You know me (and even if you don’t) I love searching for sex news items from around the world. Quite often this news, having to do with the rub-and-tickle of life, causes some brouhaha or at least a mention in the media. I think you’ll find this to be the case with what follows…

Los Angeles, California:

Sex toy giant-especially now on the net-Adam & Eve recently unveiled a new billboard in L.A. This billboard, located at Cahuenga and Sunset Boulevards is causing quite the controversy as it features what has been called, a “strategically covered topless female” (according to AVN news). The billboard in question promotes the headline: “Satisfaction. Guaranteed” with the topless lady’s pic plus a 50 percent off offer with free shipping of A&E products.

“We wanted the billboard to be eye-catching and provocative,” A&E’s marketing director Chad Davis said, but local L.A. parents are calling for the signs removal, sighting the sign as offensive. Continued Davis: “Los Angeles is usually very accepting of adult-related media.”

Only time will tell how accepting.

Berlin, Germany:

A German court has ordered a 35-year-old mother, who also happens to be a dominatrix, to pay 200 euros (that’s about U.S. $260) to a local charity. Her client, a 49-year-old undertaker accused the lady while in her dom role, of holding a kitchen knife to his throat, demanding his debit card (and PIN number of course) and detaining him for five hours. Since it was learned during evidence given at the trail that both plaintiff and defendant were quite high on cocaine at the time of their ‘rendezvous’ the court dropped the charges against the dominatrix but ordered her to pay what they call “penance money” to a charity for crime victims.

Of course the story the dominatrix is claiming is quite different then her alleged ‘victim.’ She says her client was not kept against his will and kept requesting that the lady’s transsexual colleague join in their encounter.

This might simply be a case of  caveat emptor.

Toyko, Japan:

According to Doctor Ikuko Ikeshita “there has been a movement to do away with the stigma surrounding female masturbation in Japan, pointing to the increase in websites discussing female sexuality and stores selling female sex goods.”

The Love Joule bar in the Shibuya district of Tokyo is a real example of this new movement. The night spot is popular already with women in Japan’s commercial sex and adult film businesses and as the bar has a policy that prohibits single men entering the premises (unless they are accompanying a lady) really, this is a place where the ladies “are able to experience a pleasant place in which they can openly discuss masturbation,” as bar owner Megumi Nakagawa, owner, proudly declares.

Along with drinks being served, behind the Love Joule bar, dozens of vibrators and toys are prominently displayed just as bottles of liquor normally would be.

Megumi Nakagawa further states “Since most people view female masturbation as something of a mystery or taboo, it is not a usual topic at typical bars.”

I’d say that’s probably true just about everywhere.