relationships

Article
  • Abigail Moss

Dynamics like mine require a lot of honesty, and often speaking honestly can make you feel vulnerable, but showing vulnerability to a partner is a good way to build trust and intimacy. At the same time, you learn a lot about yourself as you're forced to ask yourself tough questions and to think carefully about what you want from a relationship and why - in turn, this makes you appreciate the reasons you want to be with your partner(s), and what it is about being with them that makes you happy.

Advice
  • Mo Ranyart

First off, you aren't alone in being turned off by "hardcore BDSM" or in feeling like you aren't really seeing a wider range of nuanced depictions of dominant/submissive relationships with which you might identify more easily. It's true that there's a mainstream image of d/s dynamics that many...

Article
  • Haley Moss

Disability may feel scary if you’re new to it - there is a lot of language involved to learn, maybe more medical information than you feel capable of handling, or you might have a fear about possibly being cast in a caregiver role more so than a partner. All of these fears can be dispelled or addressed through ongoing, healthy communication. In my experience, disclosure is an ongoing conversation and there is no single “correct” way to do it, but there are ways that our partners can be stronger allies.

Article
  • Lisa Laman

Suddenly, a person you’ve been regularly communicating with is M.I.A. Without warning, a fixture of recent life can become a memory. Somebody you’d bonded with has abruptly stopped contacting you. The text messages have ceased, all traces of their presence in your life have been yanked away by them, and without warning or explanation. But just because the experience is stressful doesn’t mean it’s impossible to endure. There are ways for autistic people to come out the other side of getting ghosted.

Article
  • Talya Honebeek

When you gain weight and want to talk about it -- whatever your feelings about it are -- with partners or others you're in intimate relationships with, how can you do that, especially in a world where so few people are equipped with the skills to talk about weight in healthy, sensitive, supportive ways?

Article
  • Lisa Laman

Being autistic, some things just haven’t come as naturally for me as they seem to for other people. Unfortunately, these have included hallmarks of American life often used to symbolize being “an adult” like driving on my own or getting my first paid job. But human beings are not on a strict timetable to do all the same things at the same time. This is just as true of dating like anything else. Just because you (or I) haven’t been actively dating when a lot of other people in your life have doesn’t make you (or me) a failure. You’re just on your own timetable. So am I.

Article
  • Lisa Laman

Two smart, insightful and autistic people who like talking about relationships walk into an interview. What comes out is this fantastically rich conversation between Scarleteen columnist Lisa Laman and Love and Asperger's author and therapist Kate McNulty.

Article
  • Gabriel Leão

Sex educator and therapist Dr. Lexx Brown-James talks talks about her line of work, how Covid-19 is rampaging peoples’ emotions, and how the work of POC sex educators continues to be devalued, stolen and co-opted.

Advice
  • Siân Jones

Hi Parvati, It's great to hear that you're trying to be a good ally, and doing some of the self-examination and learning that comes with that! Since you helpfully broke your question down into three parts, I'll go through them one by one. 1. Is gender really only a social construct? The short answer...

Advice
  • Siân Jones

Hi Susan, It sounds like you have two separate things going on here. We can break it down into smaller pieces and talk about them individually. 1. Your friend likes you, but you don't like him like that. The most immediate thing is that your best friend has expressed a romantic interest in you...