'Toys For Tatas'

The Huffington Post | By Eleanor Goldberg

It may be a no-kid zone, but one strip club is hoping to make Christmas wishes come true for children in need.

The Platinum Cabaret, a gentleman's club in Fayetteville, Ark., is enticing customers to give back this season by offering free lap dances in exchange for donations to Toys for Tots, KHBS reports. While the initiative, dubbed "Toys for Tatas," might be a bit unconventional for a charity started by Marines that benefits underprivileged kids, the nonprofit doesn't have any objections.

"As long as it's done in a legal manner, as long as people are bringing us new, unwrapped toys, we don't get into how they were gathered and what the process was," John Staples, coordinator for Toys for Tots, told KHBS.

But another Toys for Tots chapter wasn't quite as forgiving when locals in Alabama added an X-rated spin to the donation process.

Through Dec. 3, Pleasures -- an adult toy store in Huntsville -- is offering any customer who brings in a gift for Toys for Tots their choice of a complimentary sex toy, ranging from lube to blindfolds to vibrating bullets. The store will also donate $1 to the Save the Ta-Tas, an organization that raises awareness and funds for breast cancer.

While Pleasures may have good intentions, the children's charity wasn't a fan of the program.

"Toys for Tots should not be advertised at an adult store," Ret. Major Brian A. Murray, vice president of operations for the foundation, said in an email to The Huffington Post.

The Huffington Post | By Kathleen Miles

The stereotype that female porn stars are "damaged goods" who have experienced sexual abuse as a child is inaccurate, according to a new study.

In fact, porn actresses have higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction and spirituality, according to the study "Pornography Actresses: An Assessment of the Damaged Goods Hypothesis."

However, stereotypes regarding the actors' current sexuality are true, according to the study, which compared the self-reports of 177 porn actresses and was published in the Journal of Sex Research. The study found that porn actresses were more likely to identify as bisexual, have had sex at an early age, had more sexual partners, were more concerned about contracting STD's and enjoyed sex more than the matched sample.

The study has several co-authors, including former porn actress Sharon Mitchell and Texas Woman's University professor Christian L Hart.

However, a HuffPost blogger and former porn actress, Jennie Ketcham, would refute the study's claim that porn actresses have more "positive feelings." She blogged for the New York Times earlier this month that being a porn star was traumatic, and she experienced symptoms similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the industry.

"A performer becomes virtually incapable of experiencing authentic, intimate relationships; she bases her self-worth on sex, which reinforces the behavior," she wrote.

On the flip side, Mireille Miller-Young, an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, claimed that porn can be empowering for female performers. Miller-Young wrote that some female performers said that it offered them flexibility and a chance to escape poverty and go to college. Others, she wrote, "emphasize the creative aspects of pornography."

Miller-Young has never been a porn performer herself.