When I first got my periods, I was devastated. The monthly pain, fatigue and discomfort overwhelmed me, not to mention the overnight assumption that I had suddenly ‘become a woman.’ My child’s body was now a sexual body. It meant covering up, not drawing attention to my curves, and of [...]
If you could choose any place in the world, what would be your ideal place for sex and intimacy? Maybe you imagine a luxurious room on the top floor of a skyscraper, with french windows and a large bed. Maybe you think of a cozy cottage in the mountains, or [...]
I like having my stomach touched and kissed during sex. It feels like warm honey. The slightest butterfly kiss on my belly makes me shudder. But something holds me back. I often feel like my belly isn’t flat enough. All my healthy eating and sweaty hours in the gym made [...]
A series about how everything else matters when it comes to sex In a sex-phobic culture, sex is often thrown in the same category as other ‘vices’- smoking, drinking and staying out late. We all know the stereotype of a promiscuous woman with a cigarette in her hand, who indulges [...]
A series about how everything else matters when it comes to sleep We all know the routine. Go to bed late after a Netflix binge, wake up early for that morning jog or meeting at work, and chug down a few cups of black coffee to keep you moving. If [...]
A series about how everything else matters when it comes to sex I love sex. Like with most people, sex has always been a source of pleasure, joy and excitement for me. There’s no denying the thrill of bodies. But is this the only story? Though sex should ideally be [...]
Stories about extreme violence and brutality against women have been in the news lately. And I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Why do we only react when things get so, terribly, painfully bad? Violence doesn’t just start with a horrible incident on a desolate highway. Violence is ambient. Violence [...]
For many people, a sex act is valuable only if it ends in penetration. This is probably because society values procreative sex over any other kind of sex. Procreative, penetrative sex is that haloed, esteemed sex act because it either creates a baby, or is seen as some sort of [...]
(That Sex Education Never Could) There are twelve girls sitting on the floor. One of them is miming something with unusual objects- a hair clip, a bottle of glue, a tube of lotion. Everyone is roaring with laughter. This was a scene from my hostel days in high school. The [...]
Anyone who wears bras on the regular knows the liberating freedom of coming back home and yanking that bra off. For a long time, this was something I looked forward to- returning to my room after a long day, feeling the sweet relief of unhooking my bra and standing with [...]
Young people today are faced with a unique contradiction when it comes to sex and sexual experiences. On one hand, an older generation of parents, mentors and teachers largely believe that pre-marital sex is wrong, and that young people should not express their sexuality in any way at all. We [...]
And why it’s so easy to assume that I’m straight “Oh you’re bi? So like, you’ve had girlfriends?” “Um... not really. At least not yet.” “Ah, but you must have slept with women right? Made out at least?” “...Nope?” “Come on, can you even really call yourself bisexual then? You [...]
And what that says about a sexually repressive culture It’s well past midnight, and I’m going down the dark rabbit hole of frantic google searches and WebMD pages. With the modern day availability of the internet, anyone who is overzealous about their health can relate to this feeling all too [...]
And that’s pretty cool, so why don’t people talk about it more? I didn’t know what the clitoris was until I was seventeen years old and in my first year of college. Seventeen! Which meant I had spent a good part of my teen years not knowing what pleasure felt [...]
