How to Enjoy Sex Again If You’ve Experienced Sexual Assault

Up to 94% of sexual assault survivors experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.  By Amanda MacMillan Surviving a sexual assault, no matter what the circumstances were or how long ago it happened, can change the way you experience sex. For some, sexual contact can trigger upsetting memories or physical reactions, or leave them feeling sad or …

5 Blindfolded Sex Positions That’ll Heighten Every Sense

Blindfolds are really an excuse to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Blindfolds are like the duct tape of sex—they’re multi-purpose. They can help you be super present and lessen your inhibitions while also making everything seem a little edgier. Caveat though: the first time being blindfolded is scary. If you’re the blindfolder, be …

Encourage teens to discuss relationships, experts say

By Carolyn Crist Healthcare providers and parents should begin talking to adolescents in middle school about healthy romantic and sexual relationships and mutual respect for others, a doctors’ group urges. Obstetrician-gynecologists, in particular, should screen their patients routinely for intimate partner violence and sexual coercion and be prepared to discuss it, the Committee on Adolescent …

Sex Ed before college can prevent student experiences of sexual assault

Students who receive sexuality education, including refusal skills training, before college matriculation are at lower risk of experiencing sexual assault during college, according to new research published today in PLOS ONE. The latest publication from Columbia University’s Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) project suggests that sexuality education during high school may have a …

How Sexual Assault Can Impact Your Physical Health, Even Years Later

The body’s natural reaction to dealing with the trauma of sexual assault can have negative effects on a person’s long-term physical health. by Leah Campbell When Amber Stanley was 23 years old, a friend’s boyfriend raped her. They had all been at a party together. She had fallen asleep in one of the spare rooms. …

What the BDSM community can teach us about consent

By Olivia Cassano In heteronormative porn scripts, enthusiastic consent is about as common as a real female orgasm. However, there’s a fringe of mainstream society that actually knows how to practise affirmative consent, and one from whom the general community could learn a thing or two: BDSM enthusiasts. As it turns out, kinksters are the …

Encourage teens to discuss relationships, experts say

BY Carolyn Crist</a Healthcare providers and parents should begin talking to adolescents in middle school about healthy romantic and sexual relationships and mutual respect for others, a doctors’ group urges. Obstetrician-gynecologists, in particular, should screen their patients routinely for intimate partner violence and sexual coercion and be prepared to discuss it, the Committee on Adolescent …

The early-20th century German trans-rights activist who was decades ahead of his time

By Elizabeth Heineman The Trump administration continues its assault on transgender rights. In July 2017, Trump sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military. Then, this past October, The New York Times obtained a memo indicating that the administration was considering narrowly defining gender “as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at …