(image from the new Joy of Sex)

Here’s a depressing fact of the day, straight from the Kinsey Institute, a research center for gender, sex, and reproduction.

Contemporary women have less sex than their 1950s counterparts because they have so little uncommitted time.

Come on ladies…let’s make more time for ourselves. When the author of the newly re-released Joy of Sex says she’s glad she’s not 10 years younger because of all the pressure generations X and Y have…it’s time to take a hint and destress. From the Huffington Post:

“I’m glad I’m not ten years younger because there are an awful lot of pressures on young people: to look fabulous; to have a fabulous sex life,” Susan Quilliam, the author, says. “We’re living in a world where it’s important to achieve and whether we have a good sex life has become one of our measures of personal validity. Alex Comfort [the original author of the Joy of Sex] took the emphasis off achievement - that is one of the many things he got right.”

Look for the revised book in January 2009, or order it from Amazon UK Sept. 1.

Sex toys are a wild and wonderful world of products. Now, there is a lot of chaff to be sorted from the wheat (and that’s why I’m here, a little, and why this comprehensive book is here too). Regardless, this  is a great guide to figuring out how to use them well and proper. I mean, before I started reviewing the stuff, it hadn’t even occurred to me what pleasures awaited…or I was buying not-so-good product…or didn’t know how to use it. It’s not always that easy to figure stuff out…like the Cone (below).

In a nutshell, the book ToyGasms includes:

• Sexy instructions on every sex toy out there
• Over 40 toy-techniques for mind-blowing orgasms
• No-blush secrets to introduce your lover to hot toy-play
• How to hide your toys from prying eyes

Ah, summer! Somehow, without trying, the magic of the romance novel arrives in my world! Stories about sheiks and British tourists in Syria, romance on the islands, continent hopping with Mr. Right, or the Candace Bushnell novel. I just finished Trading Up, so for those who think reckless ambition is a negative trait…maybe you’re in the wrong city. At least, that’s how it seems to go for our model-heroine who’s looking for Mi$ter Big Bucks and a little bit of cred. But that book is respectable; you can read it in public. This other one you’ll have to cover in plain brown paper, or keep it in the confines of an air-conditioned apartment. Eric von Gotha’s adult comics, set in a Dangerous Liasons-goes-kinky kind of world is my summer reading of choice. And in terms of things you never dared ask, he gives you a few tasty scenarios you’ll love to dream about…and maybe ask for a different kind of sex in your city.

How can we talk Helen without Hugh? Looking at these two powerful people in the business of selling titillation and sexy, one thing seems to hold true. A great sense of style, a strong mind, a liberal idea of freedom, and true conviction. It’s not just “sexy summer make up,” but, darlings, it seems to be that Darwinian way of the world. It’s the survival of the fittest out there. What does fittest mean to you?

Meanwhile, here’s a great profile on Hef from Salon.com. Sexy is also informed. So know your cultural icons, ladies. In the words of a great pessimist, when your looks fade, at least you’ll have your scintillating faculties of conversation, rabid intelligence and biting wit…an aphrodisiac at any age, with any body type.