Danny Wylde as himself, and in yellowface for his role in Burning Angel's porn parody of The Walking Dead

Two events this month highlighted why alternative sexuality communities, which pride themselves on an ethic of broad tolerance, remain so overwhelmingly white. First, a January 31 story in Jezebel publicized the decision of porn mogul Joanna Angel to portray an Asian character by putting a white actor in yellowface. In Burning Angel's porn parody of The Walking Dead, white actor Danny Wylde was cast in the part of the Korean-American character Glenn, with his complexion yellowed and the skin around his eyes taped back into narrow slits.

Nelson Estrada

Like many San Franciscans, we spent years convinced the world ended at the Golden Gate Bridge. We knew the 280 freeway led to Google, and heard rumors about people with yards in the East Bay, but as far as art, culture, and politics were concerned, S.F. was the place to be. But in the last few years, more and more of the cool kids have been moving across the pond to Oakland, and for good reason.

Oakland muscled in on S.F.'s cultural turf last year with the monthly street festival First Fridays. Then -- beating us at our own game -- Oakland ranked higher than San Francisco on the Advocate's list of gay-friendly cities. Here are seven reasons we should all get down in the Oaktown.

Videos of the Day: The 10 Best Views in S.F. and Oakland

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The One.

It is a concept as familiar as commercial jingles, as ubiquitous as the bright candy coloring of a rom-com, and as insufferable as a teenager shouting, "No one understands me." The One is the new shorthand for the idea of the soul mate, that perfect person who completes you.

It is unclear when The One became so common; it seems to have cropped up in the '90s, but "soul mate" is a least as old as Plato. According to his dialogue, The Symposium, humans originally had four arms, four legs, a single head made of two faces and both genitals. Just a little too powerful, these early human hermaphrodites pissed off the gods and as punishment, were split apart and doomed to die. Thankfully, Apollo took pity on these baleful souls and sewed up a new version of them with only one set of stuff and a belly button as a reminder of what was once whole. As a result, we are still, to this day, forever on the hunt for our other half.

Yesterday, Uproxx and Jezebel wrote about a Craigslist housing ad deemed "the most annoying ad ever" and that combines "every [San Francisco] stereotype into one, magnificently un-self-aware post." Because it's the Internet, we expect a certain amount of snark for all things even a little bit mockable, but is the ad itself deserving of so much scorn?

Is San Francisco Craigslist really worse than other big, liberal cities? Let's explore.

Modus Vitae Media

Siouxsie Q, who runs This American Whore podcast

On Feb. 5, Exhibitionist writer Chris Hall broke a story about local podcast This American Whore, run by Siouxsie Q, who in January started to receive e-mails from lawyers representing Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass, demanding that she change the name of her podcast or face legal action. Hall postulated that the podcast was being singled out for its sex worker content. Today, Ira Glass responded to the post, in an e-mail sent by Seth Lind, director of operations at This American Life.

See Also: This American Life Tells Local Podcaster: No Whores Allowed

Modus Vitae Media

Sex Worker Siouxsie Q, creator of the podcast, This American Whore

The popularity of Ira Glass's public radio program This American Life is based on one simple insight: Stories are important. Its long-form structure is a rarity in an era of soundbites and 140-character tweets; its success depends on people being willing to shut up for 60 minutes and listen to other people talk about their own lives. The stories that Glass and his colleagues present are thoughtful, complex, and don't fit easily in the flashy, loud narratives of 24-hour news or reality TV.

But as adept as This American Life has been at bringing much-needed nuance and insight onto the airwaves, it seems that there are still stories that they prefer not to be associated with. Late last year, just before the elections, sex worker and activist Siouxsie Q began producing a podcast in the living room of her apartment called This American Whore. This January, she started to get e-mails from lawyers representing Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass, demanding that she change the name of her podcast or face legal action.

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One upon a time, in an apartment on London's west side lived Mike (straight) and Hal (gay). Each had a very extensive pornography collection which they shared, despite their different tastes, with the kind of obsessive glee normally reserved for vinyl. To go into Mike's room, a thing I did more than once (wink wink), was to be instantly assaulted by piles of computer hardware and stacks upon stacks of sex videos. Hal's porn, no less prolific, lived inside a wooden cabinet and was largely hidden by his multi-sized (and multi-colored) dildo collection. Same love, different expression. But despite their commitment to the art of the skin flick, neither of them qualify as being a porn addict. They are out and proud and currently, both are happily married.

She doesn't make pot-leaf doilies or anything (yet), but Cheryl Shuman, the self-proclaimed "Martha Stewart of Marijuana," is definitely bringing a more suburban mom image to our favorite herb. Shuman was recently on The Ricki Lake Show (which is still on?) talking about her struggles with ovarian cancer and her quest to make weed more adorable.

See Also: Pipe Dreams: Art Goes to Pot (Literally)
Campaign Against Video Game Sexism Met with -- Surprise! -- More Sexism

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The Occupy movement and resulting marches galvanized the country. But ultimately, was anything achieved? "What were we marching for, exactly?" asked many a supporter. On the day of the second big protest in Oakland, I was walking downtown and passed an older black man sitting on his porch, "Oh you don't want to go down there today. That's a big old mess down there." A mess indeed. Riot cops, helicopters, the anarchist brigade, and black clothing, but not black faces, dominated. I can only presume, considering the long economically depressed condition of West Oakland, that this man had no love for Wall Street bankers, but still, Occupy held no meaning for him.

See also:

The Sweet Spot: Puberty and Playboy

The Sweet Spot: Prostitution and Prop 35

By Clarisse Thorn

Today, our sister blog the Snitch filled us in on the prevalence of UC girls using escort-lite site SeekingArrangement.com to help pay for their tuition. That same site also claimed a little while ago that San Francisco had the most sugar daddies per capita of any U.S. city. Sites like SeekingArrangement claim to connect people who are "interested in 'Mutually Beneficial Dating.'" Functionally, such sites often connect high-end escorts with clients, but those interactions include a remarkable lack of clarity about the monetary exchange.

See also:

The "Perfect Woman" According to San Francisco Men

The Sweet Spot: Sugar Mamas Explain How They Keep Their Younger Men in Style