Good Clean Reads

A whole month dedicated to celebrating masturbation? That's right! May is masturbation month, and here's how it started:Back in 1995, the sex-positive sexual health company Good Vibrations declared May 7 "International Masturbation Day" in recognition of Jocelyn Elders, the Surgeon General whom Bill Clinton fired for her suggestion that masturbation be part of students' sex-education curriculum. As the story goes, after a speech at the United Nations World AIDS Day in 1994, an audience member asked Elders about masturbation's potential for discouraging early sexual activity.

Worrying about how many calories you’re burning while having sex seems like one of the worst kinds of punishment. Instead of just noticing how your body is feeling, you’re distracted by thoughts like, “Does taking my clothes off burn 10 calories? 20?”

This article on woman empowerment encourages women to think about their bodies this way. Sex becomes an activity to enjoy not in itself, but as a...

The title of this post is from an essay by Sparrow, a poet. I love this essay because I think it captures so well how important small, private moments of joy are to our ability to be human. In my experience, searching for big happiness brings more disappointment than pleasure — those searches blind me to the small, beautiful things around me, like the flowers of muscari that are almost the same.

I visited a friend for a night recently, and as usual we talked about sex. She told me that she and her boyfriend, with whom she has been with monogamously for about a year, started having anal sex after she brought up trying it — she had accidentally seen a butt plug in her roommate’s bedroom, and she had become fascinated by it. My friend wondered whether the butt plug was her roommate’s or her...

"Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature. "-Marilyn MonroeOral sex is, at once, one of the most desirable sexual experiences and the one that still carries enough discomfort to still call it taboo in some circles. There was a time when you could get arrested for it. Still, in the vast sea of sexuality, developing a healthy connection and building skill to oral ways of loving have a power and passion unique in the world.

Recently I watched Emily Nagoski’s Ted Talk “Unlocking the Door to Your Authentic Sexual Wellbeing.” Whether or not you believe you have such a metaphorical door to “unlock,” I highly recommend Emily’s talk — she’s funny, engaging, and supports her claims about sex with science.

At the start of her talk, Emily shares feedback she received from students in a 1000-level sexuality course she taught...

Last week we learned how to integrate spiritual practices into our relationship.

According to nearly all of the world’s major spiritual traditions, the ultimate attainment in life is to learn that we are all One. But, to most people on any normal day, what does that even mean? We all walk around with our own hurts, pains, joys and triumphs. As much as we’d like to join with others, we feel (and...

“And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”  -T.S.  Eliot

Sexual boredom and the collateral damage of intimate isolation top the list when it comes to the cited explanations for cheating and relationship endings. Somehow sexual boredom often gets linked to sex positions, thinking if we change up how we do it, we would find the...

I have serious sexual music habits. Ever since I can remember, in the many years of making love to my husband, there has been a familiar soundtrack playing, animating our sexual encounter with its rhythm and bass in the background. It probably began as our way of covering up anything that might have been overheard by our kids sleeping down the hall, but slowly and imperceptibly, my dedication to the artist of the year, or as my husband would probably argue, artist of the decade, the familiar notes of my habitual go-to songs became a powerful aphrodisiac, igniting my memory of previous sexual interludes and awakening my sleeping libido with a little romantic music.