What is a sex myth and how do we spot one? Where do our assumptions about sex and sexuality come from, and do they have merit?

The Sex Myth: Why Everything We’re Told Is Wrong investigates the various dark corners of sex and the media, with Dr Brooke Magnanti examining the data for widely believed truisms, like the one that adult entertainment – strip clubs, massage parlours, and the like – cause crime; the medicalisation of female desire; the denial of women’s appreciation for erotica, and whether “sex addiction” is a disease.

Drawing both on her career as a scientist and experience as a sex worker, she plumbs the depths of sexual myth-making and exposes that what we think we know, may often show that we don’t know much about at all.

Dr Brooke Magnanti, perhaps better known as previously anonymous author Belle de Jour, wrote the award-winning blog ‘ The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl’ that inspired five books and a television series. She has a doctorate in forensic science, and has also worked in cheminformatics, genetic epidemiology, and cancer research. You can read more about her book at http://www.sexonomics.co.uk

Dr Magnanti will be presenting at the Glasgow Skeptics on July 24th and in Edinburgh for Skeptics on the Fringe on the 14 August.

The Token Skeptic book, The Scope of Skepticism: Interviews, Essays and Observations From The Token Skeptic Podcast is out now!

Additional instrumental music for this episode: “Spyder – The Lady Geek Spy Theme” by Milton Mermikides. Theme songs are “P&P” by Derek K. Miller of www.penmachine.com and “Leap Second” by Milton Mermikides, of www.miltonmermikides.com.

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Please considering supporting the show via visiting Tokenskeptic.org – and I’d love to get your feedback at tokenskeptic@gmail.com.

 

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