Aftercare Conversations Might Be the BDSM Practice You Need to Try

It’s a game changer (even if you’re vanilla). By Patia Braithwaite If you’re familiar with BDSM, you probably know that communication is a major through line. There’s a reason for this. As SELF previously reported, BDSM, which stands for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism, is a term that describes a wide swath of sexual behaviors that …

Hacker exploits smart chastity belt bug to hold penises hostage

The hacker demanded to be paid in Bitcoin, because of course they did. By Andrew Paul Sex toy tech is a burgeoning industry often eliciting cheap jokes from people, but it truly presents some serious implications for consumers’ digital privacy and security rights. But hey, no one says these two reactions are mutually exclusive. Don’t …

Everything You Need to Know About Polyamorous Relationships

Including the most common myths about polyamory and best practices for entering into a polyamorous agreement. By Maressa Brown If you’ve spent even a few minutes on a dating app these days, chances are you’ve encountered profiles that disclose some form of consensual non-monogamy. More and more, people are finding that they prefer to connect …

The BDSM Test Is the Get-To-Know-Your-Kink Diagnostic

By Kells McPhillips BDSM is a tidy acronym for a broad range of sexual preferences that relate to physical control, usually broken into six components, “bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism,” according to Ali Hebert and Angela Weaver, professors in the department of psychology at St. Francis Xavier University, writing in …

Is Audio or Written Erotica More ‘Ethical’ Than Photo or Video?

by Gabrielle Kassel What’s the short answer? No. There isn’t anything that makes audio or written erotica inherently more ethical than its visual counterparts. Below, we break down why people think they are — and what you can do to be the best (read: most ethical) consumer of written and aural smut you can be. …

What You Need to Know About Being a BDSM Switch

It’s like a lil bit of dominant + a lil bit of submissive. By Rachel Varina BDSM stands for bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism. This is where the whole dominant (sometimes called a “top”) and submissive (a “bottom”) dynamic comes into play. “A top is simply someone who leads/guides the …

A Beginner’s Guide to Spanking Therapy

by Gabrielle Kassel Erotic. Painful. Punitive. These are some of the ways you might describe a good ol’ bum whooping. But therapeutic? Well, that’s the idea behind spanking therapy. Below, two kink educators explain WTH spanking therapy entails and why people are into it. While it always involves bum bumping, what qualifies as spanking therapy …

4 Tips For Proudly Introducing Kink Into Your Relationship

By Mary Grace Garis If during this time in quarantine, you’ve done some sexual exploring about what gets you going—great. Maybe you’ve dedicated some self-care sessions to self-pleasure, had some mind-blowing staycation sex, or taken the BDSM test to explore your NSFW interests. And just maybe, all the sexploration has you wanting to learn how …

Meet the Couple Fighting Porn’s Race Problem

By Sandra Song Whether we’re talking about its reliance on fetishization, the overt pay discrepancies or the fact that it’s always been a predominantly white space, it’s no secret that porn has a race problem. But after 20 years of shared experience as performers, educators and master fetish trainers, Jet-Setting Jasmine and King Noire are …