Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy and opening May 18th, HYSTERIA is a romantic comedy based on the invention of the vibrator.  In association with Sony Pictures Classics, the Museum of Sex and JimmyJane vibrators will be giving away three Special Edition JimmyJane Hysteria Gift Sets to cure you of your illness!

Iconic Ring (shared, hands-free), Iconic Pocket (compact, powerful), Iconic Bullet (mini, mighty, travel-friendly)

Form 2 (dual motor vibe) and Beyond Euphoric Sensational Massage Lotion

Simply mention HYSTERIA when purchasing museum admission between 10am and 4pm on Friday, May 18th, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win. Winners will be announced at 4pm and gift packs will be available for pick up until closing (9pm) and during the weekend. For more information about Hysteria gift packs, visit JimmyJane HERE.

Female hysteria, a once-common medical diagnosis widely discussed in 19th century literature, is no longer recognized by modern medical authorities. Symptoms included fainting, nervousness, sexual desire, loss of appetite for food or sex and a “tendency to cause trouble” (Maines, Rachel P. The Technology of Orgasm, 1998). Hysteria was often treated with “pelvic massage” that would lead to “hysterical paroxysm” (orgasm) in the patient.

Water massages as a treatment for hysteria, c. 1860. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

In 1880, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville invented the first electric vibrator, designed for use on female genitalia to alleviate the symptoms of hysteria. Colloquially, the vibrator was referred to as “Gransville’s hammer,” and was manufactured and sold to physicians. Dr. Granville’s culturally significant invention alleviated the physical strain on doctors, cut treatment time down to mere minutes, and dramatically increased success rates.

Antique vibrator, circa 1900.

Join psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert along with writer Alisa Bowman for a reading and signing of the new book, BE FEARLESS: Change Your Life in 28 Days. Learn how to go from fearful to fearless by using the five step plan outlined in the book. Jonathan and Alisa will provide tips on how to be fearless from the bedroom to the boardroom. Have a question that maybe you’ve always been too embarrassed to ask? Bring it with you as no questions are barred in this fun and interactive event.

Bios
JONATHAN ALPERT is a licensed psychotherapist, advice columnist and author of BE FEARLESS: Change Your Life in 28 Days. His insight is regularly tapped by major national and international media outlets, including television, print, radio, and online. He has appeared on such nationally televised shows as TODAY, Good Morning America, CNN, FOX News, and NBC Nightly News. He is often quoted by Ladies’ Home Journal, Details, Elle, Men’s Health, the Associated Press, BBC, Time and countless other print outlets.

Alpert appeared in the 2010 Oscar winning documentary “Inside Job,” where he commented on the psychological underpinnings of the 2008 financial crisis.

His popular column, “No More Drama,” appears in Metro newspaper in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, reaching more than one million readers weekly, since 2006. In it he dishes out no-nonsense advice on relationships, sex, lifestyle and hot-button issues, mental health, and career dilemmas.

As a therapist, he counsels everyone from corporate executives to professional entertainers to the general public. His style of therapy leads to astonishing results and many of Alpert’s clients see improvements by the end of the first session while most graduate from therapy within just a few months.

ALISA BOWMAN is a professional writer and ghostwriter who has penned more than 30 titles, including seven NY Times bestsellers. As a journalist, she has written for many national outlets, including The Atlantic, Women’s Health, Parents, and Family Circle. Her blog ProjectHappilyEverAfter.com generates more than 70,000 unique visitors each month, and she is interviewed regularly by the media. Bowman has appeared on national television programs such as The TODAY Show, the CBS Early Show, FOX, and Discovery Health, and she has been quoted in national print magazines such as Redbook, Woman’s Day, Woman’s World, First, and many others.

Join us to celebrate the pre-launch of the new book from Karrine Steffans (New York Times Best Seller) at the Museum of Sex with an art exhibit, cocktails, dessert treats and gift bags. We’ll gather from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, to socialize, network and have FUN!

‘Drink Fuck Sleep’ is a collection of essays depicting regrettable sexual experiences wherein alcohol was involved either before, during, or after. With gripping, personal accounts of tragic, heart-wrenching, sexually boundless, ultra-erotic, emotionally numbing, mind thrilling, and scintillating experiences, the featured writers narrow the divide between what people project and what they protect. It serves as a series of precautionary tales, as well as proof of life and the parallels of the human condition, regardless of our socioeconomic stations.

Bios
Karrine Steffans is the New York Times best selling author of four titles: Confessions of a Video Vixen, The Vixen Diaries, The Vixen Manual: How to Find, Seduce, & Keep the Man You Want, and SatisFaction: Erotic Fantasies for the Advanced & Adventurous Couple.

The author and her books have been featured by such hosts as Paula Zahn, Donny Deutsch, Tyra Banks, Bill O’Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, and the queen of daytime herself, Oprah Winfrey. Quite accidently, the author also contributed satirical editorial to HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

A-Marketing is a boutique marketing agency that connects with consumers and creates brand advocates. Specializing in marketing, media, and publicity for entertainment, corporate, and non-profit organizations. www.amkting.net

Five adult film stars from the “Golden Age of Porn”: Veronica Hart, Gloria Leonard, Candida Royalle, Veronica Vera and Annie Sprinkle were the original “Sex and the City” girls. Turning to one another for the support they needed to navigate their way through life in blue movies, these dynamic women created “Club 90” in 1983, forming a bond that would continue for thirty years. They went on to pursue their personal goals, and in the process, blazed new trails in the fields of human sexuality, women’s empowerment, erotic expression, and free speech. Come get a taste of the good old days when NYC was America’s sex film capital, movies were shot on 35mm film, and Times Square was x-rated! Most of all, come share the laughs, the drama and the intimate stories of this controversial support group. This rare reunion promises to be candid, informative and electric!

Bios
Candida Royalle™, president of Femme Productions®, is best known for having pioneered the concept of adult movies from a woman’s perspective for couples to share. A former actress during the “golden age” of adult movies, it is her work as director/producer of 18 internationally acclaimed erotic movies of which she is most proud. Continuing to innovate in the field of sexuality, she partnered with Dutch Industrial designers, Groet Design to create the revolutionary line of Natural Contours® sexual wellness products. In 2004 Simon & Schuster published her first book, How to Tell a Naked Man What To Do: Sex Advice From a Woman Who Knows, followed by the paperback in February ’06. Candida Royalle™ has become a sought-after speaker, having lectured at such venues as the Smithsonian Institute, the American Psychiatric Association’s national conference, and the World Congress on Sexology, as well as several sexuality conferences and universities including Princeton, Columbia, Wellesley College and New York University. She is a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, (AASECT) and a founding Board member of Feminists for Free Expression (FFE).

Veronica Vera is author of two books: Miss Vera’s Crossdress for Success (Villard, 2002) and Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls (Doubleday,1997), both are based on Miss Vera’s Finishing School, the internationally known, world’s first crossdressing academy which she founded in 1992. She is a respected visionary in the transgender community. Prior to that, in the early 80’s, after leaving her job as a Wall Street stock trader, Veronica wrote hundreds of articles on the subject of human sexuality. In many of them, she was an active participant exploring her own sexual issues. She testified for freedom of expression before Arlen Spector and a committee of the Senate Judiciary. Her testimony was later incorporated into the Meese Report. Veronica starred in a number of adult movies, collaborated as a model with Robert Mapplethorpe and other artists. In 1989, she helped re-organize P.O.N.Y. (Prostitutes of New York). Veronica is a founding member and on the Executive board of Feminist for Free Expression. See, www.missvera.com.

Annie Sprinkle Ph.D. was a NYC prostitute and porn star for twenty years, then morphed into a performance artist and sexologist. She has passionately explored sexuality for forty years, sharing her experiences through making her own unique brand of feminist sex films, writing books and articles, visual art making, theater performances, and teaching. Annie has consistently championed sex worker rights and health care and was one of the pivotal players of the Sex Positive Movement of the 1980′s. She got her BFA at School of Visual Arts in NYC. Annie Sprinkle is the first porn star to earn a Ph.D., which is in Human Sexuality. She’s a popular lecturer whose work is studied in many colleges and Universities. For the past 11 years she has been collaborating on art projects with her partner, artist and professor, Elizabeth Stephens. They are movers and shakers in the new “ecosex movement,” committed to environmental activism. They started Occupy Bernal (San Francisco) where they live. www.anniesprinkle.org and www.sexecology.org

Veronica Hart aka Jane Hamilton, a UNLV graduate with a BA in theatrical arts, has performed on stage in many roles and became a star in adult cinema’s golden age in such classics as “Amanda by Night”, “Roommates”, and “Wanda Whips Wall Street”. She has won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the Eroticas and Critics Adult Film Awards and is included in several Adult Hall of Fames. Veronica has performed in over thirty R-rated movies and numerous television appearances playing Viveca St. John in “Six Feet Under”, the custody judge in “Boogie Nights” and Veronica Del Rio in “One-Eyed Monster”.

As Jane Hamilton producer and as Veronica Hart director, she has made over twenty features for VCA and also produced Michael Ninn’s features.

She produced and directed three r-rated features for Mainline Releasing Group, produced the horror film “Parasomnia” with William Malone directing, and is now working with author/director John Skipp to produce “Rose” a bizarro zombie musical.

A former board member of the Free Speech Coalition, Veronica is the mother of two fabulous young men, works at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas and is in a wonderful relationship with her high school sweetheart, Stan Clawson.

Gloria Leonard. In a career which both began and ended behind the scenes, front and center is where Gloria Leonard spent most of her professional life. Whether as an actress or director of such adult classics as “Misty Beethoven,” “Fortune Smiles,” “Taboo: American Style,” or as a much sought-after guest on countless talk shows (Oprah, Geraldo, Maury, Larry King, Howard Stern et al), Gloria is an enigmatic presence whose patrician earthiness vies with a disarming intellect for your attention. Ms. Leonard has also been the host of her own television shows – “The Leonard Report: For Adults Only” and later, “Gloria Leonard’s Hot Shopper Hour,” a humorously hedonist paean to TV home shopping which featured sexy merchandise, interesting guests, film reviews and comic relief. Vogue magazine’s review recommended that the Fox Network snap her up. Gloria’s fourteen-year stint as Publisher of High Society magazine often thrust her into the eye of intense media hurricanes. She pioneered both the publishing of “celebrity skin” (Margot Kidder, Ann-Margret and Barbra Streisand all attempted to sue) and the then controversial concept of phone sex, a case which went all the way to the Supreme Court, ultimately ruling in her favor. With Gloria at the helm, High Society became one of the best selling newsstand magazines in America. Ms. Leonard is an ardent feminist and First Amendment advocate who has debated extensively on the issues of pornography, censorship and their impact on the women’s movement at dozens of colleges and universities. She has served as President of the Adult Film Association, Administrative Director of the Adult Video Association and is two-term President Emeritus of the Free Speech Coalition. Gloria Leonard was born in New York City and single-handedly raised a successful, charming daughter, who in turn, has a daughter of her own. Yes, Gloria is a Grandmother.

When John and his boyfriend take a break, the last thing he expects is to suddenly meet the woman of his dreams. Now he has a big choice to make. Don’t miss the American premiere of the gripping new play by Mike Bartlett. James Macdonald (Top Girls, Dying City) directs this Olivier Award-winning production.

Get tickets for this unusual theatrical experience with a special MoSex discount:

Tickets are just $32.50 (reg. $79.50) while the show previews through May 16 – Save almost 60%!

OR

$45 for performances from May 18 through June 24 – Save over 40%!

Or call 646-223-3010 and use code ECCK325P,
or bring this to The Duke at 229 West 42nd St. between 7th & 8th Aves.

Box office hours:
Tues-Fri 4pm-7pm
Sat 12pm-6pm

On performance days:
Tues-Fri 4pm-8pm
Sat 12pm-8pm
Sun 1pm-7pm

For more info, visit www.COCKFIGHTPLAY.com.

*Offer valid for all performances May 1 thru June 24, 2012, excluding May 17, 25-27. Other blackout dates
may apply. Regular price $79.50. Normal service charges apply to phone and Internet orders. Offer subject
to availability and prior sale. All sales are final – no refunds or exchanges. Offer may be revoked or modified
at any time without notice.

This new product from Minna is the most innovative toy we’ve seen! It responds on demand to the direction it’s given: The more pressure you apply to Ola’s soft spot, the more intense the vibrations it supplies; let up, and it does, too. Soft and steady? Fast and strong? You set the mood, Ola responds in sync. It’s also clever enough to replay your vibration creations: Compose a pattern you like, and Ola will keep it going until you tell it to stop. Amazing!

Watch the Minna Ola in action:

Use any surface of Ola’s body-safe, waterproof design to create pleasure inside or out, alone or with a friend, or even underwater.

The Minna Ola ($165) is available in pink or violet from the Museum store. Ola is fully rechargable, non-porous, made from hypo-allergenic silicon and is latex and phthalates free. Make sure to get free shipping on your order with promo code FREESHIP upon checkout!

Join us at the Museum bar every first Wednesday of the month at 6pm for an open mic where the theme is always SEX. If you’re shy, you can just sit back and enjoy some of NYC’s finest talent while you sip on our aphrodisiac specialty cocktails.

Doors open at 5pm for sign up. Open mic from 6-8pm, after-party from 8-10pm. No cover.

The event is hosted by the one and only Ms Perez…who also happens to be the Domi Dollz DOLL OF THE MONTH! Congratulations, Yari! Check out an interview with her HERE.

Photo courtesy of Jen Diaz

And in case you non-bois missed seeing this gem in the last Friends With Benefits newsletter, here is Australian rapper Iggy Azalea gettin’ it with PU$$Y.

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for more.  ; )

3=====D

Artist Stuart Ringholt leading a "naturist tour" of MONA

If you’re going to confront sex and death – or at least the art world’s latest depictions of them – you might as well be naked.

This notion was cheerfully explained to me by a fresh-faced Aussie attendant when I first arrived at MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, a radically innovative new institution in Tasmania, whose very purpose is to upend our pre-conceived notions of what a museum should be.  I’d first noticed that an after-hours “naturist tour” was on offer, and asked what this involved.  Apparently, participants would be escorted through the subterranean exhibitions while in the state that nature intended.  The guide would also be naked, of course.  Even the guards would be naked.  Since many of MONA’s artworks deal with the intimate workings of the human body, any naked viewer’s involvement would surely be at a heightened level, the attendant said.

Who could turn an offer like that down…?

My piece on the museum is in the current May issue Smithsonian Magazine, or can be read online here… My project on the visit was to meet MONA’s owner and creator, a professional gambler named David Walsh, an eccentric character who has single-handedly transformed the cultural life of Tasmania, Australia’s remote island-state.  He told me that he had expected his collection of confronting artworks would cause a certain amount of outrage – but it turns out Tasmanians are hard to shock.  Instead, the museum has been wildly successful, bringing visitors from all over the world.

There are some great images of museum on the magazine website, but I thought readers might be interested in a few other photos….

The Museum of Old and New Art on the Derwent River -- one of the world's biggest private collections of contemporary art -- the best way to get there is by ferry from Hobart

David Walsh -- a Tasmanian professional gambler who has poured his fortune into acquiring provocative art

Over 100 plaster casts of vaginas line one wall...

X-ray images of lovers embracing (in one case, a man is having his way with a chicken...)

The Cloaca, a machine that reproduces the human digestive system -- staff "feed" the creation in the morning and collect the odiferous result in the afternoon...

______________________________

Tony Perrottet is the author of Napoleon’s Privates: 2500 Years of History Unzipped and The Sinner’s Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe; www.tonyperrottet.com

The festival kicks off with a Teaser Party tomorrow night at Tammany Hall, followed by the main event Saturday night at Rebel. As proud sponsors, Mosex will be giving away a pair of tickets to the Friday and Saturday night performances. Leave us a comment on this post, message us on Facebook or Tweet: “Can’t wait for the first annual NYC #Boylesque festival! I want Friday [or Saturday] tix, @museumofsex!” We will notify our winners tonight. Check out the performance line-up HERE.

According to Chris “Go-Go” Harder, a NYC-based Boylesque Performer and teacher, what’s the bottom line? “Be a guy, take your clothes off, do it artfully. And if you’re really committed, put some glitter on dammit!” Get your Boylesque 101 on Saturday’s (4/28) Boylesque University at the Gershwin Hotel, which includes “A Brief History of the 120 years of Boylesk,” Dance Technique for Burlesque” with Hot Toddy, “The Superman Strip!” with Go-Go Harder and “Tassel-Twirling for Men” at The New York School of Burlesque.

In the meantime, practice your tassel-twirling at home with this instructional video from Jo Weldon to get ready for the international, glittery sausage fest.