Our Sex in the News segment started off on a surprising note today, as I learned that Jenny Block was coming in later to talk about her new book Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage and Tiffany asked me about polyamory, swinging, and what do we tell the children.

Yikes!

But moving on to the news. Today’s theme was pretty much “let’s bring sex into everything else!” as half the stories related to non-sex brands adding something sex-ish to their offerings.

MTV has launched a sex blog called Stand By What You Say where you call in and record your response to a topic (like “pick up lines” and “sex secrets”). They use SpinVox to transcribe it to text and post it. It’s part of their Staying Alive charity for AIDS/HIV education.

American Apparel now sells the Hitachi Magic Wand, and doesn’t even pretend it’s not sexual: “This old school hand-held massager has been around for more than 25 years, with good reason. Its low vibration works as well on your sore back as it does in the bedroom. If there is any doubt, google it for worldwide rave reviews.”

Meanwhile, in case the phallus USB drive I mentioned a few weeks ago is too anatomical for you, there’s a USB Humping Dog that provides a similar sort of humor in a slightly cutesier package.

You know how Fark has a category called “Florida”? I feel like I should make one for “Japan.” There’s a new little girlfriend robot for lonely Japanese men, called EMA, for Eternal Maiden Actualization. She will kiss your head, hand out business cards, and sing and dance, just like a real girlfriend — except she’s only 15 inches tall. (But very cute!)

Leaving sexy doohickeys aside for now, researchers have found that straight men and gay women share certain brain characteristics, as do gay men and straight women. I tripped over my tongue several times trying to summarize the story without messing up who was gay and who was straight, so if you want to know more, follow the link.

And finally, speaking of male characteristics:

For those who worry about their penis size, Ed at the astonishingly comprehensive Penis Size Debate has charted the range of sizes women report as ideal, very satisfying, satisfying, enjoyable, and not satisfying.