Methods by which HIV is transmitted
HIV can be transmitted by sharing needles in I.V. drug use, by blood transfusions with unsterilized needles or tubes, by an infected mother to her unborn child or breastfeeding an infant.
Some of the best web resources on HIV transmission and prevention include:
Why do agricultural cultures stigmatize masturbation?
In agricultural societies, it is extremely important for people to reproduce the maximum number of offspring. Having many children is important for two reasons. First, children’s labor is crucial for the survival of the family. Children are put to work in the fields usually before age seven, and they are expected to labor throughout their childhood and adolescence. Farming is hard work, and children are not exempted. In many agricultural societies, wealth is measured in how many children one has. When I was doing ethnographic research among farmers in Java, I repeatedly heard the phrase “children are your wealth.” Children are strongly disciplined to mind their parents, because it is a matter of the family’s survival.
Second, parents in agricultural societies want to have lots of children to make sure that at least some of their children survive long enough to take care of the parents in their old age. Until the twentieth century, infant mortality rates among most humans were very high. The majority of infants died before they reached age five. Multiple diseases, many originating from the farm animals that lived in close interaction with farming families, killed off large numbers of young children when they were first exposed to these pathogens. Only the strongest survived to grow up and become adults.
In such a situation, pressure was put upon people to reproduce the maximum number of children. In the first census of the United States, taken in 1790 when over 95% of Americans were subsistence farmers, the average number of living offspring recorded for each American woman was nine children. And the average woman had given birth to many more infants who had not lived. Women were expected to get married soon after puberty, become pregnant, give birth, wean the infant within a year or so, and then to become pregnant again as soon as possible. Death in childbirth was the most common reason for young adult women’s mortality.
With this strong social pressure to reproduce the maximum number of children, a non-reproductive behavior like masturbation was condemned in agricultural cultures. Hindu religion, for example, which arose among agricultural peoples of India, sees a man’s semen as something valuable and limited, a bodily resource that needs to be preserved only for procreation. Because Hindu religion stresses reproduction, and says that anyone who does not have children is cursed, masturbation is seen as a harmful behavior. Likewise, among the ancient Hebrews masturbation was referred to in the Bible as “wasting seed.” For an agricultural society like the Hebrews, for a male to ejaculate his sperm outside of a vagina was considered as wasteful as throwing plant seeds into a river. Both practices were wasteful, and condemned. Through the Bible, these agricultural values entered Western religion, and ever since then Christianity (spread through agricultural societies in Europe and the Americas, and more recently into Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands) has condemned masturbation.
What famous foods were developed to prevent masturbation?
In the 1880s Dr. Sylvester Graham invented a sweetened cracker that he claimed would inhibit the desire to masturbate. The Graham Cracker became a popular treat for parents to purchase for their children, which made Dr. Graham a rich man. Another man, John Kellogg, claimed that the flakes of corn that he invented would inhibit masturbation. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes quickly became the most popular breakfast food in the United States.
For more information on this history see:
What are the medical benefits of having orgasms more than twice a week?
Orgasms significantly lower stress levels and promote a serene feeling of happiness. Happy people live longer and suffer fewer diseases. While more research is needed to see if there are additional health benefits for female orgasm, at least for adolescent and young adult males regular orgasms are important for lifelong good health. Each male produces millions upon millions of sperm in his testicles. If older sperm remains in the testicle without release, it sours over time and can actually lead to the promotion of cancer-causing cells. If the sperm is regularly flushed out by orgasm, it allows new sperm to grow healthily. Studies have shown that males who ejaculated over two times a week during their teens and twenties suffered significantly less prostate and testicular cancer disease later in life, than males who did not often ejaculate during their teens and twenties. Similarly, other studies have shown that heart disease rates are lower among older men who ejaculated regularly in their youth.
A few of the many web sites that detail the benefits of masturbation include:
Some other general references with modern views on masturbation:
How is legging done in Belize?
As the activity was described to me, some lubricant or saliva is usually rubbed on the inside surface of the thighs of the person getting legged. The male inserts his penis between the thighs and thrusts until he has an orgasm. In the case of a male-male couple, they can exchange positions. In the case of a male-female couple, before he ejaculates the male can masturbate the female until she climaxes. Females can experience multiple orgasms as the male thrusts against her body. As long as no sperm gets into the vagina or anus, this outercourse behavior is totally safe in regards to pregnancy and HIV transmission.
Learn more about legging in ancient Greece.
It was common for a man to court a boy, and if the boy accepted the overtures of the man they would establish a mentor relationship. Many of these courting relationships became sexual, and the typical practice was for the man to insert his penis between the legs of the boy. Penetrating the boy anally was condemned in ancient Greece, but outercourse was considered acceptable behavior. These loving intergenerational male relationships were highly honored in ancient Greece, and were the basis for the way boys were educated. The man was responsible for seeing that the boy grew up to be a well-educated and respectable man. Famous Greek men like Socrates and Alexander the Great were known for their devotion to their boyfriends. Most Greek men would also marry a woman, so that the norm in ancient Greek society was bisexuality. See J. K. Dover, Greek Homosexuality and William Percy, Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece.
How is legging done in Indonesia?
When I was doing my research in Indonesia in 1987-88, I found that legging was a common practice. The secret to making the practice as pleasurable as possible, my Indonesian informants told me, was for the bottom person to cross their legs at the ankle. By crossing the legs at the ankle, the thighs can be squeezed more tightly together than if the legs are side by side. Because many Indonesians considered anal intercourse to be a disgusting and unsanitary practice, and because there was a strong social disapproval if a woman got pregnant outside of marriage, for unmarried couples intercourse was avoided. Instead, legging was the preferred practice. Legging was also the standard among gay men, and as a result HIV infection was extremely low. About the only gay men who were getting infected were those who were attracted to foreigners, and unfortunately they might be infected by HIV if they were persuaded by the foreigner to engage in anal intercourse.
Other related outercourse behaviors
Besides legging, some males enjoy doing the same kind of penile insertion below the armpit of their partner, who squeezes their arm tightly to their side as the penis thrusts back and forth. Some males enjoy inserting their penis between a woman’s breasts, and thrusting while she squeezes her breasts together. Wherever the body can be squeezed, there is a potential location for outercourse. Many commercial sex workers, who are quite justifiably worried about HIV infection, prefer to do these kinds of outercourse behaviors with their clients rather than intercourse. They feel a great sense of relief if they can lead a man to orgasm without having to be penetrated.
Learn more about inserting fingers and sex toys.
Before inserting anything into the vagina or anus, it should be thoroughly washed in hot soapy water. As long as the hand is clean, the fingernails are clipped closely and smoothly, and there is no cut or bleeding sore on the hand, gently inserting a finger into the vagina or anus is not conducive to HIV transmission. With physical objects, as long as the object is smooth and well lubricated, and is inserted gently, it can be quite pleasurable. Obviously no object made of glass or any other breakable material, or with any jagged edges, should be utilized. A wide variety of sex toys are manufactured and sold specifically for erotic uses, but simple vegetables like carrots or cucumbers (which should be washed before use, in hot soapy water) can also be safely used as sex toys. Common sense should be used in regards to any choice of object, and nothing should be inserted so deeply into the orifice that it cannot be easily pulled out. For those persons who strongly desire the sensation of penetration, but who do not want to take the chance of disease transmission that comes with intercourse, a sex toy is a viable alternative. Each person should use their sex toy exclusively, and should not insert it into another person’s body. If a sex toy is shared, however, before being used it should be washed again with hot soapy water and covered with a new condom for each person.
Learn more about bondage and discipline.
In particular, individuals in powerful professions who have control over many employees or other people in their job, often seem to get sexual arousal by being treated as a subordinate or even as a submissive prisoner. They eroticize a different role that is opposite to what they usually do in their regular daily life. They may masturbate while being bound or disciplined by a person who does a role play as a dominatrix or dominator. Typically, such consensual sex play is nothing more than acting, and the submissive person should retain the option of stopping the action if it gets too painful. Some people enjoy taking the role of sadist, while others prefer to play the masochist role. Just as long as there is no cutting or bloodletting involved, such erotic practices are not conducive of HIV transmission. People may experiment, for example by having their nipples pinched with a clothespin, and unexpectedly find that something they might have considered painful to be exciting instead. The only boundaries are what the persons involved consent to do, and what they can do without endangering their health or their partner’s health.
What disasters are happening due to the vast increase in human population?
1. Forests are being cut down to supply timber for housing, heating, and other human needs,
2. More forests are being burned to convert into farmlands to provide crops for the increased numbers of people, and
3. Still more forests are destroyed to make pastures to raise cows for all these additional people to consume.
4. The rivers and seas are polluted with the waste of all these increased numbers of humans and their domesticated animals.
5. Fish populations are plummeting around the globe as the seas are overfished to feed the increased number of humans.
6. Many species of wild animals and plants have already become extinct,
or are threatened with extinction in the near future, because of this
explosion of numbers of homo sapiens. No species can have such an
extreme population explosion without eventually producing catastrophic
results.
What should government and law enforcement officials do?
Because of the dangers of intercourse, legal inhibitions on sex, such as anti-prostitution laws and age of sexual consent laws (also called “statutory rape” and “corruption of a minor”) should continue to criminalize vaginal and anal intercourse. However, lawmakers and law enforcement officials should put outercourse in a radically different legal category. For all other erotic behaviors besides intercourse, government officials need to seriously reconsider, reevaluate, and reprioritize what behaviors they decide to prosecute.
Specifically, the ABCD model suggests that outercourse behaviors should not be prosecuted under the legal definition of “sex,” A sex worker should be charged with prostitution only if sexual intercourse occurs, and anyone who engages in outercourse behaviors for payment should be considered no different than, say, a professional masseur. Whether that professional massages the back or the legs or the genitals should make no difference as far as the law is concerned, just as long as “sex” (ie: penile penetration of the vagina or anus) is avoided. Likewise, young people should no longer be involved in prosecution under age of consent laws, if they engage willingly in outercourse behaviors with another person. Of course, laws should continue to protect both youths and adults from rape, unwanted sexual assault, or sexual harassment. No one, of any age, should be forced to engage in any kind of erotic behavior against their will. Rapists should be prosecuted for assault, to the fullest extent of the law. In most countries, people can be protected by enforcing existing rape and sexual assault laws.
What should religious leaders and the media do?
Religious groups and the mass media can continue to condemn sex outside of marriage, if they wish, but they should be careful to keep their focus on sexual intercourse alone. They should continue to stress both the danger of pregnancy to young women and the danger of HIV infection to everyone, when a person engages in sexual intercourse outside of marriage. If a national HIV prevention public education campaign is going to be successful, religious groups and the media need to participate. This may involve a lot of soul searching for religious leaders who presently equally condemn all kinds of erotic behaviors. For the good of their congregations and for humanity as a whole they will need to stop condemning outercourse in order for it to become a valued and socially acceptable behavior for youth as well as adults. To create a new social norm that sees outercourse as a social good, media leaders and religious groups will need to understand that this public health education campaign is in the public interest. To continue as in the past will invite catastrophe, as the one-two punches of HIV infection and teen pregnancy combine to push many impoverished nations further and further behind.
What should educators, parents, and other concerned citizens do?
There needs to be a widespread public education campaign to encourage people, especially young people before they become sexually active, to consider safer alternatives to intercourse. Since young people are having sex at younger ages, on average in the early teens, this means publicizing outercourse in society in general and educating young people about outercourse by the time they reach ages ten or eleven. The goal is to provide youth with another alternative so that they will more likely avoid or delay engaging in dangerous sexual intercourse.
It is particularly important to persuade youth that, if they are going to become sexually active, they should do outercourse before they experience intercourse. Studies have shown that the first pleasurable sexual act that a person engages in, is the behavior that they tend to prefer for the rest of their life. This favoritism of erotic inclinations does not happen when a person experiences unwanted sex or rape; it must be a pleasurable experience to lead to deeply subconscious psychological favoritism.
If young people engage in outercourse as their first erotic activity, this would help to popularize these safer behaviors in society for the future. Sexual intercourse would no longer be the ONLY behavior that people assume they must do when they want to experience erotic pleasure.