Nerd Nite KW took a sexy turn this edition, featuring three speakers discussing sexuality at the Science of Sexuality exhibit at Kitchener’s Themuseum.
On display as handouts were obscene balloon hats, bracelets, and belts for audience members and presenters. During the introduction, one of the speakers tried to poke another with his penis-belt, and it popped loudly to the amusement of the audience.
Adam Cilevitz spoke first with his presentation, “Lewdology: Reviewing the Representation and Play of Sexuality in Video Games.” Cilevitz talked about the history of sex in video games, and the different kinds of sex that appear in them.
Procedurality was one, as Cilevitz cited God of War III and how a player has to procedurally flick the joystick and press different buttons in order to pleasure Aphrodite.
Cilevitz cited Simcopter as an example of “hacked sex,” where a developer added secret content into the game featuring homosexual males and other sexual bugs in order to comment on his own repressed sexuality. An audience member asked about the 2014 RPG, South Park: The Stick of Truth, which featured “anal-probing” and abortion. This facilitated a discussion on whether sexuality in gaming actually benefits a game.
Emma Vossen then spoke about pornography in comic books in her presentation, “The Comics You Know, The Porn You Don’t.” While the Bible was the first book to be printed on the Gutenberg press, what followed that was simply, “porn, porn, porn.” This just shows humanity's odd desire for all things porno, especially with online adult content creators such as www.watchmygf.xxx being as popular as they ever have been.
Vossen talked about how Joe Shuster, one of the original creators of Superman, disappeared after the rights of Superman were sold to DC comics. It was later found that Shuster was actually one of the anonymous illustrators of an underground, BDSM-fetish comic book series, Nights of Horror.
To the surprise of the audience, Jan and Stan Berenstain were also lewd-art illustrators and writers before they collaborated on their beloved children’s book series, The Berenstain Bears. Vossen commented that an illustration of Brother Bear and Sister Bear eating collectively out of a jar of dripping honey with Mama Bear and Papa Bear standing in the background smiling “is the dirtiest picture in the whole presentation.”
Vossen also cited other pornographic comics: Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie (a graphic novel depicting the sexual awakening of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, Wendy from Peter Pan, and Alice from Alice in Wonderland after they’ve grown up), Chester 5000 by Jess Fink (a story about how a husband builds a sex robot for his wife who she ends up falling in love with), and Oh Joy, Sex Toy by Erika Moen (a comic book review of different sex toys).
H.G. Watson then highlighted the history of Wonder Woman and her creator, William Moulton Marston, in her presentation, “The Twisted World of Wonder Woman.” She explained how Wonder Woman was a feminist icon conceived from Marston’s ideologies on feminism.
Despite how Wonder Women appears tied up, gagged, and even wearing a gimp mask in the Wonder Woman books, Watson espoused how Marston believed that, “only through submission — physically and mentally — can we attain peaceful state.” In other words, Wonder Woman’s submissiveness actually gave her power.
Unfortunately, Marston’s early death caused Wonder Woman to move away from her roots, becoming more of a victim, exploited for her sexuality. Watson challenged the audience to take Wonder Woman back as the strong, feminist icon that Marston wrote her to be.
Following the talks, the rest of the museum and its Science of Sexuality exhibit was open to the guests.
The opening room of the exhibit showed a video of a fetus’ growth inside the womb projected across an entire wall, while the sound of a thumping heartbeat played in the room. The remainder was a meandering path through the upper level of the museum that covered a variety of topics on sexual anatomy, sexuality, and contraceptives and protection. It also touched upon human perceptions of their own body.
“Distortion,” an interactive exhibit, allowed people to stand in front of a moving mirror. They would press a “stop” button when they believed that the mirror showed an accurate depiction of themselves. A voice would then tell the person if they thought of their body as pudgier or thinner than their actual body. Essentially, it showed whether a person had a good perception of what his or her own body looked like.
The rest of the exhibit covered condoms and contraceptives, sex laws in Canada, and information on sexually-transmitted diseases. According to opinions expressed in the guest book, however, not enough was covered about the LGBT community.
