from www.dailymail.co.uk - Filming scenes for her role as a porn star has so far involved showing a lot of skin.

But Amanda Seyfried’s on set wardrobe got to grips with the grittier side of her character today.

The actress, who stars in upcoming biopic Lovelace, was seen sporting fake bruises while shooting in Los Angeles.

The In Time star, 26, was clearly in character as she held a sombre expression while displaying a large red bruise on her right cheek and surrounding her eye.

And to add to the disconcerting look, Seyfried’s brunette locks were messy and flyaway, suggesting she had been filming a scene that shows her character in distress.

She wore a long red patterned cardigan, a blue tank top, and some wide-leg jeans that evoked the Seventies era the film is set in.

It was a far cry from last week, when the star was dressed in a crop top and short shorts, acting out more light-hearted scenes with a smile on her face.

The upcoming drama tells the story of iconic porn star Linda Lovelace, played by Amanda Seyfried, who was abused by the porn industry and her husband before taking control of her life.

And the bruises are likely to be for a scene demonstrating the violence Lovelace, who shot to fame with her 1972 adult porn movie Deep Throat, received from her husband Chuck Traynor.

Lovelace claimed that Chuck had forced her to film Deep Throat at gunpoint, as well as beating her up many times and forcing to have sex with other men during their three-year marriage.

Lindsay Lohan was initially due to take on the leading role, before it was instead offered to Seyfried.

And there have been further casting problems for the production team, after Demi Moore was relieved of her part in the movie in lieu of her recent hospitalisation.

The actress, who was signed on to play iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, is reported to have been replaced by Sarah Jessica Parker.

The film also stars James Franco as Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner.

Other actors involved in the project include Peter Sarsgaard, Bobby Cannavale, Chris Noth, Sharon Stone, Juno Temple and Hank Azaria.

REFERENCE

FORT LAUDERDALE -- from www.sfltimes.com - A police officer has been suspended for using the Twitter social media network while on duty and to criticize his superiors.

Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Luis Pagan was relieved of duties with pay effective Jan. 31.

“Please be advised that effective Tuesday, January 31, 2012, Police Officer Luis Pagan has been relieved from duty with pay,” wrote Sergeant Dana Swisher, acting head of Fort Lauderdale Police’s internal affairs division in a 1-page memo circulated within the department.

Efforts to reach Pagan were unsuccessful and the Fraternal Order of Police union that is representing him could not be reached for comment.

The six-year veteran had been under investigation over his tweets with porn stars and accounts of his encounters while on duty , as first reported by the South Florida Times in its Nov. 24 edition.

Pagan deleted his tweets and closed his Twitter account following the publication of that story, but not before the newspaper documented his activities.

At the time, Pagan had tweeted 3,576 times, had 84 followers on Twitter and was following 184 people.

Pagan came under scrutiny after tweeting on Oct 12: “Just caught a couple having sex in their car in a church parking lot. The car was shaking so much I thought it would flip.”

An avid diver, Pagan’s handle on Twitter was SoFlo_Diver. His tweets included exchanges with porn stars and links to nude photos of them. The messages were sometimes raunchy and laced with profanity.

Pagan was also critical of his supervisors and people he encountered while on duty.

“I wonder how a supervisor feels when no one in his specialty unit respects him,” he tweeted about an unnamed supervisor on Oct. 6. That was followed on Oct. 10 with, “He is a racist (expletive deleted).”

He used profanity in another tweet to describe his employer.

“Came to work just got hit with some (expletive deleted). U know what, I say (expletive deleted) the city,” he posted on Oct. 28. “Instead of trying to make a name for yourself trying to hurt good officers u should be worrying about what to do to lower Crime.”

The Fort Lauderdale police department implemented a social media policy for employees last July. While the policy does not prohibit the use of social media sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, it restricts what employees may communicate on those sites, even while not at work.

According to the policy, employees are not supposed to “utilize any city issued equipment to access personal social media sites, blogs, websites, or public forums while on duty, or while working off-duty details unless required in the performance of their duties.”

One section of the policy states: “The Department recognizes the role that social media plays in the personnel (sic) lives of some Department personnel; however, the personal use of social media can have bearing on Departmental personnel in their official capacity.”

Such orders are commonplace following investigations where other adverse personnel actions, including termination, are under consideration.

Pagan has been with the department since 2005 and earns $77,771.20 annually. He works in the patrol division and has a good employment history.

REFERENCE

Most Americans remain sexually active into their 60s, and nearly half continue to have sex regularly into their early 70s, researchers are reporting today as a result of the most comprehensive national survey to date of sexual behavior among older adults.

But many older people also report struggling with sexual problems, like reduced desire and erectile difficulties, the survey found.

The new report, appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine, was based on interviews with more than 3,000 Americans, 57 to 85 years old, who gave detailed descriptions of their sexual activities.

It found that for varied reasons, women were significantly less likely than men to report being sexually active from age 57 on. Women were more often without a partner, for example, and were more likely to say they no longer derived much pleasure from sex.

Experts said that the new survey provided the first clear and complete picture of sexuality in later life and that it should give older adults a sense of where they stand compared with their peers. Researchers have done previous surveys of sexual activity among older people, but those studies were of patients or other groups who were not nationally representative.

“There’s a large perception out there that sex somehow does not occur in the later years, and this study demonstrates authoritatively that for many people sexual activity does not diminish much at all,” said Dr. Robert N. Butler, president of the International Longevity Center in New York and co-author with his late wife, Myrna I. Lewis, of “Love and Sex After Sixty.”

“Human relationships are important to the very end,” said Dr. Butler, who was not involved in the study.

The researchers, at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto, contacted by letter a representative group of 3,005 older adults across the country. Trained interviewers then conducted a two-hour face-to-face session with each of these men and women, asking about their sexual activities as well as their physical and social health and other aspects of their lives.

The study, financed partly by the National Institutes of Health, found that 84 percent of men from 57 to 64 reported having had some sexual contact with another person in the last year, compared with 62 percent of women in the same age group. Those figures dwindled to 38 percent and 17 percent, respectively, in people 75 and older.

But among those adults who were sexually active, about two-thirds had sex at least twice a month into their 70s, and more than half continued at that pace into their 80s.

The lead author, Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and geriatrics at the University of Chicago, said the findings should give people a way to gauge their own experiences and might prompt those with questions or problems to ask their doctors.

Nearly half of those who were sexually active reported at least one sexual problem, with 43 percent of women reporting diminished desire, and 39 percent vaginal dryness, and with 37 percent of men reporting erectile difficulties.

But only about a third of the men and just a fifth of the women in the study had discussed sex with a doctor since age 50.

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: August 23, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/

British Man Likes Sex With Cars!

A 38-year-old Chris Donald, a British mechanic by profession, claims that he likes to have sex with cars. He has had sex with more than 30 different car models, two boats and a jet ski in the last 20 years.

"A nice car... is a feast for the senses. It's about smells, feelings and tastes. If I see a gorgeous Mercedes I know I'd love to jump into bed with it," Chris told to The Sun newspaper.

"It's all about imagination and creativity. There's more to car love than exhaust pipes. Stroking the body panels and delicate touching makes excellent foreplay," he added.

According to the newspaper, Donald also maintains a web portal on which he writes erotic fiction about car-diddling. His website is fully dedicated to 'auto-erotic stories'.

READ MORE

Chinese prosecutors have charged 22 swingers who joined a wife-swapping club with criminal licentiousness, a crime that carries a five-year sentence.

The case has stirred fierce debate among lawyers, sex experts and the public over whether the practice really merits a place in the criminal code at a time of calls for greater sexual freedoms and when brothels are found on many streets in the heart of Beijing.

The mastermind of the club was associate professor Ma Xiaohai, a master of mathematics who worked at an unidentified university in the southern city of Nanjing.

He said that he began to explore online sex chat rooms amid his loneliness and depression after two acrimonious divorces and the loss of his two children in custody battles.

Ma, 53, has been under police supervision at his home, taking care of his aging mother, since August last year when he was arrested after a tip-off to police that he was organizing spouse-swapping parties at his home.

He told a reporter who visited him recently, "At first the chat room discussions were very clean, with most people discussing their marital problems." But gradually, as more and more people joined in, the conversation widened until spouse-swapping became the hottest topic. Soon the forum included as many as 190 members.

Ma explained that, as discussion became more heated, so the temptation grew. Finally, people began to gather at his apartment to put into practice their sexual predilections.

He said, “Every couple has this or that kind of issue – a marriage is like a bowl of water that has to be drunk, swapping partners is like a bowl of sweet wine.”

Reference

I'm sorry, but I've seen this before. In fact, although either unwilling (or not wanting) to admit, many of us have.

What Ben Roethlisberger has done (twice) in the past two off-seasons, or rather, is being "accused" of doing, is straight out of a movie.

If you care to indulge, track back about a decade, when a little movie by the name of Body Shots , starring Tara Reid, Sean Patrick-Flanery, Amanda Peet, Ron Livingston, and, you guessed it, Jerry O'Connell was a late-night sensation.

The movie chronicled the current, hip dating scene of the mid-90s, taking all the fun and humor out of what Swingers had just instilled in the fabric of our night-out lives just a couple years prior.

Regardless, the movie took us down the spiraling slope of a drunken night, bad decisions, and reminded us all too well, that there are two sides to every story.

If only to understand my perspective, or to watch a mediocre movie that shows Tara Reid pre-breast enhancement, I suggest any and all take a gander at this film.

If nothing else, it completely displays what it is to be a professional athlete, the guy that "no one says no to", a drunk guy who can't tell the difference between "yes" or "no", or that even nice guys can be gigantic jerks.

The truth is, (a quick, prefacing thank you to Jack Nicholson) Pittsburgh Steelers fans "can't handle the truth". They just can't.

Even if there was video tape. Even if Big Ben admitted it. Even if we literally were there in that tiny bathroom, saw and/or heard it all.

Most still wouldn't be able to believe it .

We get it, Ben Roethlisberger is a likable guy. Hell, he's a big, burly, cuddly, lovable guy.

He makes plays happen, keeps plays and drives alive, and has brought the Pittsburgh faithful two NFL titles.

So, naturally, after being accused of rape in 2008, many (if not all) forgave him on site, dismissed the breaking news as anything but a wild rumor, and went about their day.

But what about this time?

Sure, it's possible Roethlisberger is just a big-name star being taken advantage of (irony!). It's not like that's never been done before.

But are we actually stopping to think about this?

What if this was the real Ben Roethlisberger? What if he did do these things?

The case has been dismissed. He can't be proven of doing anything wrong. Everything will soon be going back to the spot it was in before.

Roethlisberger, hand in the cookie jar, is escaping without punishment.

But, dare I ask, what will happen if this happens for a third time?

Will everyone be so quick to dismiss it; to defend Roethlisberger?

Who knows? It's actually impossible to fathom Roethlisberger allowing this to happen again.

But either way, the events that have conspired in that last two years have caused us to at least wonder:

Is Ben Roethlisberger just an unlucky fool, or the sleaziest dirtbag we still don't know about?

With his slicked-back, light-brown hair, curling around his neck as he read his written apologies, this writer couldn't help but wonder. But even more, I couldn't help but wonder if I was the only one still completely undecided on an innocent man's judgment.

Reference

Some of you have misinterpreted my previous blogs on cheating. So in this blog I am going to make my position on cheating -- and cheaters -- perfectly clear.

Once again, I am going to say that when it comes to Sandra Bullock and Jesse James, neither you nor I have any idea what their relationship dynamic is. None of us do, no matter how many articles are written about it.

Now that Jesse James is apparently going the Tiger Woods and David Duchovny route of sex rehab, all of you are saying "See, there is another sleazy man who cheated on his poor wife." We love to judge, and we love to make someone a villain and another person a victim. Jesse James, by the way, is the perfect villain name.

Even when we fight in our own relationships, we love to point the finger and find blame in the other person instead of looking deep inside ourselves. "Victim and villain" is the theme of movies, books, and every relationship that we have.

We have become a society of blamers. In reality, though, it takes two people in a relationship to create a problem.

So how do I REALLY feel about cheating and about cheaters? Probably not the way you think I do. Let me tell you exactly how I feel.

For those of you who feel the need to cheat, I know you fall into a few different "categories" of why you feel you need to do this. I have friends who cheat on their wives, and they tell me they cheat because "it's just what men do." I also know people who rationalize cheating by saying "Men cheat, so I'm allowed to cheat."

I know guys who have great sexual relationships with their significant other, but they still cheat because they just need a little extra "somethin' somethin'" on the side. I also know people who are swingers who cheat together.

You know, I actually consider the swinger form of cheating to be pretty healthy. If you're going to cheat, at least allow your partner to cheat too. You may as well cheat together.

So I'm actually all for the swinger lifestyle in that respect. It's not the lifestyle for me, but I do think it's a healthy lifestyle that works for certain people.

For people out there who are cheating and rationalizing it, however, you are the people for whom I have no respect. I have no respect for people who cheat because they don't have the balls to actually talk about their relationship with their partner.

I have no respect for people who cheat because they can't admit that they might need to break off the relationship and be on their own again, and due to some weird co-dependency issue or "staying together for the kids" justification stay with their partner while they continue to cheat on them.

I have no respect for people who cheat and can't admit that they made a mistake. I have zero respect for any of these kind of people because they all are not being honest with their partners. You have got to be honest with your partner.

If it's not working out, then you need to be honest about that. Cut your losses and move on instead of cheating.

Even if you have kids or even if you're financially dependent on somebody, there are better ways to live your life. The kids always know when their parents are unhappy, so you're not fooling them by staying together.

If you're too cheap to get a divorce (which I know some people are) because some guys or some women have been the sole providers and you're too cheap, then basically you're living a life of hell.

In that situation, you're basically more married to a bank account than to your partner. God forbid that your bank account should be cut in half! You'd rather just cheat on the side and be in a miserable marriage your whole life. You know what? That's your own self-torture you've created for yourself.

Money can be remade, but you will never be able to make up all the time you lose being with someone you don't love. Life is about finding love and not being miserable.

As far as I'm concerned, if you're cheating for any of these reasons, you need to grow up. You need to really look in the mirror and realize that this ride you're on is not going to last forever.

Life is a one-shot deal. Granted, and depending on what you believe, you could be reincarnated and come back as a dog, a cat, or another soul. You really don't know what's in store for you.

So if you are out there cheating because you're not happy in your life, it's time to look yourself in the mirror. It's time to step up. It's time to cut financial losses. It's time to be honest with the kids.

Most of all, it's time to be honest with yourself and go find true love. Let me tell you something. I have true love, and nothing feels better than waking up every single morning with someone you think is the most amazing and incredible person you've ever met. The rest of you are depriving yourself.

So let's celebrate Jesse and Sandra for taking a proactive direction in their life. Let's stop judging, and start supporting each other.

Reference

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. -- A campground planned for a rural area of Morgan County is causing controversy after an invitation to an event at the camp was posted on a swinger's Web site.

Peavine Road is quiet, with homes and horses dotting the landscape, but residents are concerned about a neighbor on a nearby hill.

Morgan County officials said a posting on a popular swingers Web site promoted a one-day event to be held at Oasis of Chetwynd in which clothing is optional. When 6News 6News' Joanna Massee went to the Web site, the posting was no longer there.

Owner Kim Maynard said he's just trying to build a campground for older adults and that stories of swingers, swappers and nudity are unfounded.

"When you find out (where the rumors came from), you let me know," he said.

Kenneth Hale, Morgan County's planning director, said Maynard admitted listing an event on the swingers site.

The county issued a cease and desist order because the property doesn't have proper zoning for a campground.

"I don't think (a clothing optional campground) would go over very well," Hale said. "I think the people would probably frown on that here in Morgan County. We're a fairly religious county."

Maynard said his campground concept is changing as he grows increasingly frustrated by the scrutiny.

"I'm officially going to list this with GLAD and the Gay Lesbian Coalition of America … as a gay community camp. Everybody happy?" Maynard said.

Neighbors said they wouldn't want either campground concept nearby.

"I wouldn't want it next door," said neighbor Larry Scherer. "It's immoral. It's fornication."

Hale said that he expects laws pertaining to adult entertainment and businesses to be changed in Morgan County over the coming months.

Maynard has until April 26 to apply for special campground zoning.

Reference

HOLLYWOOD, FL, /24-7PressRelease/ -- Swinglifestyle recently added more lists for New York City swingers and surrounding areas to the swinger dating site. Swinglifestyle.com, a classy swinger and bisexual dating website, has experienced tremendous growth over the years.

Recent studies suggest more women are bisexual and may be a reason why they are joining the lifestyle. "Most swinger wives are bisexual and bi-curious and gay women probably like to be the wives first and vice versa," said Mike Hatcher.

With the Internet explosion, Swinglifestyle has grown over the last 10 years. Nearly half a million unique visitors visit Swinglifestyle.com each month. Swinglifestyle has recently indexed more cities so New York Swingers will have more dating options in cities state wide. "I would love to go to New York and have a swinging time," said Destiny Wants Member/Lifestyle Spokes Person Nominee.

More members are joining and Swinglifestyle.com is expanding. In the upcoming months Swinglifestyle will be adding a secret to the expansion of the site.

Swinglifestyle.com is dedicated to swingers only, and here to help swingers explore a better side of life by helping them to Start their Sexual Revolution.

Reference

The woman who calls herself Viva Las Vegas (real name: Liv Osthus, 35) sits in her kimono at Mary's Club in downtown Portland.

She talks about art and sociology, and about French philosopher Michel Foucault, particularly his theory that the most disdainful talk about sex can reveal intense obsessions.

It's a late afternoon, midweek, and at least one of the 55 strip clubs in Portland's city limits is in session. Closer to the Willamette River, Ron Jeremy's Club Sesso -- whose frontman is the adult film star -- prepares to host another evening of intra-, inter- and extramarital antics. And in Gresham, Dr. Ted Roberts, once the minister at East Hill Church, has launched a sex counseling ministry, Pure Desire, offering "Sexy Christians" workshops, which soon will be available in book form.

All of which only skims the surface of the sex-centric culture in Portland and, to varying degrees, throughout Oregon, where a unique state constitution protects, and perhaps fuels, libidinous pursuits.

CHAPTER I Contradictions happen

Oregon has always called to a certain kind of person.

"Those Oregon pioneers were pretty lusty, rough-and-tumble people," says Lewis & Clark Law School constitutional law professor Steven Kanter. The state constitution deliberately guarantees more sweeping rights than the U.S. Bill of Rights. So while the latter document balances the freedom of speech with the public's interest in restricting certain behaviors, Oregon's constitution -- particularly Article 1, Section 8, regarding speech and expression -- speaks in absolute terms.

"They decided obscenity was protected," Kanter says. Subsequent majorities in the Oregon Supreme Court extended that to nude dancing and simulated sex acts.

Which, according to Oregon State University historian Robert Nye, sounds like a clarion that draws iconoclasts, radicals and other freethinkers to the state.

"Combining political and social radicalism with sexual radicalism is a classic model," Nye says. "People try to change the norms. The problem for strait-laced people is that combining all that radicalism seems daunting and strange and hard to understand."

It seems like the sexually radical is happening everywhere, all the time. Consider these events in the past year:

The launch of Club Sesso, an upscale nightclub for swingers.

The release of the latest edition of Waldport social worker/writer Paul Joannides' "Guide to Getting It On," an elaborately illustrated manual first published in 1996. Featured in Oprah magazine, added to sex education syllabuses on college campuses and published in 13 languages, the new printing raised Joannides' sales past 700,000.

The first ErosFestNW, a four-day arts-and-culture festival featuring erotic arts exhibits, workshops, rituals and parties.

The Miss Nude Oregon pageant, which concluded just a few weeks before the 10th annual Erotic Ball packed a Halloween crowd into the Crystal Ballroom.

The Portland Leather Alliance held its 12th annual Kinkfest in March.

But Oregon also contains activists from both the right and left who believe the state's laws have nurtured a toxic environment for women and families.

"I don't see sexual repression here at all," says Samantha Berg, a writer/activist who tracks the effects of prostitution and industrialized pornography on society. "What I see is an inability to confront male violence. And that's what drives the sex industry."

Doug Justus, the lead officer in the Portland Police Bureau's three-person vice squad, describes the city's sex industry as a hell zone where women are abused and the use of drugs and alcohol is rampant. And that's not the worst of it.

"If the citizens of Portland knew how many teenaged girls are out here having sex with guys in their 40s, they'd be appalled," Justus says. "And it happens every day."

Keith Bickford, director of Multnomah County's Human Trafficking Task Force, says young women are being brought to Oregon from Seattle, Los Angeles and as far away as Guatemala.

But ErosFestNW director Gabrielle Cordova says the vast majority of Oregon's sexual adventurers are after something more healthy, even profound.

"People are shaking off the shackles of puritanism," Cordova says. "There's a very big change in the cosmic consciousness about sexuality, especially in Oregon."

Back at Mary's Club, Viva Las Vegas knows the first names and stories of virtually all of the customers in front of her. They know her, too. One runs up to Powell's City of Books to see if her memoir, "Magic Gardens," had hit the shelves. It hadn't, so he comes back saying he placed an advance order, prompting others in the crowd to promise to do the same.

She's the daughter of a Lutheran minister in upstate Minnesota; class of 1992 valedictorian of Cook County High School in Grand Marais, Minn.; a National Merit Scholar; graduate of Massachusetts' elite Williams College; and a writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, among other publications. "Magic Gardens" recounts her 13-year (and counting) career as a stripper.

And though her parents, particularly her minister father, were once aghast about her career, they have made peace with it. Perhaps because their daughter is convinced stripping is less about sex than about creating a bond between performer and audience.

"The guys like it best when you make eye contact," she says. "It's more about making a connection than it is about seduction."

Viva was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. The doctors caught the disease in its early stages, but she still lost her hair and a breast. Both are back (the latter thanks to reconstructive surgery), and she returned to the stage last summer, to a riotous welcome from fans and friends.

"This is my tribe," she says.

It's a sweet portrait of a very distinctive life. But there are less cheerful truths, too. Viva admits she doesn't care for the one-on-one table dancing that gets her most of the $100 to $500 she earns in a four-hour shift. And stories about her past, and the lives of her stripper friends, trace bouts of anorexia, depression, drinking and other indications of something less than a dream life.

None of which is limited to the world of professional strippers. But what of the degradation that comes from having strangers ogling your body?

"In 13 years of stripping I've never once felt degraded," she says. "But the time I spent doing data entry for the city of Portland? That was degrading."

CHAPTER II The lifestyle

Just hours before the official opening of Club Sesso, the dimly lit, finely appointed two-level club smells like fresh paint and new carpet.

Adult film star Ron Jeremy, a kind of figurehead for Sesso, sits at the bar, checking voice mail on his cell phone.

In six hours the scene will be crowded with lawyers, college students, at least one minister and a pair of Ph.D.-level academics, all smiling and chatting, like at any party. With one significant difference.

It's what some people call The Lifestyle. Spouse-swapping. Group sex. Swinging.

The most intimate physical activity gets catapulted into full view, often with the participation of friends, acquaintances and complete strangers. It's the purpose of Club Sesso, and also of the east side's Ace of Hearts (now known as Angel's), which Sesso entrepreneur Paul Smith helped run before he opened his own place last year.

As with most new nightclubs, finding the right space proved a challenge. John Beardsley, owner of the building who agreed to rent Smith space near Southwest First Avenue and Yamhill Street, not only relocated a tenant who didn't want to work next to a swingers club but also faced unhappy representatives from Portland's business community who opposed the club anywhere near the city's center.

Beardsley didn't care.

"I'm not the right person to put in charge of Portland's moral code," he says, shrugging.

Beardsley knows a reliable, lucrative tenant when he sees one, and Club Sesso has not disappointed. The club opened last June, and its membership has expanded so much that Smith has added employees and plans to expand into space that recently became available next door.

"We play by the rules," Smith says. "These are normal people who work hard and pay their taxes. This just happens to be part of their sexual orientation."

Everyone else is free to visit the club each month on First Thursday, when Sesso unveils the latest exhibition of the original erotic art on the walls. The club also will launch a series of (nongraphic) educational seminars about relationships and sexuality, geared to "squaring your sexual and spiritual beings," Smith says.

However, some aren't sure that's a conversation they want to have. Most people grow up with some sense of what society defines as traditional sexual propriety: What starts as religious doctrine on fidelity, intimacy and morality eventually becomes laws regarding age and consent and the overarching, if amorphous, idea of community standards.

But different people interpret right and wrong in different ways.

Which is why President Barack Obama's administration promotes public health programs centered on sex education and contraception while his socially conservative predecessor's promoted abstinence and moral purity. What they share is an understanding that sex is a potent, and sometimes dangerous, force to take seriously.

"The biggest problem is that we don't have a middle ground," says Joannides, the Waldport psychotherapist and sex guide author. "We end up with two extremes: the 'just say no' perspective and hard-core porn."

OSU's Nye sees the contradictions refracted through sex, drugs and the Victorian era.

To him, society's evolving sense of human sexuality is inseparable from cultural history. In America and Europe during the past century, the arc of economic fortune and failure, along with shared traumas such as wars and economic depressions, impacted sexual behavior. Particularly when it came to a society's comfort with public displays of sexuality.

Then came the '60s, and with increasing momentum, Western society turned revolutionary: civil rights, feminism, anti-war campaigns, gay rights. And while the social pendulum would eventually swing back to a more conservative angle, the rules that had changed -- easing restrictions on gay people, media representations of sex and more -- didn't.

"The only way to explain it is as a break from the way the world had operated for the previous 300 or 400 years," Nye says. "It's really a revolution."

CHAPTER III Pure desire

Some Oregon religious leaders swore that through sex you could be purified. You could

touch the face of God. Particularly if you had sex with the visionary who had that revelation.

Such as Franz Edmund Creffield, a German immigrant who arrived in Corvallis in 1903, changed his name to Joshua II and declared himself a prophet. Creffield attracted a following of about 20, urging them to take the Bible literally, while rejecting worldly goods, such as clothes. The group rolled together on the floor, often naked. The women who had sex with Joshua were known as brides of Christ, what the group called themselves. Others referred to them as Holy Rollers.

Creffield ministered to a number of women, not always with the approval of their husbands or fathers. Creffield would hit the road when the atmosphere in Corvallis turned unpleasant, but eventually he couldn't run far enough. He was in Seattle in May 1906 when an Oregon millworker named George Mitchell, whose sisters had submitted to Creffield's ministrations, shot him in the back of the head.

Tried for murder a few months later, Mitchell was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.

Tales of sexual antics have surrounded other Oregon cults and communes over the years, becoming particularly vivid during the height of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the 1980s. The Rolls-Royce-loving guru also had a deep affection for his female acolytes, some of whom had sex with him during meditation exercises.

Still, not every mention of sex in or around a liturgy is equally sinister, says Carol Queen, a University of Oregon alumna who works as an educator and activist for San Francisco's Center for Sex and Culture. Sex and physical intimacy can become a conduit to transcendence, she says. Just beware of any visionary or religious leader who seems eager to dictate the terms of sexual engagement.

"When spirituality develops into a top-down, 'the leader is touched by God' clique, it's good to be skeptical of what's going on inside."

Nevertheless, the relationship between the sexual and the sacred has existed for thousands of years. And if ErosFestNW in Portland is any indication, the mix still has a distinct appeal. The strictly visceral events (the naked sushi buffet or the PD-Xstacy Dance Party) were outnumbered by the Healing for Sexual Wounds ritual, the Naked Tantric Yoga and the Faith and Sex workshop.

"We're actually trying to keep the healthy, sacred stuff under cover so people will come to the conference," Cordova says. "So if we can attract people by telling them this is saucy and sexy, we can also give them an avenue to this other, deeper expression."

Dr. Ted Roberts agrees with Cordova, to an extent.

"(Sex) is the deepest spiritual experience you can have, other than a direct encounter with God," he says. "Some people say you should never talk about sex in church. But why not? Everyone's struggling with it."

Here, the two spiritually minded sex counselors part ways: For Roberts, the vast majority of the ErosFest's sexually graphic presenters, vendors and performers offer nothing short of sin incarnate. It's something he knows firsthand, he says, from when his own appetites spun out of control.

This was in the '70s, when Roberts -- a Marine fighter pilot, a Vietnam combat veteran and, as he says now, an alcoholic, rage-a-holic and sexaholic -- was controlled by his dysfunctions.

"I was using pornography, and I couldn't stop it," he says. "I found myself down in areas of the city where I knew I'd be in real trouble if I got arrested. So I woke up one day and thought, I'm a real sick puppy here. If I'd kept down that road, I would have ruined my marriage."

So Roberts devoted his life to Jesus Christ, became a minister, then senior pastor of the East Hill Foursquare Church in 1984. But Roberts kept thinking about sex. He saw that parishioners faced an ongoing struggle with their desires, both with resisting temptation before marriage and finding healthy ways to incorporate it into their relationship once they were married.

"So let's stop pretending you're not struggling," Roberts told them. "Stop pretending the Christian just-say-no approach works."

In 2007 he stepped aside at the church to start the Pure Desire ministry, which serves as home for the "Sexy Christians" series of workshops and an about-to-be-published book to help Christian couples turn their bedrooms into places of sanctified sexual union.

"We're lucky, because as Christians we have someone to define reality: Jesus Christ. And we have a unique opportunity to be sexy Christians."

Just look at the Scripture, he continues, picking up his Bible to point out Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 26.

"God said, 'Let us create mankind in our own image,' male and female, He created them."

Roberts leaned forward to describe the very foundations of his beliefs and, arguably, life itself.

"When a husband and wife come together in a covenant relationship, sexually, it's the only place on Earth where the image of God is made whole. 'Because of the creation of male and female in my image,' God says."

To Roberts, this vision of sanctified sex is one of the most beautiful ideas he has encountered. A lot of people think, and feel, the same thing.

Each in their own particular way.

Reference