Posts Tagged ‘sex research’

I will be appearing on Neil Cavuto’s Your World on The Fox News Channel today to discuss whether it is appropriate for our government to fund this research.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) released a list of over 6,000 studies it will be supporting with funds from the stimulus package, also known as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). While the vast majority of the research is related to neuroscience, genetics, or diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis, there are a handful of funded scientific studies that involve sexuality.

This set off alarms for some, including the New York Post where yesterday an article declared, “The next fiscal year is set to be one of the friskiest ever in the nation’s science labs, as researchers probe the ins and outs of sex patterns among humans.” In Central New York’s Post-Standard, Tory Mazzola, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, was quoted as saying that funding research is an inappropriate use of the stimulus funds: “Because stimulus was sold as a new investment in infrastructure. It was sold as job creating. It was sold as a new way forward for America.”

On the surface it may seem shocking to some people if our tax dollars are paying for “sex” research. Others believe that we should not discount scientific freedom, intellectual curiosity, and the fact that sexuality is a vitally important aspect of being human. Yet when we look further we see that this research is not sexy at all. All of the NIH approved studies include a statement of the public health implications, and all of these statements are available to the public on the NIH website. Most involve work about HIV/AIDS.

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In several recent articles about Michael Jackson, it has been said that he had no sex appeal; or he was asexual; or people all thought he was gay; or his fans never found him sexy. Well, that’s not so. In 1992, I conducted a survey asking people which celebrities they would most want to have sex with. Michael Jackson was at the top of the list!

Michael Jackson certainly had sex appeal, but only for a limited time. Not in the Jackson Five days,  and not after the child molestation charges. During the years in between he had fans who found him very sexy. When I conducted my survey, the Dangerous album was red hot, including “Black or White” — one year before the first child sexual molestation charges. What made MJ sexy? I doubt it was his signature crotch grab or shirtless Herb Ritts photos. Rather it was his dance moves, rhythm, dedication, and creativity. All very sexy qualities. Surely as his life progressed (and his face morphed, his relationships were presented as more unusual, and he revealed that he slept in bed with other people’s children) any trace of his sexiness faded.  However, as we’ve seen over the past few days, there are still millions of people who remember – and love – the sexy Michael of years past.