So You Want More Sex but Don’t Want to Hurt Your Partner’s Feelings…

By Courtney Kocak If you’ve been in a sexually intimate relationship for longer than a year, chances are you’ve experienced being in the mood when your partner isn’t—or vice versa. Having unequal libidos, at least occasionally, is a super-common long-term relationship issue. My boyfriend and I just celebrated our two-year anniversary. It’s the best relationship …

A Professional Dominatrix’s Advice For Powering Up Your Sex Life

A professional Dominatrix explains how a trip to the dungeon can help average couples enhance their sex lives. By Carrie Weisman It’s been said that every hopeful needs a mentor, and it may be so. But when it comes to sex, there’s not a lot of hierarchy around to guide you. Unless, of course, you …

America’s Sexual Fantasies Laid Bare in New Book

Author Justin Lehmiller calls it the most comprehensive survey of America’s sexual fantasies. By Diana Crandall Ever fantasized about a politician naked? How about a threesome involving a coworker and your partner? Ever considered what it would be like to take a robot to bed? There’s at least one man in America who wouldn’t bat …

What It’s Like to Reclaim Your Sex Life After Sexual Assault

Survivors share their stories. By Zahra Barnes When she was 16, Lindsay Marie Gibson was raped. After her assault, life continued, as it does. Years later, in college, she met the man who would become her husband. She fell in love. They got married. Life was good. Yet her assault from years before still wreaked …

Are You Ready for a Sex Toy Revolution?

By Hallie Lieberman & Maxine Lynn For 16 years, purveyors of dildos and vibrators have seen their dreams crushed by lawsuits owing to a 2002 patent that covers the fundamental technology behind computer-controlled sex toys. The transgression? Launching their products after the patent went into effect. Patents have long encouraged creativity by protecting ideas and …

How mental health issues are preventing couples from having sex

By Eleanor Segall Unconsummated relationships, where couples don’t have sex due to difficulties, trauma or sexual dysfunction are not often spoken about. Usually, the couple feel embarrassed to discuss their sexual difficulties – but they are not alone. According to an AXA PPP survey, a third of Brits are fearful of getting naked, largely due …

Course disputes idea that heterosexual sex is ‘natural’

Eugene Lang College is offering a “Queer Ecologies” course this fall devoted to countering “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature. According to the instructor, common scientific practices like using the terms “male” and “female” when describing reproduction among plants and animals contributes to the perception that “queerness” is “unnatural.” By Toni Airaksinen Eugene Lang College, …

Pelvic floor physio: Treating pain during sex and other common women’s health issues

By Maryse Zeidler Pain during intercourse. Incontinence. A prolapsed uterus. Pelvic floor physiotherapist Anniken Chadwick helps her clients with problems rarely discussed at the dinner table, but that are common nonetheless. “Mostly my job is oriented around women’s health, and we just don’t do that well with women’s health in our medical system,” Chadwick said, …

A Sexuality Researcher Explains a Big Unanswered Question in Sex Studies

By Cari Romm Most of the time, the people who ask how you’re doing will be satisfied by the rote, two-word reply: I’m fine. I’m good. Really, it was the question that mattered, not the answer. Every so often, though, you’ll encounter someone who truly wants to know about the state of your emotional/physical/spiritual existence, …

I’m a young gay man. Here’s how sex-ed class failed to represent students like me

Sex ed taught me little about LGBT relationships, so I went searching on my own By Nathan Sing “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die.” Before today, this exclamation by the pedophiliac health teacher Coach Carr in the iconic film Mean Girls formed the bulk of my understanding of sex-ed class. But …