pleasure

A journey doesn’t need to have a destination. Approaching masturbation with a curiosity-focused mindset can help you learn more about yourself.

I believe that sexual pleasure with someone else can only truly be found through vulnerability, through the radical act of maybe not knowing, in being willing to potentially even embarrass yourself in the pursuit of something greater.

Aliah answers a question from Phoebe about internalized stigma, being put off by your own sexual thoughts and how to become more comfortable with masturbation.

Britain’s Quintimacy is a space that intends to cultivate queer intimacy through trauma-informed and embodied connection. In an interview with Scarleteen, founder Beck Thom talks about their working frameworks, sex ed in the UK, what they do at Quintimacy and the need to better educate people, including children and teenagers, about trauma and consent.

Sex positivity should have given me the courage to ask for what I wanted. Instead, I thought it meant accepting what I got.

When my assault happened, I was stunted in my sexual exploration, and I had no choice but to start anew. I’ve learned it will always be an ongoing battle for me, but a possible feat. Scarleteen readers confronting a comparable situation should know there’s hope for you too. Reclaiming our right to pleasure combats apathy by demonstrating our capacity to enjoy again. While we can’t reverse rape, recovery begins when we remember we have alternatives.

And Anon asks, “I am naturally kinky, and I am looking for girlfriend who is dominant more of gfd. I do not want a mistress but a girlfriend who can understand me at times. I want to appear to have a normal relationship in outside world.” I combined these two questions because they exemplify a trend…

Hi Ghost, It sounds like pleasure is a bit tricky to figure out - both by yourself and with a partner. Fortunately, there are solutions! You’ve touched on something important by mentioning that you don’t experience much pleasure not only in your genitals, but also in most of your skin. It might help…

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.

Despite the initial shame, guilt, name-calling, jokes, and fear related to disclosure, my STI presented me with a chance to love myself more deeply. It gave me a chance to sit with myself, who I thought myself to be, who I thought I was going to become, and who I really was.