Guest Bloggers

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Add some spice to your World AIDS Day

01/12/2009 in Guest Bloggers, People We Like by guest blogger | 2 comments

HIV Advocates bare all on World AIDS Day

HIV Advocates bare all on World AIDS Day

Every one can be an HIV/AIDS awareness advocate. That’s what these advocates, all real everyday people want to say.

HIV/AIDS has nothing to do with sexual orientation or gender — straight, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender — your life be touched by HIV/AIDS. You may have a friend who is living with HIV, lost a loved one to AIDS or are living with HIV yourself.
Wearing nothing but the AIDS ribbon, the universally recognized icon of support and empathy for HIV/AIDS, these advocates bared their all and shared their stories as a testament that everyone can do their part to keep the promise and stop AIDS.

You can read the spot.ph article here, and you can see more photos and hear more stories at my website.

Editor’s Note: We’d like to thank Ana so much for joining us as a guest blogger. She’s taken us new and exciting places, and brought a unique combination of allure and advocacy to World AIDS Day. We hope she’ll drop in now and then with updates on her projects and adventures!

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The pleasure of baring it all for a cause

24/11/2009 in Guest Bloggers by guest blogger | No comments

Romina and photographer, Mitch Mauricio in between takes.

Romina and photographer, Mitch Mauricio in between takes.

Bali, the “island of the gods”, an indulgent pleasurable place of realization and enlightenment.

To me, Bali will be all that and more. To me, Bali is my place of liberation and re-discovered passion.

Ever since I came back from the International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP9) held in Bali last August, my head has been bursting with ideas.

During that four day conference, in the company of like-minded individuals, I could think freely and openly question views on sexual health. In the confines of the prudish Catholic culture of my country, I often face censorship – mostly, my own (self-censorship is a fate worse than writer’s block, maybe even death, for some journalists). In order to be taken seriously as a sexual health advocate, I have to choose my words carefully so that the messages of safe sex will not be selectively interpreted as just “sex”. I imagine that it is a dilemma that most sexual health advocates face.

But at the ICAAP in Bali, we were all speaking the same language. We all shared the view that in our different roles – health care practitioner, government official, researcher, and activist, and yes, sex & relationship columnist – we could influence behavior, change perceptions about HIV/AIDS and bring about a positive change.

After Bali, I began to think of more creative ways to push the envelope when it came to communicating the importance safe sex and making it sexy. And that was the inception of a shoot that we called “Dare to Bare” where real everyday people came out and boldly showed their support for World AIDS Day by wearing the red HIV/AIDS ribbon and nothing but that. There were no models or celebrities, only people who were HIV/AIDS or reproductive health advocates and dared to share the details of their experience or encounter with the epidemic.

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A Pleasurably Bad Bad Boy

20/11/2009 in Guest Bloggers, People We Like by guest blogger | 2 comments

robinpadilla_menshealthAnnie Philpott and I have what can probably be termed as “every safe sex activist’s ultimate fantasy”. This fantasy is of a hot, delectable specimen of a man subtlety promoting condoms, insinuating the pleasure that they bring.

During a conversation we had on this topic, the man who came to mind was George Clooney, Hollywood’s alpha-male and quintessential bachelor who has the distinction of being voted the sexiest man alive, more than once.

We imagined George looking his usual dapper self in a tux, pulling out what is distinctly a condom wrapper from his coat pocket. All the while, George would be looking into the camera with a knowing grin and a twinkle in his eye. There wouldn’t be a need for a lot of words – the power of the imagery would leave enough to the imagination.  In foreplay parlance, this kind of gaze could only signify “tantalizing anticipation”; a languorous scrumptious build-up to steamy action sure to ensue.
Wouldn’t this be just the thing that would make women tear their clothes off and jump into bed?

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Food, Safe Sex and Pleasure in Bangkok

09/11/2009 in Guest Bloggers, People We Like by guest blogger | No comments

Don't you just love a man who knows how to wear latex?

Don't you just love a man who knows how to wear latex?

When it comes to safe sex, I like to put my money where my mouth is.

Cabbages and Condoms in Bangkok is one restaurant that apparently likes to do the same.

I had read about Cabbages and Condoms and their innovative concept of a restaurant that promotes good food, safe sex and responsible family planning and just had to marvel at the balls behind the idea.

On my last trip to Bangkok, visiting the restaurant was one of the must-do’s on my list.

I was instantly entertained — tickled pink actually — by the rich imagery of this place that I can only describe as something like a condom Disneyland. Life-sized mannequins decked from head to toe in colorful condoms lined the entrance. There was a Condom Man in a superhero outfit made out of red and yellow condoms; a cool jock type with his equally cool gal pal dressed in pills and condoms. There was even a Santa Claus dressed in condoms with unfurled yellow rubbers for his beard which were also used for the evening gown of the lady standing beside him.

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The Courtly Pleasures of Safer Sex

02/11/2009 in Guest Bloggers by guest blogger | 2 comments

The Moulin Rouge suite

The Moulin Rouge suite features lavish velvet and gold decor.

What is your deepest, most secret sexual fantasy?

Is it to have super mutant powers like the X-Men?
Or is it be a quirky spy like Austin Powers who always had enough mojo for a shag?
May be you’re the type to whom power is an aphrodisiac?
Or the amorous kind who falls to their knees with the sublime seduction of an iconically romantic place?

Whatever your fantasy, there is a place where you can live out these fantasies — as well as some choice others — with total abandon and release. (pun intended)

This place is none other than Victoria Court, a chain of uber high-end motels.

A Note on Motels

Before going any further into describing this almost mythical place where desire and fantasy come together; a word about “motels” – a word, which in itself, already has backstreet connotations.

In my city of Manila, you will see strategically tucked away in various parts of the city motel signs. When I first moved here, I began to notice the distinct difference between these motels to the ones in the States where the truckers would stay for a night to grab some sleep eye. The signs shouting out, “Special 2 hour quickie rate” should be an indication that these places are not exactly for catching some zzz’s.

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Our first guest blogger: Ana Santos

29/10/2009 in Guest Bloggers by Krissy | 1 comment

We’re incredibly happy to have the wonderful Ana Santos as our first Pleasure Project guest blogger. Ana will join us once a week during the month of November to give her thoughts on sex, pleasure, lovin’… whatever strikes her fancy.

Who is Ana?Ana and Condom Man

Ana is a freelance journalist based in Manila, Philippines. She writes mostly about sex & relationships and gender-based issues. In her articles, she strives to prove that those topics are two entirely different things!

Amazed that she has been able to write about sex in the Philippines, a devoutly Catholic country, for the last five years, she pushes the envelope further by diversifying this scintillating topic into advocacy on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and safe pleasurable sex.

Ana’s full-length features and essays have been published in men’s magazines like Manual, UNO and Playboy; and in the Philippine editions of Marie Claire and Women’s Health.

Ana received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of the Philippines.

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