sex

“X” Is a Slasher Film with an Important Message about Sex Work and Pornography

A white woman with freckles and big, curly reddish hair sits in front of a backstage vanity rimmed with bright lightbulbs. She is turned away from the mirror, towards the viewer, looking off camera with a concerned expression on her face.
by Laura LeMoon
April 11, 2022 at 5:43am
What the golden age of porn shows us is that good sex means breaking rules, not necessarily literal rules or laws that exist in our physical world, but rules or standards governing human conduct, morality, and ethics. 
Two faces, defined by black, empty, space and scribbled red and white lines, face each other

Graphic Design: The Uncomfortable History of Sex Onscreen

by Beatrice Loayza
April 1, 2022 at 12:44pm
Beatrice Loayza traces a history of sex in TV and movies, highlighting the important work of intimacy directors in the field today.  Read more »
Author photo of Rachel Krantz, a white woman with long curly brown hair and a blue t shirt. Next to her is the cover of her book, Open.

Open-Minded: Rachel Krantz on Nonmonogamy as a Labor of Love

by Andi Zeisler
April 1, 2022 at 11:03am
Journalist Rachel Krantz, a founding editor of Bustle, was 27 when she met Adam, a professor who encouraged her curiosity about nonmonogamy and dominant/submissive dynamics. What happened next is detailed in Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy (... Read more »
Digital illustration of a Black femme with long, pink hair and tattoos in a wheelchair embracing a femme fat person with long blonde hair in front of a pink background.

Hot and Unbothered: The Romance Novels Rewriting Disability and Sex

by Gabriela Ramos Tavárez
April 1, 2022 at 9:22am
Gabriela Ramos Tavárez celebrates recent romance novels that give voice to the sex lives people with disabilities can have.  Read more »
Author photo alongside book cover with heart-shaped lollipop

Love Is the Drug: “Crazy For You” Puts a Societal Lens on Love and Sex Addiction

by Oliver Haug
September 21, 2021 at 12:59pm
Reframing the way we think about love and sex can change our lives.  Read more »
Katie Thurston, the new Bachelorette, is a thin, white woman with long, brown hair who is sitting on a chaise and smiling in a sparkly green dress

Buzz Off: Of Course, “The Bachelorette” Found a Way to Objectify Sex Positivity

by Andréa Becker
June 18, 2021 at 10:36am
This show can’t run from its long history of peddling purity myths. Read more »
Ana Valens reflected in a mirror being held by hands wearing red opera gloves

Not Your Fetish: Trans Erotica Writers Redefine Desirability

by Ana Valens
March 31, 2021 at 11:13am
Trans people have produced erotica long before 2017 and will continue to do so long after. Read more »
A white mom with her hair in a scrunchie holds her daughter, who is light skinned and has curly hair, as they sit together in bed.

Unlike “Gilmore Girls,” “Ginny and Georgia” Doesn’t Hide from Sex

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
March 5, 2021 at 7:56am
Ginny and Georgia strikingly faces sex and sexuality head on, especially when held up against its predecessor. Read more »
Jazmine Sullivan, a dark-skinned Black woman with silky, long, black hair, poses against a gray background while wearing a bedazzled shirt and black blazer

Get Your Freak On: “Heaux Tales” Reclaims the Erotic

by Shawna Shipley-Gates
January 19, 2021 at 9:00am
We all have heaux tales to share. Read more »
Cara Delevingne arrives at a fashion show. She is white with long blond hair in a high ponytail. She wears black and heavy eyeliner.

Celeb Buzz: Sex Toy Brands Are Increasingly Bringing on Famous Faces

by Gabrielle Kassel
December 22, 2020 at 11:39am
Sexual shame can’t be stopped by the power of a pretty, popular, and palatable celebrity. Read more »
a young couple holding coffee cups sit together in the airport while wearing N95 masks

Ill Will: The Problem With Individualizing COVID Risk

by Rebecca Epstein-Levi
November 18, 2020 at 11:58am
Messaging that’s exclusively about individual risk management is neither accidental nor inevitable. Read more »

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Best of Bitch

Why You Should Pay for Porn

by Casey Quinlan
April 29, 2015 at 7:27pm
If you’re a progressive middle-class individual, chances are you think about where your food comes from. Maybe you try to buy shoes that are... Read more »

Tina Belcher's Sexual Revolution

​​​​​​​Tina Belcher, an animated teenaged girl. She wears glasses and has black hair with bangs.
by Gabrielle Moss
May 6, 2014 at 11:57am
Tina Belcher breaks all the rules of network sitcoms. That's why she's wonderful.  Read more »

The Dramatic History of American Sex-Ed Films

by Sarah Mirk
June 17, 2014 at 10:29am
In 1948, in a seventh grade classroom in Eugene, Oregon, a teacher dimmed the lights and flipped on 16mm projector. A film called Human... Read more »

In a Bizarre 1976 Comic Book, Spider-Man Fought the Villain of Misleading Sex Education

by Sarah Mirk
April 23, 2014 at 3:52pm
Last week, I came across a very strange comic book: in 1976, Planned Parenthood teamed up with Marvel to publish a one-off comic in which... Read more »