The Fake Sex Doctor Who Conned the Media Into Publicizing His Bizarre Research on Suicide, Butt-Fist

The Fake Sex Doctor Who Conned the Media Into Publicizing His Bizarre Research on Suicide, Butt-Fisting, and Bestiality 

In August 2017, the website IFLS, an outgrowth of the mega-popular Facebook group I Fucking Love Science that traffics in journalism-ish content, reported on a paper that, it mused, might be the most not-safe-for-work study of all time. The paper’s subject is so not safe for work that I can’t bring myself to copy-paste the title here, but it has to do with beastiality and “butt-fisting.” The problem with this post, though, is not that it’s inappropriate—it’s that it was the work of a con man.

Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler has been tricking research outlets and reporters alike into publishing dubious statements for a while, an investigation by Jennings Brown at Gizmodo revealed Friday. Sendler, 28, has fashioned himself as a Harvard-trained “sexologist,” with a job as a top researcher at a foundation and a passion for documenting some of the further-flung aspects of human desire. But, as Brown cataloged, he has no degree from Harvard, his foundation does not appear to exist, and while it’s possible he did conduct his research, it’s safe to guess his papers might not be rigorously scientific.

Despite this, Brown reports, Sendler has lent his “expertise” to HuffPost (on self-care during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings), Playboy (on men who have sex with dead bodies), Men’s Health (on the sex benefits of barre workouts), Forbes (on why women love serial killers), and even on sex advice giver Dan Savage’s podcast (on a kink that kills).     

Continue reading at Slate, or read the full gory detailsatGizmodo.