Category: Sexuality

  • How to Orgasm Without Being Touched

    How to Orgasm Without Being Touched

    Many of us have woken up from a sexy dream, throbbing with excitement. Some of us are even luckier, and can climax from nipple stimulation, or dry humping, or even intense genital-free makeouts. Sex worker, artist, sexologist, and world-famous sex legend Annie Sprinkle details seven types of female orgasm on her website, including some that happen without touch.…

  • Why Bisexual Women Are at a Higher Risk for Violence

    Why Bisexual Women Are at a Higher Risk for Violence

    It feels strange to admit this, but when I first read that bisexual women are more vulnerable to sexual and intimate partner violence than people of other orientations, I felt relieved. It wasn’t the butterfly-winged relief of good news. It was the lightness of finally being able to breathe. Or perhaps, of feeling that I still couldn’t…

  • A Complete Guide to Post-Sex Cleanup

    A Complete Guide to Post-Sex Cleanup

    Marie Kondo taught America how to clean out objects that don’t spark joy. But who can you turn to when you need to clean semen and menstrual blood off your couch after a hot romp and you only have an hour before your family arrives for dinner? Never fear: I’m here to help you tidy…

  • How to Tell if Polyamory is Really for You

    How to Tell if Polyamory is Really for You

    No matter what love style you choose, all relationships have one common denominator: They’re super-complicated. First, society imposes rigid definitions of gender, sexuality, and love. Add that to the personal baggage we pick up along the way, and you’ve got one explosive cocktail.  Polyamory is no exception. Based on the belief that we can be sexually and…

  • How to Master Affirmative Consent (It’s Hot, We Promise)

    How to Master Affirmative Consent (It’s Hot, We Promise)

    “I’ve never been with anyone who talks so much during sex,” he said. I was midway through an R-rated romp when this sexy someone’s comment stopped me in my tracks. What?! I thought. What could be better than alternating oral sex with oral expression?  As a feminist writer, I spend a lot of time talking…

  • When American Waitresses Were Labeled ‘Women of Ill Repute’

    When American Waitresses Were Labeled ‘Women of Ill Repute’

    WHEN NELL RETURNED TO THE breakroom, her waitress’ apron was full of money. Her coworkers, spotting the dollar bills, laughed. “Them ain’t tips,” said one waitress. “Them is dates, ain’t they, Nell?” Nell displayed the cash to her friends. “Sure,” she said. “Be thankful for a dollar in these hard times!” Nell wasn’t the only waitress…

  • Our Favorite Porn That’s Both Sexy and Ethical

    Our Favorite Porn That’s Both Sexy and Ethical

    Saying that porn is a contentious issue is like saying the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs was a space rock: It’s not wrong, but it doesn’t reveal the scope of the damage. From the “feminist sex wars” of the 1980s to current anti-porn crusaders, many have argued that filmed sex is inherently wrong, regardless…

  • The Founder of America’s Earliest Lesbian Bar Was Deported for Obscenity

    The Founder of America’s Earliest Lesbian Bar Was Deported for Obscenity

    IT TOOK OFFICER MARGARET LEONARD three tries to get her hands on Eve Adams’ book of lesbian short stories. We don’t know what, exactly, the New York Police Department officer experienced when she first slunk undercover into Eve Adams’ Tearoom at 129 MacDougal Street. But it’s easy to imagine a group of artists gathered under gleaming…

  • Lesbian bars are disappearing. We spent a night at one that’s still standing.

    Lesbian bars are disappearing. We spent a night at one that’s still standing.

    Walking into Henrietta Hudson feels like taking off a heavy backpack. It’s a humid June night in New York’s Greenwich Village, and inside the reggaeton-pulsing bar, a sparse crowd drinks beer and laughs. My shoulders instantly relax, and not just because I’ve escaped a spring downpour. Read more at The Washington Posts’s The Lily. Photo:…

  • How Lesbian Potlucks Nourished the LGBTQ Movement

    How Lesbian Potlucks Nourished the LGBTQ Movement

    JEN MARTIN AND LIZ ALPERN lived in “that house.” Many queer friend groups have one. It’s the kind of place where a pot of soup is always boiling, where bread is always in the oven, where someone is always willing to read your tarot cards. Friends stopped to visit the Brooklyn apartment on weeknights. It was…