What the Internet reveals about sexual desire

[Valmy]

Later in the empire, it started to be proscribed.

A clear sign of evil pagan scum

[MadImmortalMan]

I think the results may be skewed because people attracted to "mainstream" porn can find it on a number of easily available porn websites they already know and frequent, so they won't be searching for it, whereas people who are into more niche/unusual fetishes would actively search for it. Plus there is a factor of kids/people searching for "weird stuff", out of morbid curiosity rather than actual sexual interest.

The thing being based on internet search terms is the fatal flaw, of course. Somebody looking for thin or fit girls, for example, would not be searching that as a search term because it's kinda the default. If you want fat, you gotta search "fat". So, yeah. You're right.

[Valmy]

I like the part when he condemns Gemellus.

"No, Theeeeeeeeeeeeeser.... Nooooooooo....."

What a pussy.

Tiberius already killed everybody in the family who was cool

[Valmy]

The thing being based on internet search terms is the fatal flaw, of course. Somebody looking for thin or fit girls, for example, would not be searching that as a search term because it's kinda the default. If you want fat, you gotta search "fat". So, yeah. You're right.

Are we talking about Siegey "fat" or cannot-walk-or-stand obesity here?

[Caliga]

Also, I liked the part with the wall machine that cuts peoples' heads off.  Imagine my disappointment when I discovered such a moving wall execution machine didn't actually exist in ancient Rome.

[garbon]

Face-fucking was considered particularly humiliating (moreso than a simple blow job) because it was so passive on the part of the catcher.

It wasn't being done right and/or they didn't know what they were talking about.

[garbon]

I think the results may be skewed because people attracted to "mainstream" porn can find it on a number of easily available porn websites they already know and frequent, so they won't be searching for it, whereas people who are into more niche/unusual fetishes would actively search for it. Plus there is a factor of kids/people searching for "weird stuff", out of morbid curiosity rather than actual sexual interest.

The thing being based on internet search terms is the fatal flaw, of course. Somebody looking for thin or fit girls, for example, would not be searching that as a search term because it's kinda the default. If you want fat, you gotta search "fat". So, yeah. You're right.

It is unclear to me whether or not they tried to account for that.  After all, they said that people who searched for hot woman were lumped under young, as they assumed old was not the default.

[Eddie Teach]

This is correct - Romans were okay with guys being pitchers, but catchers were looked down on.

I don't think that's completely true. Otherwise, why would Sulla have hidden his relationship with Metrobius until he was done with public life?

[Malthus]

This is correct - Romans were okay with guys being pitchers, but catchers were looked down on.

I don't think that's completely true. Otherwise, why would Sulla have hidden his relationship with Metrobius until he was done with public life?

Because it was considered sorta licentious, particularly by the ultra-conservative. It was thought to be a type of relationship that was all about the sex. A roman marriage, OTOH, was all about the family.

Sort of the same way a single elder statesman today might conceal his affair with a starlet during an election campaign, even though there is nothing "wrong" with it. The mental image of some old dude humping away doesn't comport with dignity - and a gay relationship evidently brought that to mind, for Romans.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Maybe the morals were different in Sulla's day to what came later. Think how quickly morals have changed in the past century in western society.