When to Lose Your Virginity

Defining “Losing Your Virginity” What exactly does “losing your virginity” mean? Virginity can be defined in different ways according to your sexual orientation, beliefs, and culture.  Losing your virginity is often described as engaging in penetrative sex, including anal sex, for the first time. The definition can also be expanded to include oral sex and manual stimulation. Oftentimes, when sexual intercourse and virginity…

Staying in Love

Falling in love is a natural human phenomenon. People do not typically have to actively exert conscious effort to become attracted to someone and fall in love with them. Thanks to our biology, we are pre-programmed to desire close-knit relationships. For most people, this desire is fulfilled by forming intimate relationships with other human beings….

Homosexuality and Religion

Disclaimer: In this article, for the sake of simplicity and consistency, we will be using the term “homosexual” as a blanket term to represent all queer, bisexual, pansexual, questioning, and other non-heterosexual orientations. If you would like to learn more, you can read our Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity article. If you need resources or…

Falling In Love

Love and being in love are among the purest of human emotions. To love someone unconditionally is an indescribable experience. Love is often described as infinite, beautiful, wonderful, positive, or amazing. There are many different ways to love another person; it does not always have to be in the romantic sense. For example, there is…

Sex in Inis Beag, Ireland

Author’s Note: When reading this article, please keep in mind that the purpose of sharing this information is to demonstrate that different cultures have different views of sexuality and to describe the views of one culture that was studied many decades ago: Inis Beag, Ireland. This article does not describe the general culture of Inis…

Swinging

Swinging is a polyamorous practice in which both singles and partners engage in sexual activities with other partners. Swinging is also referred to as comarital sex, wife swapping, husband swapping, and partner swapping. Although traditionally swinging has been used to refer to couples in committed relationships engaging in sexual activities with other couples, single people and non-committed…

The Hymen

The hymen is a structure within the vulva, which encompasses the female external genitalia. It is a thin piece of mucosal tissue that surrounds and partially covers the vaginal opening (also known as the introitus).1 There is no known biological or evolutionary function of the hymen, but a few hypotheses have been put forward. One…

The Legalities Shaping Same-Sex Marriage

The issue of marriage has long been debated. For centuries, religion and tradition have been at the center of the debate. On one side, there is the view that assumes marriage should be between one man and one woman. In contrast, the opposing view is that marriage should be legally allowed between same-sex couples of…

The Definition of Rape

Disclaimer: We acknowledge that there are many different words that individuals use to describe themselves after experiencing sexual assault. In this article we use the term “survivor” for the sake of consistency. We acknowledge that there are many different ways of processing sexual violence and believe each individual person should choose the language that they…