communication
Staying Seen: Being Bi in Relationships with Straight People
When you identify as queer but enter into relationships with heterosexual people, or those with of a different gender to your own, it can feel odd to consolidate these two parts of your identity. You’re not straight, but society can perceive you that way – where do you fit in, exactly?
Body Talk: Listening To and Learning From Your Chronic Pain
For those of us with chronic pain, living our lives with other people -- be that with sex or something else -- can be tricky. Why was I often having such a hard time communicating such basic things? I realized that some of the survival strategies I used to get through the day were coming back to bite me. Over time, I developed some strategies for re-learning how to listen to myself.
Why won't anyone date me?
Anonymous asks:
I’m a 21 year old bisexual male. I’ve never been in a relationship, and I’m currently looking at guys to date. I’ve been on Grindr for a while and I’ve had some hookups, but it seems like I can’t find anyone to hookup with. It just seems like no one wants me. At all. I get blocked all the time and I’m told that I’m fat and ugly. I’m not unhealthy or sloppy, but I’m not skinny or muscular....
A Brief Guide to Consenting with a Nonverbal Partner
What if a partner is nonverbal due to disability? Here are some tips on how to seek and obtain consent and how to generally communicate during sex with a nonverbal partner, so sex can be safe, satisfying and fun for everyone involved.
Sex on Screen: Reality-Checking Mainstream Porn
Part two of Alice O's exploration of mainstream porn to help increase your sexual media literacy. Includes information about sex positions, orgasm, consent and communication, boundaries, birth control, safer sex and more as they exist (or don't!) in mainstream porn, and how this can or should all go in real-life-sex to compare and contrast.
Do you need a pelvic exam? Maybe... or maybe not.
Do you really need that pelvic exam? Here's a quick primer of how to figure out if you do and how to talk to your healthcare about it, including if they say you do when you think you don't or just don't want one.
Well, F*ck Me! It's a Scarleteen Zine!
Say hello to our new zine, F*ck Me! It's a (free!) flight of super-helpful fancy that can help you -- or your intimate companions, your platonic friends, your students, the people who come into your clinic, your younger brother, your favorite cousin, and maybe even your parents -- identify the basics of what you really want and need when it comes to sex with others, and give you a foundation for clear, candid, and meaningful sexual communication.
Getting to Know Your “New Normal”: Tips for Sex When You Have Pelvic Pain
It can be incredibly frustrating when a part of the body we strongly associate with, and expect to give us, pleasure ends up causing us chronic pain. If you have chronic pelvic pain, what do you do if you want to get sexual with yourself or someone else? How can you be physically intimate if you’re in pain? How do you talk to your partners? If it starts hurting, should you stop? This guide from Nicole Guappone offers some great help with all this and more.
Sex & Spasticity
Cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injuries, among other disabilities, can involve spasticity. People often have day-to-day coping mechanisms to help manage their spasticity, but what do you do when you have spasticity and want to have sex?
How to Approach Sexual Fantasy and Desire on Your Own Terms
Fantasy is an important part of our relationships with ourselves and our sexual desires. But it can also be a source of shame. How can we find ways to reconnect with our sexual fantasies and create a healthy relationship with desire.