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Bill O’Reilly is giving phone sex a bad name.
In a steamy “she-said, he-said” scandal, the host of Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” was sued recently by his associate producer, Andrea Mackris, who alleges that he subjected her to unwanted face-to-face and telephone conversations laced with graphic sexual talk. The matter was settled out of court.
According to her lawsuit – which is posted in the archive of www.thesmokinggun.com – on several occasions O’Reilly, 55, went beyond talking about sex to engaging in it solo, without her encouragement or approval, while on the phone with her.
“I appreciate the fun phone call,” Mackris’ lawsuit quotes him as saying.
Media coverage has mistakenly called it “phone sex,” though the allegations made clear it was a sexual harassment case. The story has turned the spotlight on a practice some find kinky or disgusting and others find satisfying and even empowering.
“We’ve moved to more graphic ways of relating,” says Leslie Lothstein, director of psychology for the Institute of Living at Hartford (Conn.) Hospital. He says experiments have shown that telling erotic stories can be a powerful way to enter a fantasy.
“An erotic life is a critical part of sexuality,” Lothstein says.
In her book “The Fine Art of Erotic Talk: How To Entice, Excite and Enchant Your Lover With Words,” sex counselor Bonnie Gabriel writes:
“A telephone tryst can serve as a vehicle to keep your romantic feelings alive, to enhance intimacy, to build erotic anticipation and to fuel your sexual fantasies. In these conversations, you can also include messages of erotic communication that rekindle the spiritual connection you have with your lover.”
She says couples who can’t see each other every day might make bedtime calls for erotic talk or erotic dream suggestions. Many others use commercial phone sex and Internet sex-talk services.
Such businesses are highly lucrative worldwide, at least for the folks who own them, if not for the women they hire to do the talking.
Lothstein said using the Internet to talk about sex has helped some women.
“There is no doubt that women have had a hard time developing a narrative about sexuality, and some never talk about what they want. But online, they can talk openly about their needs,” he says.
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