Heather Corinna

Meet Emily Joy and Hannah Boning, the columnists behind Impurity Culture, a new biweekly feature on Scarleteen.

The second of this month’s batch is all about moving in together: the agony and the ecstacy, the joys and the woes, the ups, the downs, the argh of who drank the last of the milk again for crying out loud and the ahh of the very sweetest of first-thing-of-a-morning-even-though-your-breath-is-actually-kind-of-rank smooches. We’ve got your soundtrack for everything from bringing daily life sweetness to another person to learning to clean up your own damn mess to the deep and amazing joy making a home with someone who already feels like home for your heart can be.

We made a few of them, actually. And we’re going to keep making a couple of them to share with you over every month, because some of us love making mixes and all of us love all of you! Sometimes we’ll even deliver you some extra sex and relationships education at the same time, just because we’re…

What should you do when someone says no to or otherwise refuses or declines your romantic or sexual gestures or asks Accept it and stop making those gestures or asks. That’s the right answer every single time: just accept someone’s no and then back right off. Asking or otherwise pressing over and over isn’t the right answer. “Not giving up” (which often looks a whole lot like harassment) isn’t the right answer. Trying to get them to change their mind isn’t the right answer. Trying to get them to change their mind through their friends or family also isn’t the right answer. And while it should be obvious, we so sadly know that it isn’t: no kind of violence is ever the right answer.

I’m always so sad to hear anyone who has the idea that needing – or just plain wanting! – lubricant is some kind of problem, means something is wrong with someone, or that that need is unusual. I also always find myself struggling to understand those feelings, even though I have heard many women…

What is sexual media, how might we think wisely about it, and how can we figure out how to feel and what choices to make with it?

I’m so sorry to hear that your friends’ behavior has got you feeling this way, Liv. From the sound of things, even if they’re not doing it on purpose, they’re souring what otherwise sounds like something that’s been pretty nice for you and is also obviously a formative life experience. A first…

I think what you both should do — or more to the point, the only sound thing I think you can do — is accept each of your feelings and wants instead of trying to change them. I also think it’s important you let your girlfriend know that she should work to accept her feelings as well. I think it would…

A miscarriage is a pregnancy that naturally ends before twenty weeks of pregnancy, all by itself. Here’s what it’s all about and how it can be as an experience.

If you don’t know about what it’s like to be pregnant at any or every stage and you just want half a clue, this is your article.