kind of liberation that these folks often seem to be striving for is the liberation from their specifically very puritanical upbringing, rather than one which might resonate with me, not having had such an upbringing by comparison at least. They often seem to be reveling in a world that will fulfill the liberation they need, and while sometimes benignly unconcerned with what others might need and sometimes harshly or at least mockingly critical of the needs of others, still often seem to have taken only a few steps, even when they only a few big steps, away from the paradigms they were raised with, rather than encompassing a great or more sweeping challenge (and then I’m reminded of the supposed exploits of the Weather Underground, reportedly attempting to enforce a sexual openness along very hierarchical lines among the membership, rather than allowing more natural or at least less outwardly directed exploration to take place). It’s a tough nut to bust, the little one in the canoe can be all at sea…
Noooo, I can’t wait until next week….this episode is so good!