“I’m being destructive, and I know it.” This statement comes from community consultation I did recently with HIV-positive gay men on how they feel they’re being affected by using crystal meth, otherwise known as ice, or tina in the queer community. If you have picked up a newspaper recently, you’d have heard of the crystal …
Frustrated by Australia’s stance on marriage equality and inspired by John and Yoko’s ‘Bed-In’ protest, I decided to have a marriage equality Bed-In. I called it ‘In bed with the Unwed – Bed-In’, or simply ‘The In Bed Project’. In the context of the bed, I photograph those who support marriage equality, including singles, couples and families. The …
Perhaps you’ve noticed a few products around the internet that claim to unleash ‘the future of wanking’. I’ve seen blowjob machines; Fleshlights; Occulus Rift-driven virtual reality experiences; creepily realistic sex dolls; and equally creepy tissue-paper bearing images of women’s faces. To really understand the future of wanking, we should probably first examine its past. Wanking has been …
As an industry, mainstream pornography is directed towards the consumption of the heterosexual, cisgender male viewer. Scenes often involve male dominance, unrealistic depictions of sex, hypersexual women, inauthentic representations of lesbian sexuality, and a lack of diversity in ethnicity, identity, and body shapes. By catering purely towards male gratification, the pornography industry disregards over half …
You’re in a nightclub, late at night. A dark, loud nightclub. Not so dark, though, that you can’t spot the very handsome man dancing across the floor. You make eye contact. Once, twice, a little bit longer each time. Soon you’re dancing together. Things heat up. You’re having a really, really good time, but you …
From pornography to incest, from prison rape to anonymous sex, the stories collected in Christos Tsiolkas’s new collection Merciless Gods are characteristically unflinching. Drawn from throughout his career, they explore and engage with transgressive aspects of human desire, and with sexual encounters which are categorised as taboo or rarely acknowledged. The presence of sex is …
I wrote an article for Archer #3 on the politics of pashing, which explores my experience of pashing my girlfriend in public as a wheelchair user. I thought I was comfortable with locking lips in public; that was what my piece was on, how kissing as a queer woman in a wheelchair is an eye-catching …
When it comes to inequity, especially in the LGBTI community, there is still a lot that needs to be said. Too many unjust ‘—isms’ and ‘—phobias’ hold sway over our society, and it is right to get angry because of that: to break it down, to pick these bits of bigotry apart so they hold …
Archer’s sterling new third edition launches in Melbourne on November 27. Pre-order your copy here. After a sold-out sophomore edition, Archer’s highly-anticipated third issue is packed with more thought-provoking articles on sexuality, gender, identity and society, including: * Michelle Dicinoski (Ghost Wife, 2013) on masturbation * Benjamin Law (The Family Law, 2010) on being gay at …
I can still recall the first time I tried to insert a tampon. Locking myself in the bathroom, I pulled out the Carefree leaflet and carefully studied the instructions. Was I supposed to push in and up or…? How far was far enough? What if I missed and pushed it into my urethra or it …
