Girl on the Net

Welcome to what I hope will be a New Project for 2016: two things.

I am powered by a combination of inspiration and rage. Inspiration, where I try to be more like people who are better than me, and rage, where I get fired up about things and people and companies that are appallingly shit.

So… on Monday mornings I’m going to try and highlight one thing that’s awesome and one that’s awful, thus kickstarting the week with a combination of inspiration and rage.

Let’s start with the rage:

The bad: Worst Lube Ever

Thanks to EmmelinePeaches and DangerousLilly for spotting and highlighting a company which had gone above and beyond ‘bad’ and into ‘dangerous fuckwits’ territory.

ProLube, which goes by the name of @usetobelieve on twitter, claims that not only can their lube cure HPV, it is also the only thing that can 100% prevent HIV. They have not provided evidence for either of these claims, and that is because these claims are 100% Not Fucking True. Bad lube is one thing, and I’ll happily shrug and buy another if I get something a bit crappy. But misleadingly dangerous lube, selling itself on claims of HIV prevention, is fucking appalling.

@cbpolis simple explanation, everybody think using condom is safe enough, now with ProLube together, double protection, will they get HIV?

— ProLube (@usetobelieve) January 3, 2016

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This company has provided no evidence whatsoever. What’s more, I’d go one step further and say that extraordinary claims made on Twitter, about ‘miracle’ cures, fall under the ASA remit and are worthy of a complaint.

If you’re in the US, Chelsea B. Polis has published a guide on how to submit a complaint to the FTC. You can also use this tool to check if your lube is FDA approved.

Please do spread the word if you can.

The good: F. Leonora Solomon’s new site

I don’t really do new year’s resolutions any more. What I do, though, is look enviously at other people every now and then and wish I could be a bit more like them. F. Leonora Solomon is one of those people: she publishes, shares and curates a whole bunch of sexy writing, and she’s a lovely person as well. How does she find the time?

Anyway, she’s just moved her blog from a WordPress site to a new self-hosted one, presumably because WordPress are shitbags when it comes to adult content. So I thought it’d be a good opportunity to point you in her direction so you can follow and read her stuff.

You can read some of her stories here, check out her calls for submissions if you’re an erotic writer yourself, and read the guest blog she wrote for me about her fetish for people in suits.