Did Jesus actually die on the cross?

The Ahmadiyya movement which began in Pakistan in 1879, has taught that Jesus was taken down from the cross before he actually died and later revived in a tomb. He then escaped from Jerusalem and travelled towards India to continue his ministry among the Lost tribes of Israel. Jesus completed his mission, died a natural death and was buried in Srinagar, Kashmir. 

Read more here: http://www.alislam.org/library/jesusinkashmir.html

Question: Is it possible that Jesus did not die on the cross?

Extracted from an interview conducted by reporter Lee Strobel to seek the expert opinion of Dr. Alexander Metherell, M.D. (University of Miami of Florida) and PH.D in Engineering (University of Bristol) [Strobel, 198-208].

After the Last Supper, Jesus went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. He prayed all night anticipating the events of the next day. He knew the suffering he has to endure. Naturally, he was experiencing a great deal of psychological stress (Matthew 36:28, Mark 14:33) and he began to sweat blood (Luke 22:44). This is known rare medical condition called “hematidrosis”.

This condition made Jesus’ skin to be extremely fragile. When Jesus was flogged by the Roman soldier the next day, the pain was intensified.  Roman floggings were designed to be terribly brutal. The soldier would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls and pieces of sharp bones woven into them. When the whip strike the flesh, the metal balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which will break open with further blows. The sharp bones would cut the flesh severely. The back would be so shredded that part of the spine was exposed by the deep cuts. According to 3^rd century historian, Eusebius, the sufferer’s veins were laid bare; the muscles, sinews and bowels were open to exposure. Many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified. Jesus would have experienced tremendous pain and gone into hypovolemic shock (effects of losing large amount of blood).

Jesus was in hypovolemic shock when he staggered up the road to the execution site, carrying the beam of the cross. He collapsed and Simon was ordered to carry the cross for him. Jesus was in critical condition at this stage.

At the Calvary, Jesus was laid down and his hands would have been nailed in outstretched position to the horizontal beam. The Romans used spikes that were 5 to 7 inches long and tapered to a sharp point. The nails were driven to the wrists, the solid position that would lock the hand (contrary to traditional belief that the nails pierced his palms). The nail will crush the median nerve, the largest nerve going out to the hand. The pain was excruciating.

Then Jesus was hoisted as the crossbar was attached to the vertical stake. Nails were driven through his feet. Again the nerves in his feet would have been crushed and caused excruciating pain. The effects of hanging from the cross: both arms would have been stretched and both shoulders would have been dislocated.

Crucifixion is an agonizingly slow death by asphyxiation. The stresses on the Jesus’ muscles and diaphragm put the chest into the inhaled position. To exhale, Jesus must push up on his feet to ease the tension on the muscles for a moment. In doing so, the nail would tear through the feet, eventually locking up against the tarsal bones. After exhale, Jesus would be able to relax down and take another breath in. The push up and relax down would scraped Jesus’ bloodied back against the coarse wood of the cross. This would go on until complete exhaustion would take and Jesus would not be able to push up and breathe anymore.

As Jesus slowed down his breathing, he would have gone into respiratory acidosis—the carbon dioxide in his blood would have been dissolved as carbonic acid, would have caused the acidity of the blood to increase. Eventually, this would have led to irregular heartbeat. The hypovolemic shock would have caused a sustained rapid heart rate that would have contributed to heart failure resulting in pericardial and pleural effusions (collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart and lungs).

When the Roman soldier thrust a spear into Jesus’ side, the spear apparently went through the lung and (if it was on his right side) through the heart as well. When the spear was pulled out, the gospel of John’s description of “a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:34) matches the condition where the fluid from pericardial and pleural effusions came out. John probably had no idea why he saw “blood and water” yet the description is consistent with modern medicine.

There was absolutely no doubt that Jesus was dead.

When the Roman soldiers came and found that Jesus was already dead, they did not break his legs as they have done to the other 2 criminals who were nailed beside Jesus (John 19:32—33). With the special Sabbath coming, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses. They asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down (John 19:31). The breaking of the legs was to speed up death. The Romans would use the steel shaft of a short spear to shatter the sufferer’s lower leg bones. This would prevent him from pushing up with his legs so he could breathe. Death by asphyxiation would result in a matter of minutes. Jesus’ legs were not broken because the soldiers had already determined that he was dead.

These Roman soldiers were experienced and well-trained, experts in killing people. If a prisoner escaped, the responsible soldiers would be put to death themselves, so they had to make absolutely sure that every prisoner was dead when he was removed from the cross. The Roman soldier who pierced Jesus’ side with a spear later testified to the early believers and they found it to be true (John 19:34-35).

Resources: “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel (1998); “The Cross and the Crescent” by Colin Chapman (1995); “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ” by William D. Edwards, Journal of the American Medical Association (21 March 1986); “Crucify Him” by Dale Foreman (1990); “Crucifixion in the Ancient World” by M. Hengel (1977); “The Resurrection Factor” by Josh McDowell (1981).

The fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy (6th-century BCE), link here: http://www.biblestudytools.com/isaiah/53.html

Independent historical source: 1st century Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (not a follower of Jesus Christ) recorded references on Jesus and the origins of Christianity:

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

Biography: Dr. Wu Lien-Teh 伍连德

Dr. Wu Lien-Teh (伍连德, Wu Liande, Gnoh Lean Tuck, Ng Leen-tuck, 1879 – 21 January 1960) was a Malayan-born Chinese and the first medical student of Chinese descent to study at University of Cambridge.

Dr. Wu was also the first ethnic Chinese nominated to receive a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1935.He was born in Penang, one of the three towns of the Straits Settlements (the others being Malacca and Singapore). The Straits Settlements formed part of the colonies of Great Britain. His father was a new immigrant from Taishan, China. His mother’s family also originated from China but she was a second generation resident of Malaya. Dr. Wu had four brothers and six sisters. His early education was at the Penang Free School.

Dr. Wu was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1896,[2] after winning the Queen’s Scholarship held in Singapore. He had a successful career at university, and won virtually all the available prizes and scholarships. His undergraduate clinical years were spent at St Mary’s Hospital, London.

In 1903, Dr. Wu returned to the Straits Settlement after finishing his medical studies. However, there was no specialist post for him. This is because, at that time, there was a two-tier medical system in the British colonies, where only British nationals could hold the highest position of fully qualified medical officers or specialists. So, Dr. Wu spent the first 4 years of his medical career researching beri-beri and then, he was in private practice.

He was very vocal in the social issues of the time, and founded the Anti-Opium Association in Penang. This attracted the attention of the clandestine forces involved in the lucrative trade of opium. Later it led to an intentional search and subsequent discovery of a mere one ounce of tincture of opium in Dr. Wu’s dispensary, which was considered illegal, although he was a fully qualified medical doctor who had purchased this to treat opium patients. His prosecution and appeal rejection attracted worldwide publicity, including an invitation from the then Grand Councillor Yuan Shikai of the Qing Dynasty in Peking to take the post of Vice-Director of the Imperial Army medical College in Tientsin (Tianjin).

In the winter of 1910, Dr. Wu Lien-Teh was given instructions from the Foreign Office, Peking, to travel to Harbin to investigate an unknown disease which killed 99% of its victims. This turned out to be the beginning of the large pneumonic pandemic of Manchuria and Mongolia which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims. Dr. Wu would be remembered for his role in asking for imperial sanction to cremate plague victims, as cremation of these infected victims turned out to be the turning point of the epidemic. The suppression of this plague pandemic signified medical progress in China.

Dr. Wu chaired the International Plague Conference in Mukden (Shenyang) in April 1911, a historic event attended by scientists from the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Netherlands, Russia, Mexico and China. He later presented a plague research paper at the International Congress of Medicine, London in August 1911 which was published in The Lancet in the same month. Dr. Wu was the first president of the China Medical Association (1916–1920) and directed the National Quarantine Service (1931–1937).

In 1937, with the Japanese occupation of much of China and the retreat of the Nationalists, Dr. Wu moved back to Malaya where he worked as a General Practitioner in Ipoh. To encourage the young to share his love for reading, Dr. Wu tirelessly collected donations to start the Perak Library (now The Tun Razak Library) in Ipoh, a free lending public library. In his own medical practice at 12 Brewster Road (now Jalan Sultan Idris Shah), long queues were a common sight, and he was known as the doctor who gave free consultation and treatment to the poor. He practised medicine until the age of 80, when he bought a new house in Penang for his retirement. He died on 21 January 1960, aged 81.

A road named after Dr. Wu can be found in Ipoh Garden South, a middle-class residential area in Ipoh located between Hock Lee Park and Ipoh Garden East. In Penang, a private road named Taman Wu Lien Teh is located near the Penang Free School.

Dr. Wu Lien-Teh is regarded as the first person to modernize China’s medical services and medical education. In Harbin Medical University, bronze statues of Dr. Wu Lien-teh are built to remember his contributions in promoting public health, preventive medicine and medical education.[3] In Malaysia, a quiet place opposite of Penang Free School was named after him as Taman Wu Lien Teh.

Read more here: http://wulientehsociety.org/?p=20

SUMPTUOUS EROTICA: Sex therapist said the couple needed immediate help

Published by Malaysia Chronicle on 20 October 2012.

SEX BLOG- Girlfriend's parents warn law student not to touch her again

KUALA LUMPUR: THE Malaysian law student who posted pictures of him and his girlfriend having sex on their blog was warned by the woman's parents not "to touch her again".

Alvin Tan Jye Yee, 24, a third-year law student at National University of Singapore, was given the stern warning by parents of his girlfriend, Vivian Lee, 23, after their blog, "sumptuous erotica", came under the spotlight. A Singapore daily quoted Tan as saying that both their parents were very upset over the pictures.

"I never thought this matter would become big. A lot of relatives called my parents asking why I did that. My girlfriend's parents also scolded me for turning their daughter into a 'bad girl'," said Tan, adding that the decision to post the pictures was mutual.

However, in a video posted on Tan's YouTube account early yesterday, he said his family was supportive and had not talked about the matter from a moral slant. In the video, the couple also did not show any remorse and said they would do it again.

They spoke of the massive support they received from friends and how they made hundreds of new friends after the blog came under the spotlight. Tan said they did not want to shut down their blog, but did so due to pressure from family members. He added that the blog had been shutdown temporarily.

Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said action could be taken against the couple if their blog was registered in this country. "We are checking where it was registered. If they did it in Singapore, it falls under the republic's jurisdiction."

A senior sex therapist said the couple needed immediate help. Dr Edward Chan, principle consultant psychologist at the LoveLife Centre for Sex Therapy, International Psychology Centre, said the couple showed symptoms of dangerous levels of sexual addictions. "From what was reported, I can say that the couple suffers exhibitionism -- a form of sexual addiction, and swinging, which is another form of sexual addiction."

"Both can be very dangerous if not treated, as they can't have a normal loving relationship. They have to resort to such extreme measures to achieve sexual satisfaction," he told the New Straits Times. He said it was good for a person to love his or her body, but there was a fine line between love for the body and being addicted to show it off for satisfaction.

On exhibitionism, Chan said an exhibitionist was a person who liked to show their private parts and get stimulated from it. Swingers are those who get satisfaction from watching their partner having sex with another person, or listening to their experiences after the sex has ended. It can also extend to partner swapping.

"Both forms of sexual addictions are treatable. They need to seek help immediately as these are illnesses which can lead to destruction of their relationship and also add stress to their lives," said Chan who has 16 years experiences in the field. For exhibitionism, he said the couple could seek help from LoveLife Centre where they would be given sex therapy sessions.

- New Straits Times

Link: 

http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=42778:sumptuous-erotica-law-student-warned-not-to-touch-girl-again&Itemid=2

Whatever Australia does not want, dumps into Malaysia

Published by Free Malaysia Today on 11 October 2012.

Shares in Lynas Corp Ltd plunged 19% today as it faced another delay in opening its rare earths plant in Malaysia, raising the prospect the company may need to shore up its funding with a share sale. A Malaysian court yesterday extended a hold on the Australian company’s operating licence to Nov 8 while it decides whether to consider a review aimed at permanently blocking production at the US$800 million (RM2.5 billion) plant in Kuantan, Pahang, on the east coast.

Lynas received the temporary operating licence in September for the rare earths plant, the biggest outside China. It had aimed to start production this month, processing material from its Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, but said yesterday that would be delayed and gave no new timetable for the opening.

Its shares fell to a six-week low of A$0.69 in early trade and last traded down 16% at A$0.72, reflecting worries that the company will need to raise equity to shore up its funds the longer the delay runs. “Given the current delays, we believe the core tenet for our argument to sell Lynas is still applicable – namely risks surrounding funding, dilution, commission and waste disposal solution,” Foster Stockbroking said in a note to clients today.

Foster estimated the company, which had A$124 million in unrestricted cash as of June 30, would have only A$20 million in working capital available if the plant starts operating in November, and said it would probably need to raise funds through a sale of new shares. Lynas had A$205 million in total cash at June 30, but A$81 million of this can only be used for a future expansion of the plant.

Activists linked to the environmental group Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) want the court to suspend the licence until two judicial review cases challenging the government’s decision allowing the plant to operate are heard. Lynas had hoped to open the plant a year ago, but has been delayed by community protests. The company says that its plant is safe and is not comparable to a rare-earths plant in Malaysia that was shut by a unit of Mitsubishi Chemicals in 1992, after residents there blamed the plant for birth defects and a high rate of leukemia cases.

Link: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2012/10/11/lynas-shares-dive-19-on-rare-earths-plant-delay/

Another report: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/aussie-surgeons-malaysian-killer-to-be-sent-home-sydney-court-rules/

The Malaysian man who shot dead renowned Australian heart surgeon Dr Victor Chang in Sydney over two decades ago in a botched extortion attempt will be released on parole, after a Sydney court rejected an attempt by New South Wales Attorney-General Greg Smith to keep him behind bars.

Bernama reported that Liew Chiew Seng, who fired the fatal shots in a failed extortion attempt in 1991, was granted parole by the State Parole Authority last month. He was due to be deported to Malaysia by yesterday, but Smith had immediately appealed the decision. The case was dismissed today by the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Lawyers for Smith argued that to release Liew would “expunge” him of the remaining five years of his maximum sentence, because there would not be supervision for him in Malaysia. Liew, 69, is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and the parole authority was told earlier this year that time might be running out for him to leave Australia before he could no longer travel safely. He has been kept in the Long Bay jail in Sydney for more than a year past his 20-year minimum prison term.

The parole authority formed the intention to grant parole at a private hearing in May. The Serious Offender’s Review Council (SORC) and the Probation and Parole Service (PPS) both believe Liew will be unfit to travel if his health deteriorates further. A SORC report said Liew “was not sentenced to die in a NSW Correctional Centre. The overall fragility of his condition cannot be denied.”

The PPS report said it was “impossible to ignore Mr Liew’s deteriorating physical and mental health ... there is ongoing concern it will also continue to have a detrimental impact on Mr Liew’s capacity to return to Malaysia upon release”.

Liew was sentenced to a maximum 26 years in prison for firing the two shots that killed Dr Chang in a failed extortion attempt at Mosman on July 4, 1991. His partner in the murder, and the offender who provided the gun, Phillip Choon Tee Lim, was deported to Malaysia in 2010 after serving 18 years of his maximum 24-year sentence.

Australia’s first successful heart transplant was carried out by Dr Chang in 1984 and he was also voted Australian of the Century in 2000.

Call for ban on disability abortions after Paralympics

By John Bingham. Published by The Telegraph on 19 September 2012.

The success of the Paralympics should trigger a rethink of Britain’s abortion laws to make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy because a child will be born disabled, a coalition of campaigners and charities argues today. An alliance of pro-life campaigners and religious groups is launching a new push to restrict the 1967 Abortion Act, to prevent doctors terminating pregnancies on the grounds of physical abnormality.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, they describe the practice of aborting foetuses on physical grounds as a form of “eugenics”. The letter, signed by leading figures from groups such as Life and the Pro-Life Alliance, as well as the Catholic Bishops Conference of Scotland and a number of evangelical Christian groups, argues that the current law enshrines a form of disability discrimination.

Also among the nine signatories is Peter Elliott, a businessman who founded the Down Syndrome Research Foundation UK, after the birth of his son, David, in 1985. The signatories say that while pregnancies can be terminated even up to 40 weeks on physical grounds in certain circumstances, the moment the child is born a “moral volte-face” is performed and the official approach is “full of compassion”.

“The recent Paralympics made this contradiction yet more glaring,” the letter says. “The athletes produced such astonishing examples of courage and triumphs over disability that we now have to rethink what we mean by ‘disabled’ and ‘able’.”

The 1967 abortion act, as it is currently applied, allows terminations up to 24 weeks if two doctors agree that the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman is in jeopardy. After that, however, abortion is possible in cases in which there is a “substantial risk” that the child will suffer from a “serious handicap”. It is also permitted in cases where the life of the mother is judged to be at risk from the continuation of the pregnancy.

The most recent figures available show that there were 146 abortions after the 24-week limit in 2011 in England and Wales out of a total of almost 190,000. But overall there were more than 500 abortions after screening for Down’s Syndrome. The campaigners argue that this amounts to a form of eugenics – the belief that a society can be “improved” through controlled breeding to increase the occurrences of desirable characteristics.

But supporters of abortion reacted with anger saying that the term – with its Nazi connotations – was an “insult” to women who had faced agonising choices.

“Eugenic abortion is bad medicine,” the letter states. “Killing people with disabilities, rather than striving to support and care for them, is contrary to the high principles of medicine.” They insist that the “positive and civilised” approach is exemplified by the work of baby hospices and greater research into fetal conditions rather than allowing terminations.

Prof Jack Scarisbrick, founder of the anti-abortion group Life, said that the group is hoping to mobilise pro-life MPs to bring forward a private members bill in the Commons to amend the act. A simple two-clause bill could make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after screening for conditions such as Down’s syndrome, he said. “We are very hopeful that now we can make a move from a new direction, that rather than focusing on weeks and grounds for abortion we can tackle this particular aspect which we believe we can win.

“That would send a wonderful signal across the world.”

But Darinka Aleksic, campaigns coordinator at the Abortion Rights group, said: “Every year about one per cent of abortions are carried out on the grounds of fetal abnormality. “A diagnosis of this sort places families in an extremely painful and difficult situation, which requires privacy and support as they decide whether to continue with the pregnancy.

“We believe that the decision is a matter for the parents and their doctors alone. It should not be used as a political football. “Using terms like 'eugenic abortion' is an insult to people who are faced with this difficult choice. “Pro-choice supporters respect the rights of all women, including those with disabilities, to make their own reproductive choices. We believe women are best placed to make the right decision for themselves and their families."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "There are some circumstances where the law permits an abortion beyond 24 weeks - for example where there is a substantial risk of serious physical or mental handicap. "This decision is not taken lightly. Two doctors must agree on the seriousness of the handicap, while also taking into account the facts and circumstances of each individual case.

"The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' guideline on abortion and foetal abnormality is clear that a woman needs sufficient information and time to help her understand the nature of the foetal abnormality and the probable outcome of the pregnancy so that she is able to make an informed decision about the options available to her."

Read more:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9551305/Call-for-ban-on-disability-abortions-after-Paralympics.html

http://davidalton.net/2012/09/19/new-calls-to-end-eugenic-abortions-in-the-week-a-judge-handed-down-a-sentence-of-8-years-for-the-death-of-an-unborn-child/

In the same week that a  Judge handed down a sentence of eight years to a woman who killed her unborn baby at 39 weeks gestation, calls have been made to end eugenic abortions in Britain. There is a link between these two stories because if the convicted mother had been able to claim that her baby had a disability – such as cleft palate or Down’s Syndrome – she would legally have been able to kill the baby right up and even during its birth.

There is also a link, as the article below points out, between our celebration of the achievements of people with disabilities and our discriminatory abortion laws which single out babies with disabilities for “special” treatment – that is, their death. This is cold blooded eugenics – for which no sentence of years in jail is handed down to those who legislated to make it legal or those who end these babies lives.

More British women aborting their children over financial worries, say UK doctors

BY HILARY WHITE, 

ROME CORRESPONDENT.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/more-british-women-aborting-their-children-over-financial-worries-say-uk-do

LONDON, August 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A survey by a market research firm has found that the global economic crisis may be influencing more British women to abort their children. The research by Insight Research Group found that about one-fifth of GPs are reporting more women requesting abortion for financial concerns.

Seventeen percent of GPs surveyed felt there was an increase in patients who “were specifically requesting terminations due to financial concerns.” Fifty-four percent of those GPs said they believed the biggest increase was among women ages 26-35. Another twenty-three percent believed the biggest increase was among single women with no previous children, while twenty-one percent said they believed it was among single women living with a “partner” with 1 to 3 previous children.

Thirty-four percent of all the GPs surveyed said that they are seeing women putting off having children “until their financial security improved.”

The findings echo those of Russian demographers who fear that recent gains in the country’s abysmally low fertility rate will be lost as more women turn to abortion to ease financial worries http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/international-life-and-family-roundup1 . 

Although pro-life observers say that they have no argument with the study’s findings, they question the reaction of GPs who endorse abortion for financial reasons.

Anthony Ozimic, the communications manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said that for authority figures like doctors to affirm with their actions that an abortion is an acceptable solution to financial anxiety sends a profoundly negative message to the culture at large.

“Whatever the merits or otherwise of this study, Western society will continue in its moral and demographic declines as long as the message goes out that women should abort their children or significantly postpone conceiving because of financial concerns,” Ozimic said.

The UK should follow the lead of other EU countries who are offering financial, tax and other incentives to increase the financial security of families and encourage couples to marry earlier and have children, Ozimic said. Instead, the myth is being promulgated that there is such a thing as a “perfect” economic condition in which to have children, when the reality is that such conditions will not exist while the European fertility rate continues to decline.

“While prudence in planning a family is necessary, optimal economic conditions for raising children are illusory.”

Ozimic confirmed that the law does not technically allow for abortions for financial or “social” reasons, but said that doctors have been granted enormous latitude in deciding what factors in a woman’s life constitute a threat to her “mental health”.

This is acknowledged even by the courts to be the case, despite voluminous research demonstrating that abortion has a serious, long-term negative impact on women’s mental health and increasing skepticism http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-study-says-pregnancy-is-safe-even-beneficial-for-women-recovering-from/  among the psychiatric community of the existence of any mental health benefits of abortion.

Selling Sex Short: The Pornographic and Sexological Construction of Women’s Sexuality in the West

http://feministsforchoice.com/feminist-conversations-meagan-tyler.htm Published by Feminists for Choice on 18 June 2012. By Hennie.

Feminist Conversations is a regular feature at Feminists for Choice, in which we spotlight activists. After reading Meagan Tyler’s book Selling Sex Short: The Pornographic and Sexological Construction of Women’s Sexuality in the West, and not being able to put it down, I had to ask her a few questions. 

You have written extensively about pornography, the sex industry, and the construction of women’s sexuality. How did this interest come about?

Looking back now, it seems rather an odd thing to have chosen to research! What really got me interested was teaching in high-schools in my home town of Melbourne. Most schools in Australia have uniforms and on the few “free dress” days a year, students often want to wear their most coveted pieces of clothing. All the way back in 2004, I noticed a growing number of 12 and 13 year old girls wearing Playboy branded t-shirts, which seemed like a new phenomenon. I wanted to know about the marketing operations that were going on with companies like Playboy and if they were consciously “mainstreaming” their brands. So I went back to uni to do a PhD.

What was your motivation for writing Selling Sex Short?  

The book came out of my PhD research. When I started looking at the mainstreaming of pornography, or what some scholars refer to as “pornographication” or “pornification” of popular culture, it became clear that you can’t look at these pop culture trends without looking at the pornography industry itself. I hadn’t bargained on this when I started and didn’t really know what to expect when my research led me to actually having to look at how elements of the porn industry operate.

A lot of other academics have undertaken content analyses of pornography (i.e. to find out what is in mainstream porn, e.g. what kind of acts, violence, engagement with the camera / other actors etc.) so I needed to do something different. What interested me was what those within the industry actually say about how and why porn is produced, which is what led me to analyse Adult Video News, a porn industry based magazine aimed at producers, directors, distributors and vendors. In intra-industry forums people are often very open and forthright about the problems and harms that they believed are associated with the production of pornography. That, to me, was fascinating, and occasionally, quite disturbing. But it is important that we understand pornographic content in the context of its production. How the porn industry markets its products, for example, gives us important information about how the industry wants itself to be seen and what those within the industry believe consumers want to see and buy.

The other half of the book is really about sex therapy. I had done some previous research on the supposed “epidemic” of female sexual dysfunction (FSD), which was largely “discovered” after Viagra hit the market. In countries like Australia, the US and the UK, some medical experts were claiming that almost half of all women were suffering from some form of FSD. I wanted to find out how the sex therapy industry was marketing its treatments for this form of dysfunction and what larger cultural changes were occurring to create such popular interest in a medicalised understanding of sexuality.

In the end, I wanted to know what kind of sex these two industries were promoting. The trend towards pornographication and the trend towards the medicalisation of women’s sexuality post-Viagra were both noticeable cultural shifts occurring in roughly the same time period but I had no sense of if they were connected or if they related to each other at all. I was quite surprised to find that there were both theoretical and material connections between the two. I had no idea before starting my research, for example, that some therapists recommend pornography to patients as a template to follow for their own sex lives or that a number of porn stars have produced their own sex advice literature.

The book really came about because I didn’t want the debates about these issues to be limited to academia. We need to be having much more informed public discussions about sexuality and inequality.

The book is written from a feminist perspective (especially so radical feminism), what does feminism mean to you?

Yes, the book certainly draws on radical feminist writing and theorising, which is quite unusual these days. So much so, I am often required to dispel myths about radical feminism and feminism in general before even beginning to speak about my research. It is quite bizarre being accused of being a prude or being “anti-sex” when you spend your professional life researching, writing and talking about sex and sexual pleasure!

One of the most important elements of feminism is an understanding that sexuality is socially constructed. That is, sexuality is not purely an issue of biology. How we understand and experience sexuality is heavily contingent upon the cultural and historical circumstances in which we live. This perspective is not unique to feminism, but it is a very important element of all forms of feminism.

So when we talk about inequality between men and women, for example, a social constructionist approach forces us to recognise that this is not an innate or pre-determined situation. This is a situation that can, and should, be challenged.

But challenging inequality is, unfortunately, not enough. There are real material barriers relating to overcoming disadvantage associated with gender, class, race and ethnicity, disability and sexuality (to name but a few). And this is why claims that individuals can simply be “empowered” to overcome disadvantage rings a bit hollow. If we do not recognise that there are often structural and institutional barriers to equality then we tend to blame people for their own circumstances.

To bring about real change, we need social movements. And that is what, to me, feminism is at its heart: a social movement for equality and women’s civil rights.

What are the main points you would like readers to know about the book, but also about pornography and sexology?

The overarching theme of the book is really that sex is a social act. Our conceptions of what sex is, and what is should be, are framed by cultural expectations and norms. The porn industry and sex therapy are both important players in forming these expectations and norms in the West today. So it is important that we question the glamourised version of porn that is (carefully) presented to us in many pop culture representations and that we also question the over-simplified and medicalised version of sexuality presented to us by many so-called “sex experts”. The book shows that the concepts of what “good sex” is in both porn and sexology (the “science of sex”) actually have a lot in common, in particular, the idea that women’s sexuality is largely there to service men’s needs. Hardly a great vision for women’s sexual pleasure!

Ultimately, we need to start imagining versions of sexuality we would like to see and this is how I end the book. There aren’t any grand solutions presented, I just hope it opens up some new conversations.

You discuss the influence of the sex industry and sexology on women’s sexuality and the notion that these industries promote harm, objectification and the sexual servicing of men by women. For those who have not read the book, could you offer a short explanation?

I argue that the dominant model of sexuality promoted to women in both pornography and in sexology / sex therapy has a lot in common with systems of prostitution. That is, it is assumed that women should be constantly sexually available and that women’s role is primarily having to sexually service men. In this model it is not a woman’s sexual pleasure that defines whether or not sex is “good sex” but rather whether or not she has performed to the expectations of an (assumed) male lover.

That this model of sex, focused on men’s sexual pleasure, is a hallmark of how the porn industry constructs “good sex” is probably not surprising.  What was surprising, to me at least, was that these same assumptions about what women are “really for” can be found in academic and popular sexology. There are concepts such as “receptivity”, for example, which suggest normal and healthy women should be “highly receptive” to sexual advances from a male partner and that women should have sex when they don’t want to in order to please angry or irritable partners. This vision of sex presented to women is quite bleak, and in many instances, tends to justify men’s sexual coercion.

A model of sex which promotes the idea that women should acquiesce to unwanted sexual advances because they are there simply to please men is seriously harmful, not only to individual women’s interests, but to women as a group. It also sounds like something from a century ago! Instead of telling women to “Lie back and think of England” we tell them to watch porn or take a variety of pills, patches and creams.

When you are not busy lecturing, writing and doing research, what do you do to unwind?

Nothing very glamorous – I’m not sure how I survived before the advent of DVDs and Wii. Curling up in front of the TV with a blanket and a cuppa helps keep me sane and I like to kid myself that being good at tennis on the Wii means I could have been a Wimbledon champion if only I hadn’t spent all my time reading books.

Dr Meagan Tyler is a lecturer in sociology at Victoria University, Australia. She tweets @DrMeaganTyler.

What are sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)?

Extracted from MedicineNet.com

Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

There really is no such thing as "safe" sex. The only truly effective way to prevent STDs is abstinence. Sex in the context of a monogamous relationship wherein neither party is infected with a STD also is considered "safe." Most people think that kissing is a safe activity. Unfortunately, syphilis, herpes, and other infections can be contracted through this relatively simple and apparently harmless act. All other forms of sexual contact carry some risk. Condoms are commonly thought to protect against STDs. Condoms are useful in decreasing the spread of certain infections, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea; however, they do not fully protect against other infections such as genital herpes, genital warts, syphilis, and HIV. Prevention of the spread of STDs is dependent upon the counseling of at-risk individuals and the early diagnosis and treatment of infections.

Read more here: http://www.medicinenet.com/genital_herpes_in_women/article.htm

Excuse me, are you a doctor?

Hospital: Mob tampered with Kugan's body

NST Online 5 March 2009 By : Farrah Naz Karim farrah 

PUTRAJAYA: Serdang Hospital yesterday fought back against accusations of a misleading post-mortem on police detainee A. Kugan.

Its director, Dr Mohd Norzi Ghazali, said a mob of about 50 people had barged in and tampered with the body before any post-mortem was carried out by the hospital's forensics pathologist.

Dr Norzi said his medical officers sought cover for two hours in a connecting room of the mortuary as they feared being hurt by the mob.

The post-mortem, he said, was supposed to take place at 8am the next day as police personnel had to be present during the procedure.

A report on the incident at the morgue by the hospital authorities stated that Kugan's fully-clothed body was in a body bag, which had been torn open by the mob. The medical officers also reported they were shocked to see a pool of Kugan's blood on the floor of the mortuary.

This, the report said, indicated that wounds on the body could have been inflicted after his death.

The report also stated that the 22-year-old had died of pulmonary oedema or fluid in the lungs. It also stated that there were no fractures on his body or damage to his vital organs.

However, Kugan's family lawyer, N. Surendran, said the second post-mortem conducted by University Malaya Medical Centre's pathologist Dr Prashant N. Samberkar revealed that his death was due to kidney failure caused by muscle injury that might be attributed to physical, chemical or biological factors.

Dr Norzi told the New Straits Times that both post-mortems were "weak evidence" in the case as they had been conducted after the body had been tampered with.

On claims that Kugan, a suspected car thief, had been starved for six days before he died, Dr Norzi said a person's stomach would be cleared of traces of food about four hours after his last meal.

Attorney-General Chambers' prosecution division head Tun Majid Tun Hamzah received the second post-mortem report from Surendran yesterday.

Tun Majid said comparisons would be made between the reports for a just decision. "This won't be long, hopefully within this month. The chambers will inform the public of its decision." 

Kugan died at the Subang Taipan police station while being interrogated on Jan 20, six days after he was arrested in connection with car thefts.

Kapar member of parliament S. Manikavasagam, who accompanied Surendran to the chambers, said a police report would be lodged against the Serdang pathologist either tomorrow or Saturday "over a false and misleading post-mortem".

In Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said police would wait for the A-G's decision before taking action against the 11 policemen involved in Kugan's death.

Terrible images of Kugan

Friday, 06 March 2009 06:56AM © Malay Mail

by Haris Hussain & Nevash Nair

ALMOST two months after A. Kugan died in the Subang Taipan police lock-up, his mother, N. Indra, still cries herself to sleep every night. Now, sleep is even more elusive after she came to know about the pain and suffering he endured before he died, five days after he was arrested on Jan 15 in connection with police investigations into a series of luxury car thefts. Every time she closes her eyes, she sees her son’s bruised, battered and burnt body.

In an interview with Malay Mail, Indra said she is still unable to accept the fact that her son is gone, so much so her husband, R. Ananthan, refused to show her the second post-mortem report prepared y the independent pathologist hired by the family. The report was released on Monday. Ananthan relented only after Indra insisted. What she saw shocked her. “I have never laid a finger on my son but these heartless policemen beat him to death. Only a mother knows how I feel. The pain is so unbearable that I wish I were dead,” she alleged of the case that the Attorney-General has reclassified as murder.

My life has changed forever. He is my first-born. The manner in which I lost him makes it even more difficult for me to deal with. I did not carry him for nine months in my womb just so that someone can torture him this way. “There were signs that he was starving before he died. He was never hungry when he was with me. I would cook him his favourite dish, fried chicken and nuggets, whenever he was hungry.” Indra said her three other children miss Kugan too but that the one hardest hit is her husband. “As a father, he always thought that Kugan would be around to provide for the family if anything were to happen to him. He loved Kugan more than anything in this world. Now, he worries

about who will take care of the family if he dies.”

The one million ringgit question: Why would anyone starve, brand and beat up the corpse of a close relative?