Friday, November 29, 2013

With Glut of Lonely Men, China Has an Approved Outlet for Unrequited Lust

from nytimes



Adam Dean for The New York Times
A Place Where Capitalism and Hedonism Meet: Three decades after China began shedding its prudish Mao-era mores, sex is now a big business there.
GUANGZHOU, China — Slack-jawed and perspiring, Chen Weizhou gazed at a pair of life-size female dolls clad, just barely, in lingerie and lace stockings. Above these silicone vixens, an instructional video graphically depicted just how realistic they felt once undressed.
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The one-child rule is a factor in China’s gender imbalance.
A 46-year-old tour bus driver, Mr. Chen had come earlier this month to the Guangzhou National Sex Culture Festival “for fun,” which was not how he described intimacy with his wife, who did not attend. “When you’re young sex is so mysterious, but once you’re married it gets really bland,” he said, barely taking his eyes off the screen.
With an official theme of “healthy sex, happy families,” the 11th annual exposition sought to remedy the plight of Chinese men like Mr. Chen — and their wives, if they are married.
The overwhelming presence of men at the festival mirrored a demographic imbalance in China, where decades of the one-child rule and a cultural preference for sons combined with illegal sex-selective abortions have distorted the country’s gender ratio to 118 newborn boys for every 100 girls in 2012, rather than the normal 103 boys. In Guangdong Province, home to a migrant worker population of 30 million — China’s largest — the scarcity of women leaves bachelors with limited options.
Filling an exhibition center here in the capital of Guangdong in southern China, the festival was a three-day mating ritual between capitalism and hedonism, all diligently observed by that most prudish of chaperones: the Chinese government. Erotic possibilities abounded, including a transgender fashion show, sliced deer antler marketed as an aphrodisiac, naughty nurse costumes and some flesh-color objects disconcertingly called “Captain Stabbing.”
Three decades after China began shedding its priggish Mao-era mores, sex is now a big business here. Across the country, pink-lit “hair salons” staffed by provocatively garbed women compete with massage parlors and late-night paid companions who slip their business cards under hotel room doors. Those looking to enhance their encounters can shop at countless “adult health product” stores and on the Internet.
Most of the inventory is made in China. According to state news media, more than 1,000 Chinese companies manufacture around 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, generating $2 billion a year as of 2010.
The bounty of carnal titillation must contend with the firm hand of the Communist Party, which bans pornography and punishes those guilty of “group licentiousness” in the name of protecting traditional Chinese values. But the party’s moral authority has frayed of late because of the publicized antics of its friskier members. In June, a government official was sentenced to 13 years in prison for corruption after a video surfaced showing him in bed with an 18-year-old woman. His fall came three months after photos depicting a coterie of six naked people, including a party official and his wife, exploded on the Internet.
In an attempt to give the sex festival a veneer of respectability, government-run medical organizations sponsored booths in a side room, which were, unsurprisingly, desolate. The main draw was lust.
Thousands of visitors, nearly all middle-aged men wielding cameras, poured through the aisles in search of any visible flesh. “Guys have been taking my picture all day,” said a bikini-clad model, Liang Lin, 23, who was hugging her bare midriff defensively as a throng of men jostled desperately to get a better shot.
Not far away, a male crowd waited for a diminutive Japanese pornography star named Rei Mizuna to appear. When she finally emerged from a dressing room to hand out racy autographed photos, her frenzied fans surged forward with such zeal they shattered a glass display case.
Those unrequited desires have helped spawn a booming domestic sex toy industry. “A stuffed man doesn’t know what it’s like to be hungry,” explained a salesman at one booth filled with inflatable dolls. Just then, an older gentleman approached and tried to bargain over an $8 figure with black tresses and a vacant stare.
Shi Da contributed research.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Berlusconi 'directed' bunga bunga sex parties: court

from reuters


BY EMILIO PARODI

MILAN Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:05am EST
A combination photo shows file photos of Karima El Mahroug of Morocco posing during a photocall at the Karma disco in Milan November 14, 2010 and Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi waving as he arrives for a meeting of the European People's Party in Brussels June 28, 2012. REUTERS-Stringer (L) and Sebastien Pirlet-Files
1 OF 2. A combination photo shows file photos of Karima El Mahroug of Morocco posing during a photocall at the Karma disco in Milan November 14, 2010 and Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi waving as he arrives for a meeting of the European People's Party in Brussels June 28, 2012.
CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER (L) AND SEBASTIEN PIRLET/FILES
(Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the ringmaster of "bunga bunga" sex parties at his luxurious villa near Milan, giving the go-ahead for young women to perform pole dances and stripteases, according to a court document.
Berlusconi, who faces potential expulsion from his Senate seat next week after receiving a final conviction for tax fraud in a separate case, was handed a seven-year jail sentence in June for abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor during the parties.
In a document released on Thursday explaining the reasons behind the conviction, the court said there was sufficient proof that the 77-year-old had sexual relations with former nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, who was 17 at the time, in exchange for money and jewelry.
It said Berlusconi directed women to perform and dance erotically during the parties.
"It is proven that the director of the young women's sexual performances was Berlusconi himself," the court said.
Berlusconi has described the evenings as "elegant dinners" and is appealing the verdict. He will not have to serve any jail time for the conviction unless it is upheld after two appeals.
The court said it was Berlusconi who decided when to begin "the so-called 'bunga bunga' in which female guests worked to satisfy the desires of the defendant, that is to 'make him feel bodily pleasures'... performing pole dances, striptease, dressing in disguises and fondling each other".
RUBY HEARTSTEALER
Evidence also shows Berlusconi was aware that El Mahroug, also known by her stage name "Ruby the Heartstealer", was under 18 at the time, below the legal age limit for prostitution in Italy, the court found.
In May 2010, the then-prime minister called a Milan police station to instruct officials to release El Mahroug, who was being held on suspicion of stealing a 3,000 euro ($4,000)bracelet.
Berlusconi's lawyers said he had made the call to avoid a diplomatic incident because he believed El Mahroug was the grand-daughter of Hosni Mubarak, then Egyptian president. But prosecutors said he was anxious to cover up their sexual relations.
The court said in the document that if Berlusconi had not known El Mahroug was under-age, he would have had no reason to make the call and try to secure her release.
The prostitution case forms only one part of Berlusconi's legal problems [ID:nL6N0HT2FS]. In August Italy's top appeals court confirmed his conviction for massive tax fraud at his Mediaset TV empire, a decision he says was politically motivated.
The Senate is due to vote on November 27 on whether to expel him from his seat. Berlusconi, whose center-right party is part of Italy's coalition government, has said he may no longer back Prime Minister Enrico Letta if he is kicked out. But a split in his party has left him without the numbers to bring the government down.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, writing by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)