Pornography Is Not “Inherently Harmful”

A parliamentary report from New South Wales in Australia offers a more nuanced view of pornography than is seen in most politically influenced studies. Although finding that Australian teens first access online pornography at an average age of 13, the report suggests they are more sophisticated consumers than is often recognized: they understand it is […]

Sex / Porn Addiction Is Not a Thing

The journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy has published a statement announcing that it will no longer accept articles that utilize unscientific terms like “sex addiction” or “porn addiction,” and will only allow “compulsive sexual behavior” under strictly limited conditions. This announcement is buttressed by a detailed historical overview of these concepts by a distinguished international team of […]

No Nut November

No Nut November (#NNN) is a trending internet challenge in which participants attempt to abstain from ejaculation and orgasm by not masturbating and/or not engaging in partnered sex for the entirety of the month. While studies have elucidated physical and psychological health benefits of masturbation/orgasm as well as abstinence from them, the effects of temporary […]

Sex Researchers Create Their Own Porn

A research project from Portugal has developed three standardized pornographic film clips meant for use in testing heterosexual male subjects’ ability to recognize and appropriately respond to a woman’s cues expressing consent or non-consent. Each 90-second film clip depicted the face of the same actress experiencing intercourse with an off-camera male: in one she showed […]

Most US Adults Have Engaged in Rough Sex

Noted sexologist Debby Herbenick is the lead-author on an article looking at a representative survey of over 9000 US adults which reveals that the majority of both males and females have at some point in their lives engaged in “rough sex” behaviors with a partner, defined as hair pulling, biting, spanking, slapping, punching, choking, smothering, […]

China and Gay Dating Apps

As of this week two of China’s most popular gay dating apps were unavailable for download, although it appears they still work for those who had already downloaded them. Founded in 2012 Blued is the most popular gay app in China with more than 40 million global registered users. Considering the closure of Shanghai Pride […]

IOC Moves to Ban Trans Women and Intersex Athletes with “Male Levels of Testosterone”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is likely to introduce a new policy on trans athletes after its director of health, medicine, and science, Dr. Jane Thornton, gave a “science-based review” to its members showing permanent physical advantages to being born male. Thornton, a former Canadian rower, has referenced the use of SRY cheek-swab gene test […]

When Referring to Your Lady Bits, Words Matter

A new study examined the terms women use to name their genitals and their associations with genital attitudes, sexual pleasure, and genital health behaviors across both non-sexual and sexual contexts. The findings of this study provide the first empirical evidence linking genital naming to women’s GSI, sexual-, and health-related well-being, affirming that the words women […]

Another Good Reason to Workout?

Women can experience exercise-induced orgasm (EIO) and exercise-induced arousal (EIA) during exercise or physical activities that are vigorous, repetitive, or demanding of core abdominal muscles, usually apart from sexual situations and without direct genital stimulation. In a qualitative study based on interviews with 21 adult women, researchers aimed to understand women’s lived experiences with EIO/EIA. […]

Gender Trouble Again

Conceiving of gender and sex as binary concepts is a stubborn means of categorization that has long limited human understanding of important aspects of identity and experience. In most cultures humans become binary subjects at birth in two major ways: 1) we are corralled into either male or female sexed body designations based on anatomical […]