Gawker reports:

Previously schools had three options when it came to sex ed: abstinence-only classes, comprehensive classes covering both abstinence and safe sex, or no sex ed classes at all. Thanks to the new measure, which Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign into law, schools will now have to either teach the comprehensive sex ed courses or avoid sex ed altogether.

It’s a start. In the meantime, those young people in less enlightened states can always find help at Scarleteen.

Join us on Tuesday, May 28th at 8pm for another evening of Performance Anxiety, the twice-monthly comedy night hosted by Eli Olsberg at our West Hollywood store.

For just $7, you get free beer, 15% off your purchases and an evening with some of the best comics working today.

The show will feature appearances by Hannibal Buress, Moshe Kasher, Jonah Ray, Howard Kremer, Emily Maya Mills, Rick Glassman and Brooks Wheelan. 

The show is first come, first served and you are encouraged to buy tickets in advance to guarantee a seat.

In honor of National Masturbation Month, please enjoy Jonah Ray on jerking off at work.

The Herndon Climb is an annual tradition at the Annapolis Naval Academy in which members of the freshmen class, AKA “plebes,” climb a lard-covered monument to retrieve the Plebe ‘dixie cup’ hat and replace it with an upperclassmen’s hat, marking the end of wearing freshman headgear and moving up to headgear more like a U.S. Naval officer.

A likely story. To us, this looks like an amazing demonstration of the superior slipperiness of oil-based lubricants. Anyways, you’ll want to take a minute to enjoy the rest of the photos from this naval tradition.

h/t Buzzfeed

For example, check out the ingenious We-Vibe Thrill. It’s modeled after the original We-Vibe design, but optimized for play without a partner. Thrill fits snugly in the vagina, providing firm and focused G-Spot stimulation, while the outer part rests against the clitoris. Use the ergonomic handle to find the perfect position and the single button control to choose from 8 modes of deeply satisfying vibrations.

Thrill is 100% waterproof, so you can take it in the shower or bath. It charges via USB (that’s right, you can plug it into your laptop) and is fully charged in just 90 minutes. It doesn’t even look like a vibrator, so it makes a wonderfully stealthy travel toy. Finally, while Thrill is the ideal masturbation device, we can also imagine enjoying this toy with a friend. It leaves your hands free to roam yourself or your partner.

How to Win a We-Vibe Thrill

Want to get a Thrill?

Simply log in to your Pinterest account and repin the We-Vibe Thrill to one of your boards. On Friday, May 24th, we’ll pick one repin at random to win the Thrill. It’s that easy!

“I think the richness and breadth of content available on Tumblr — even though it may not be as brand safe as what’s on our site — is what’s really exciting and allows us to reach even more users.”

Obviously, Yahoo is concerned about how to lure in advertising dollars when many companies are still skittish about being a click away from a creampie. But at least for now, it sounds like your porn is safe.

What’s your favorite naughty Tumblr site? Tell us in the comments.

Last week, we asked our readers to submit their favorite songs about self love. Of course, many of you suggested such classics as “She Bop” and “I Touch Myself,” but who knew Billy Joel has TWO songs about jerkin’ it? We made a list of your best submissions and then filled it out with our own favorite odes to onanism. We even found two songs about inflatable sex dolls.

Here’s the result. The Pleasure Chest’s official National Masturbation Month playlist! What did we miss? Let us know in the comments.

Price will present Sex After Fifty this Sunday, May 19^th from 2PM to 4:30PM in a free workshop at our LA store. Geared to people over 50, the class will help attendees take home new tools, techniques, and attitudes to help them experience sizzling and satisfying sex –with or without a partner. She’ll follow up on Monday night from 6PM to 8PM with The 5 Biggest Myths About Sex & Aging, a discussion and release party for her new book, Ageless Erotica, a senior sex anthology.

As educators, we are committed to promoting healthy, pleasurable and fulfilling sex at every stage of life, and Joan Price’s workshops are invaluable to our mission. If you are 50 or over or plan to be, these workshops will help you understand the issues surrounding sex and aging. Both events are open to adults of all ages, regardless of gender, orientation, experience level or relationship status. We hope you’ll join us.

Join us on Monday, Monday, May 20th at 8pm at our Chicago store for another Performance Anxiety,  hosted by Goodrich Gevaart. The show is absolutely free, BYOB and everyone in attendance gets 15% off their purchases.

The night will feature appearances by Nick Rouley, Alexandra Tsarpalas, Caitlin Bergh, Matt Riggs, Kelsie Huff and Zach Peterson. We recommend arriving early as seating is limited.

Please enjoy Matt Riggs earlier this year at Chicago Underground Comedy.

French adult film actor, producer and director Francois Sagat has retired. The porn polymath has given few details about his decision, announced in this mysterious video shot outside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disneyland. On his blog, Sagat says:

I have many projects coming out. I have been very busy and not posting here as much. I want to tell you everything. But I do not plan to make porn again. No regrets. Just new goals.

Incubus 2 was my last porn but will not be my last movie. Good to always go out on your high note and leave people wanting more. And more you will get, just not more of the same.

Can we expect Sagat to cross over into mainstream movies?

h/t Xbiz News 

This is a guest post by Sarah Tomchesson, The Pleasure Chest’s Director of Business Development and Strategy.

Introducing the concept of pleasure into sex education geared toward young adults has long been frowned upon and rarely implemented with the exception of a few progressive models. Instead, the United States has largely adopted risk-focused education since the federal government’s first allocation of funds for sex education after World War I, when the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea posed a real public health issue. The HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 80s and 90s reinforced the need for sex education as a public health necessity, specifically STD-focused education (more appropriately known now as STIs).

As we know, some contemporary sex education curricula teach that abstinence is the only viable means to avoid pregnancy or contracting an STI. And, wow, nothing is sexier than abstinence! As if taking anything remotely sexual out of the teaching will make young folks ignore their own budding sexuality. This method of sexuality education is misguided. Ignoring the amazing plethora of nerve endings in our genitalia and throughout our bodies, avoiding discussion of self exploration and skipping over how to talk about sex with a partner, does not make kids want sex less. It does not empower them to make healthy choices about their or their partners’ bodies; it does not equip them for their first time (or their first 20 times) and I think it most definitely contributes to the prevalence of rape culture in our society.

This pleasure-denying approach to sex education in the US suggests that we are trying to socialize physiological urges out of young folks’ bodies through fear tactics. This method may be helping some of our youth avoid pregnancy and STIs, but ultimately it is putting a lot of them at risk. We are not providing young people with a healthy alternative to the powerful and often disparate messages they receive about sex and sexuality through the internet, music, sports-culture, celebrity-culture, politics and religious institutions.

Sluthood is simultaneously exalted and stigmatized in mainstream media. Similarly, virility and “manliness” is glorified. Viagra and Cialis commercials are now ubiquitous. Politicians are regularly caught cheating. Female professionals are still judged by looks and sex appeal first, effectiveness second (Kamala Harris IS the best-looking Attorney General after all, right?). Professional athletes get sexual assault cases dropped left and right. Stuebenville High School has just extended their football coach’s contract for two years even while the grand jury has convened to determine his culpability in a 2012 sexual assault case (!) In this context, where sexuality is omnipresent but rarely meaningfully discussed and where there is limited access to sexuality education, particularly on the topic of consent, objectification, rape and sexual assault have become normalized. Unfortunately, most sex education curricula do not provide a viable alternative to the disempowering and pervasive model of sexuality provided by our culture.

Pleasure-centered education can provide our youth with meaningful tools to help them navigate one of, if not the most, vulnerable parts of their identity. As a sex educator, who teaches from a pleasure-based perspective I understand how complicated and loaded the concept of pleasure can be, even to adults. However, to embrace a healthy model of sexuality in which consent is a key piece one must be able to wrap their head around the vast pleasure possibilities consent unlocks. The model of sexuality that our culture constructs is unattainable because within it exists an irresolvable conflict between repression and overstimulation. I believe that introducing the concept of pleasure is essential to educating on consent and can offer a significant alternative to the current “one size fits all” model of sexuality. Empowering people to understand their sexuality and showing them the ways their bodies are built for pleasure, encourages them to seek out the sex that is right for them and to reject sex that hurts or is unsatisfying.

In a pleasure-based model, exploration of one’s own body is at the core of the ideology and anatomy is taught from the perspective of the potential of the different nerve endings in the body. Anatomy lessons serve as a tool for individual empowerment. Education on the ways our bodies are wired for orgasm is especially important for young women who are discouraged by society’s messaging to enjoy sex, and who have largely been denied permission to be sexual or to have sexual needs for fear of being labeled a slut.

Also, women are not taught to have pride for their genitals in the same way that a lot of men come to love and readily explore their penises. Just watch any feminine hygiene or douching commercial and you will see the deep shame that we as a society feel about the vulva. Likewise, the inherent power of the penis is ingrained in young men, but we are not teaching them that possessing a penis does not entitle them to pleasure any way they want it, whenever they want it.

Pleasure-based curriculum approaches sex from the perspective of mutual pleasure, through detailing the body’s pleasure map and also by laying out a framework for safe exploration in relationships through strong communication. Demonstrating how to negotiate sex with a partner, what you like and don’t like, provides an excellent opportunity for meaningful discussion about what consent means and what it looks like in practice. The affirmative consent model where only “yes” means “yes” is perfectly positioned in pleasure-centered education. Introducing consent in this context, where the goal is greater pleasure for both partners, makes it sexy and helps elucidate how sex with a consenting partner is always more satisfying.

The problem with risk-focused or abstinence-only sex education is that the concept of mutuality is absent; the curriculum has been disinfected of any remnants of sexiness. Young people know that when sex education focuses solely on negative outcomes that something is missing. In the absence of comprehensive and affirmative education they will seek out information where none has been provided. The sexuality resources that are most readily available and accessible are not promoting consent, sex-positivity or contributing to a rape-free culture.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not arguing that “Blow Jobs 101” or “The Ultimate O: Achieving Multiple Orgasms” is appropriate curriculum for teenagers.  However, recent events at Occidental College, USC, Amherst, Stuebenville High School and in the military demonstrate that rape culture is alive and well. These events highlight that people are entering their sexually active years with little to no understanding of what informed consent is.

There are age-appropriate ways to sexually empower our youth and it is a priority that we do so. One great example of progressive education is Planned Parenthood Los Angeles’ pilot health program, which includes an educational curriculum for students and parents that is paired with health resources and peer advocacy on high school campuses. Another is Dr. Laura Berman’s Sex Ed Handbook for parents (PDF), which encourages discussion in the home from a young age. Young people are confused about their sexuality and their bodies and are becoming confused adults. Hopefully, some will find their way to a sex-positive or pleasure-centered workshop in adult life but many will not.

Our sex education has sheltered young people by focusing on risk and denying pleasure while the rest of society bombards them with a precarious model of sexuality. This combination is not working for us anymore. It is time that we introduce pleasure, and with it sexy consent, into more sex education curricula.

To read more about how young people are combating rape culture, read our previous post on the Know Your IX campus movement.