Comments on: Sotadic and Other Zones: The Cartography of Human Sexuality

By: Sex Toys, Adam & Eve

Sex Toys, Adam & Eve — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:00:36 +0000

What’s nice about seeing these sexual maps is that they give visual representation to something that is normally so private and hidden. Don’t know if that’s ‘normalising,’ but it is certainly fascinating!

By: James Bridle

James Bridle — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:15:10 +0000

@Claire – You’re not wrong – I saw the same thing in India earlier this year, with the benches in public parks thronged with the young folk a-petting. Much like teenagers who still live at home – except it applies all the way up to marriage…

@Golan – Thanks that’s a great link.

@Ben – I can’t find the lower-left one, but good catch on the blue-blue – the pink was the one I’d spotted.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:45:21 +0000

I see three same-sex relationships in the map; there’s a blue-blue in the lower left of the main oval, a blue-blue ending an upward branch of the long up-right branch of the oval, and a pink-pink in the sideways Y thing just to the right of the oval.

By: Golan Levin

Golan Levin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:57:37 +0000

See also Martin Wattenberg & Fernanda Viegas’ project, Fleshmap (http://www.bewitched.com/fleshmap.html) for other sex+infovis.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:47:23 +0000

“(One of the counterintuituve points raised in Unspeakable Love is the widespread eroticism present in modern Islamic cultures: when sexuality is denied private and inviolate spaces, it permeates the entire sphere – the street, the marketplace, the bus station, all become erotic zones, charged with possibilities).”

In my observation this is also quite true in countries like Spain or Italy, where Catholicism casts a shadow and economic/cultural factors drive young people to live with their parents until marriage. Perhaps because of the conservatism in private spaces, it’s not uncommon to see young people gettin’ it on (or coming very close to doing so) in parks, etc.