A friend recently told me of her experience dating a guy who was a real gem. When things started getting intimate, he stated that she needed to “deal with” her pubic hair (and the fact that it existed) or they would not work out. She politely asked him to leave and never call again….
Read more
Calling all Lipsters: want to work towards abolishing rape culture with the chance of having your creativity seen? Newcastle-based consent workshop instructor, Nissa Lee of Secret Strength Self Defence is spearheading a grassroots project which aims to do just that. The OK Danger community collaboration of consent inspired artworks is broadly themed around sexual agency…
Read more
‘…hardcore pornography is now the primary form of sex education in the Western world. This is where teenage boys and girls are “learning” what to do to each other and what to expect when they take each other’s clothes off.’ – Caitlin Moran That’s a pity. Besides finding out what goes where, what use has…
Read more
Dutch scientist Adriaan Tuiten is close to perfecting the first successful female desire drug that, if approved by the Food and Drug Association, could be available by 2016. It’s the biggest medical breakthrough in women’s sexual liberation since the birth control pill, writes Daniel Bergner for the New York Times. ‘The promise of Lybrido…is that…
Read more
You wake up in the morning and you’re in someone else’s bed. You calculate that there is a 75% chance you will need to vomit within the next hour. You are not sure whether you want to roll over and see the face of the person spooning you and snoring so nonchalantly into the back…
Read more
It turns out that penis size does matter to women, according to a recent Australian study. Researchers found that penis size is just as important as height to a woman assessing a male’s attractiveness. The group of women who participated in the study were shown computer-generated images of men with varying body shapes, heights and…
Read more
Despite 102 International Women’s Days, the sexual revolution, and countless contraceptives in a girl’s favour, heterosexual women are still vilified for their sexuality. On this year’s International Women’s Day, Julia Gillard addressed what she no doubt thought were the big issues in women’s rights today: violence, education, gender pay gaps and human trafficking. While the…
Read more
We’re told from a young age, if our parents use anatomically correct language, that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. But if we are being accurate, the female external genitalia should be called the vulva. Why is this distinction important? By labelling your downstairs mix-up ‘vagina’ you are skipping over a lot…
Read more
“Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?” We’ve all heard it. Some of us have even said it (when we were young, naïve and not yet as knowledgeable about feminism, I’m sorry!). But it is 2013, so why does this phrase, and this idea of holding out, still hold any weight?…
Read more
It is a brand new year. A time to get the most from each day and each lay (sorry, I had to). I have decided to steal my inspiration for this column from Cosmopolitan. Except instead of giving you hot tips to blow his mind, I want you to blow your own mind (the weird…
Read more
There is a ranking that occurs when you’re a feminist thinking of sexual acts – those that are ‘empowering’ and those that could be considered ‘demeaning’. Within the confines of heterosexual sex, there has been a long held notion of dominance and submission as being gendered, usually as male and female respectively. This is somewhat…
Read more
Do you ever worry about how your body and/or body parts are perceived by society? Attention: People With Body Parts is a new international project that aims to address the issues of body image – to encourage us to celebrate our body parts and their connections to ourselves and to others. ‘Our bodies are filled…
Read more
He smiles. She bites her lip. He ‘accidentally’ brushes his hand against her shoulder. She leans in to “hear him better”. Flirting. We all do it. With words, intonation, a lascivious gesture, a coquettish glance. Is it biology? Are we trained by society or fuelled by our emotions? Most people, predominantly those who are already…
Read more
Recently, I had a minor television appearance that required me to read Fifty Shades of Grey. It was a tough couple of nights, forcing myself to read the book (though I should say, it actually gets a lot easier to digest the more you read), but overall, I probably wouldn’t repeat the experience. That said,…
Read more
