Nienke Helder designs therapy tools for women recovering from sexual trauma

By Angel Trinidad Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Nienke Helder has created a set of sensory objects that can be used to rehabilitate women affected by sexual abuse. Presented at this year’s Dutch Design Week, Sexual Healing is designed to help women who are suffering from trauma-induced sexual problems, such as pelvic muscle blockage. According to the …

The Shaming of Sexuality: America’s Real Sex Scandal

By Michael O’Neill In early September, the Twitter account of Texas Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz “liked” a post containing explicit pornographic video content. Once noticed by other Twitter users, the news shot around social media; many were both shocked and amused by the public slip-up by the typically straight-laced Senator. For …

Why teaching kids about sex is key for preventing sexual violence

By Rebecca Ruiz [Y]ou may think of sex education like it appears in pop culture: A classroom of teens looking nervously at a banana and a condom. Amid the giggling and awkward questions, maybe the students get some insight into how sex works or how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. While that’s valuable …

Feminism and Sexual Submission Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

A meme showed up on my Facebook newsfeed one afternoon a few weeks back. by Savannah Stewart It was shared by some fuckboy I worked with for about five minutes before he was never seen again, except when sliding into his female former colleagues’ DM’s—which should have been reason enough to keep scrolling past, yet …

Why having the sex talk early and often with your kids is good for them

By Veronica I. Johnson and Guy Ray Backlund [P]arents may be uncomfortable initiating “the sex talk,” but whether they want to or not, parents teach their kids about sex and sexuality. Kids learn early what a sexual relationship looks like. Broaching the topic of sex can be awkward. Parents may not know how to approach …

Inside the Koreatown Dojo Dedicated to the Art of Japanese Rope Bondage

Mention anything bondage-related and Zetsu Nawa reflexively geeks out. By Lila Seidman [A] casual reference to a dotted gag in one of his thousands of drawings and photos of bound women launches him into a mini-lecture about its “humiliation factor” in modern Japan. It’s just a dishtowel, he explains. “It’s like he grabbed the thing …

Why Sex Education for Disabled People Is So Important

“Just because a person has a disability does not mean they don’t still have the same hormones and sexual desires as other individuals.”   By Ariel Henley “Sex and disability, disability and sex; the two words may seem incompatible,” Michael A. Rembis wrote in his 2009 paper on the social model of disabled sexuality. Though …