“Vabbing,” the fringe trend of using vaginal secretions as perfume by dabbing one’s vaginal fluids (hence: “vabbing”) on the wrists and neck, has recently surged in popularity thanks to TikTok. The idea behind this emerging trend is that vaginal fluids produce pheromones that may attract sexual partners. As a result, people are using vabbing as a way to attract dates, primping themselves with their own naturally-made perfume in preparation for a night out.  @keni.mov ♬ Top Off - Gunna So is there any merit to vabbing?...

I've heard it and I’ll bet you have, too: someone minimizes a bad sexual encounter by saying “It’s just sex”—as if their definition of sex easily accommodates experiences that, honestly, most of us would rather not have. Bad sex comes in so many varieties. Let’s look at some and see if we can flip the script. What Constitutes Bad Sex Anyway? Sex where you don’t get turned on enough to orgasm Some people never orgasm and don’t miss it—I don’t define bad sex solely by the presence or absence...

Artist Katy Horan (@goodyhoran) made the comic, Bodies, the day after the SCOTUS draft was leaked. "I had to get to the root of why it felt so violent and cruel," she explains. "As the owner of a uterus and a sexual assault survivor, these words and images communicate how I have felt about living in this world with a female body since I was a teenager. Moving forward, I want to make comics telling real-life stories of those who have chosen abortion. The anti-choice...

How old were you when you realized that your health teacher’s mumbled, 10-minute tangent about how you should always use a condom or else you’ll die instantly was not an exhaustive and inclusive sex education? Was it when you had queer sex for the first time and realized you weren’t quite sure about any of the details? Maybe it was when you heard from a friend-of-a-friend that sex was supposed to feel good, even for people with vaginas? It could’ve been when your friend tested...

Rebel Wilson gave Disney some queer inspiration with an Instagram post yesterday that read, "I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess 💗🌈💗#loveislove" The photo of Wilson and her girlfriend, fashion designer Ramona Agruma, garnered over a million likes after just one day. The Australian comedian is being showered with love and support from her new queer community.         View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by...

Did you know May is national masturbation month? Yup, an entire month dedicated to touching yourself. The month came as a result of the then-Surgeon general, Joycelyn Elders, deciding that masturbation should be a part of sex education in 1994. She was fired by former president Clinton for this act.  A few years ago a Somatic Educator I had hired to run a workshop, asked for volunteers to join a “Masturbation for Science” Group- a Facebook group where we committed to masturbating every day and writing...

Carol Queen’s latest book (written with Shar Rednour) is The Sex & Pleasure Book: Good Vibrations Guide to Great Sex for Everyone Vibrators changed my life, and maybe yours, too. I’ve been promoting vibe-induced pleasure for roughly half my life (and that’s just in public. I also had nice things to say about them way before vibrators basically became my day job). But not everyone feels the same way. And I’m not even talking here about those “but that’s not natural!” vibe abstainers who want to...

 “I could never be gay because I think my own vagina is fucking disgusting.” That’s what I used to say, with a laugh, before I fully understood the complexities of gender and queer attraction, and their complete separation from genitalia. And when I came out as pansexual a few years later, I discovered that not all vulvas were disgusting. Some, in fact, could be rather lovely. Just not mine. In summer, shorts exposed me if I sat down. My favorite panties could not contain me. I didn’t...

In the break room at work, my friend Wesley and I sit across from each other on our phones. I’m texting Max, a guy I met on Hinge (a dating app that directs you to “like” things on peoples’ profiles to show interest, rather than swiping right or left) and have been out on a few dates with. Wesley is texting Aubrey, someone he just matched with yesterday on Tinder. “How am I supposed to respond to this?” Wesley asks, handing me his phone. The...

For many expectant mothers, pregnancy can be a stressful experience. From lists of baby names to birthing plans to stacks of pregnancy handbooks, there is a lot to plan for, both during and after pregnancy. But for Black women, there is far more at stake.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Black women are three to four times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women.” Pregnancy-related illnesses or emergencies that have become increasingly treatable, such as preeclampsia, are still...