Did your parents have “the talk” with you about the birds and the bees when you were younger? Did you feel comfortable approaching them about sex and questions you had about sex? If you’re like 53% of young Aussies, you probably answered ‘no’ to these questions. Girlfriend magazine recently asked 1000 of their readers if…
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Beyoncé released a surprise visual album last week and broke the internet. iTunes crashed and social media lost its collective shit. The sheer magnitude of Beyoncé’s star power is such that she doesn’t need promo. She doesn’t need to slowly drop singles one by one, or sell merchandise, or convince everyone to buy an…
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Fourteen-year-old Layla is a 21st century Lolita, and like her antecedent, she’s not one to shy away from a man’s attention. She knows that all it takes is a gesture, a look, and she can have almost any man she wants. It makes her feel powerful, like she matters. But what she really wants is…
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NB: Some sites linked to within this article refer to sexually explicit adult material that may not be suitable for work. Earlier in the year I went to a live art installation project that featured some nude displays (both male and female). The event was quite an upmarket artistic event and there was nothing gratuitous…
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Christie Thompson’s debut novel relates contemporary Australian adolescence with brutal honesty. As her characters come of age in the grimy outer suburbs of Canberra in 2009, they manifest all the ennui and self-sabotage of the teen years. 17-year-old Jez is bored and disaffected. Her days in a suburb on the fringes of the national capital…
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In the last months of my mother’s life, I fell into the first blushes of what I thought, at the time, was love. Chris was nine years older than me, could fix cars and had a crooked nose that reminded me of breakages. The most romantic moment of my life, to date, is…
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Alright, I’ll admit it. I used to read the Cosmo sex advice columns. With leading headlines like ‘40 sex tips that will BLOW HIS MIND’, or ’10 sex tips that will keep him COMING back for more’, it was hard not to take a peek, just in case they really had discovered some new karma…
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Today is World Contraception Day, and there is no better time for couples and sexually active people – particularly young people – to be informed about sex, reproductive health and contraception. The motto of the day is: ‘It’s Your Life, It’s Your Future, Know Your Options’. It seems like a pretty simple message. Contraception, whether…
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In high school, we’re taught all about different methods of birth control. There’s the oral contraceptive pill (a winner for women since the 1960s), condoms, Implanon, diaphragms, IUDs, and many more options that I can barely remember because we’re so spoilt for choice. Oh, and sterilisation! In the US, heterosexual Generation Y women are reportedly…
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(Image via Jean KOULEV) This post was sponsored by C-date. If you have questions or concerns about sponsored posts, contact Zoya at [email protected]. There is a narrative about sex that I think we all have come to believe, somewhat subconsciously, without really examining it. It’s that in the bedroom (and in a heterosexual context), men…
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Imagine: you’re a young woman about to embark on a journey that will see you tested mentally, physically and emotionally. A doctor examines you, checking to see if you are physically prepared for the path ahead. Your strength of character is linked to the purity of your body – and so the doctor’s examination requires…
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**Editor’s Note : We have chosen not to publish the original photograph referenced in this article, as we will not condone or perpetuate slut shaming. ** An image has gone viral across the Internet out of Slane, Ireland, following an Eminem concert which demonstrates that slut shaming and sexual double standards are still, unfortunately, alive…
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Indonesian school proposes virginity tests on teenage girls The test — to be conducted on female students who are typically 15 or 16 would involve examining their hymen to see if they are intact. Boys will neither be physically tested nor asked if they are virgins. Women’s groups and the Education Minister are among…
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Don’t walk home alone. Learn self-defence. Mind your drink. Don’t dress provocatively. Don’t go into the mosh pit. Don’t get drunk. It’s for your safety. Subtext: not getting raped, not getting murdered – that’s your responsibility. Just before Christmas, YouTube star Jenna Marbles released a slut-shaming tirade entitled “Things I don’t Understand About Girls: The…
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