Dating has long been referred to as a game, one with pieces and players and one that you need to learn how to play if you hope to find that oh-so-elusive stereotypical love story. Who makes the first move, when do you call, what can you share on the first date: all of these questions are based on long-standing inexplicable rules that the world of … Continue reading The Digitalisation of Modern Dating
Content warning; sexual assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking Hands up; who here remembers their sex education in secondary school being unbelievably uncomfortable? Were you forced to watch a video that was made in the 80s, left feeling confused, with the basic understanding of how to put on a condom and that was it? ItÔÇÖs no surprise that sexual health classes continue to provide unsubstantial education … Continue reading Are We Replacing Sex Education With PornHub?
Words By Alice Moore The Ick – we all get it. Whether itÔÇÖs imagining them running for the bus, to getting food around their mouth while eating, itÔÇÖs becoming so much easier to get turned off by a partner for the smallest of things. This increasingly common gag has gained a high amount of traction on social media, but although it started as an internet … Continue reading The Ick: Is It Stopping People From Dating?
ÔÇ£Even a red flag looks pink when youÔÇÖre wearing rose tinted glassesÔÇØ – Me, after telling my friends how my newest crush leads me on and ghosts me for weeks before sliding back into my DMs like nothing happened. However, IÔÇÖm now aware that this situation is merely the real-life sequel of all the romance novels and movies IÔÇÖve devoured in my lifetime. My dawn … Continue reading What Is So Attractive About A Red Flag?
By Craig Strachan Porn can be a maze of so many unreliable truths and urban myths towards sex. The howling, the non-existent pubic hair, and of course the raw sexual energy of the plumbing and pizza delivery industries. Whilst many of these might become obvious to us later in life, a lot of us discover porn from an early age of adolescence where we wouldnÔÇÖt … Continue reading The Pornstar Penis is a Fa├ºade
TW: abusive relationships and sexual assault. Dear You, When I met you, I thought you couldÔÇÖve been the one. Yes, we were young- but I thought we had done everything right. We were still kids when we met. People would say we both had a lot of growing up to do, and I guess we thought we could do that alongside one another. I think … Continue reading A Letter to the One Who Hurt you the Most
Outercourse is a word that most people havenÔÇÖt heard of ÔÇô itÔÇÖs a term used for sex without penetration. I remember asking my flatmates a couple of months ago: do you have sex without penetration? I was met with some judgement and a few harmless jokes, but thereÔÇÖs definitely a stigma surrounding the idea of penetration-less sex, which IÔÇÖve never really understood. I left with … Continue reading The Benefits of Outercourse
By anonymous TW: mentions of mental health that may be triggering. A few months ago, a friend told me she was seeing a therapist. It took me by surprise and I now realize how ignorant this was. I’d always seen her as a pretty level-headed, resilient, and emotionally unshakeable person though we really have no idea what is going on in another person’s head, no … Continue reading Therapy: a New Wave
By Phoebe Bowers TW: SEXUAL ASSAULT & VIOLENCE They donÔÇÖt call it ÔÇÿPlan AÔÇÖ for a reason. For type A personalities, ÔÇÿPlan BÔÇÖ may seem like a frivolous option to rely on – I have even known people who have had no idea where to go or what they should say to require this pill that a lot of us feel so begrudgingly about. There … Continue reading ‘Planning’ Plan B
By Alice Moore For years, sex has been entirely based upon reaching the ÔÇÿBig ÔÇÿOÔÇÖ ÔÇô the orgasm. Sex was conceptualised as a competition with one goal only, and failing to make yourself or your partner reach this was essentially deemed as a failure; a waste of a shag. It goes without saying that this perception was (and still is!) highly patriarchal, predominantly focusing on … Continue reading The Big ‘O’ IsnÔÇÖt Always the Goal!
By Holly Chapman TW: homophobic laws, infertility. Where someone struggles with fertility and has to reach out for help when wanting to conceive, members of the LGBTQ+ community follow similar steps in their difficult journey towards parenthood. Unfortunately, their rights to conceive or have children in general, have been protested in the past. It was only in 1967 that The Sexual Offences Act decriminalized sex … Continue reading The Rainbow Test Tube
A couple of days ago I woke up to a small red dot in the middle of my forehead. It was teeny and virtually imperceptible from a two-metre distance. But of course, even with my less than 20/20 vision, there it stood, front and centre – a burgeoning planet in the midst of what looked like a dying constellation. I sighed and continued with the … Continue reading My Acne is Not Your Breakout
While it feels like the transition between 2020 and now has been a thousand years longer than it needed to be, dating post-pandemic has definitely taught me a lot! Regardless of having done all of my dates this year with individuals I met on apps like Tinder or Hinge, I can assure you the nerves that come with meeting a stranger for the first time … Continue reading Valentine’s Special: Your Editors’ Worst Dates
There is a strange shame in admitting you met your partner on Tinder. When I think about it there are only two real reasons (at least that I can think of) as to why this is the case: 1) You have to admit you were actively searching for someone romantically. 2) thereÔÇÖs a sense that you ÔÇÿfailedÔÇÖ the romantic game. What I mean by this, … Continue reading Don’t Lie, You Met on Tinder
Can it work? I think we will begin at: are we still friends? Which is no. Not even acquaintances. We never talk anymore either, though IÔÇÖm sure many of you had already guessed that. I would love to say I hadn’t been warned of what I was getting myself into, but all my friends were disgusted with the contract (with added benefits) I had entered … Continue reading Friends…with Benefits
By Phoebe Bowers Ever just laid there? Feeling: ashamed, naked, sweaty – feeling surprisingly empty? In my experience, so much anticipation can arise before the event, awkward flirtations, maneuvers, talk, yet so little feels gained after? You question why you even bother to keep blindly sifting across the human catalogue of Tinder, Hinge, Grindr, Bumble, *insert whatever soulless app is appropriate to your life*, when … Continue reading Aftercare is Just As Important
Illustration Instagram: @rahima.creative By Inga Marsden I don’t know about you, but I can always feel the dread of exams creeping up on me. I mean, beforehand it’s more of the odd shower, the odd trickle of anxiety before it simply passes. But I know all too well that when exam season finally begins, the spits of rain seem to manifest into a tsunami of … Continue reading Shut my Door, its Exam Season
Illustration Instagram: @moonlanging.illustrations By Daisy-Mai Pulford Being a young person with a chronic illness is a challenge, filled with a feeling of dysphoria and frustration towards your own body that in my experience starting University and entering student life only emphasizes. With a longstanding diagnosis of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and a brand-new diagnosis of Psoriatic Arthritis in my collection of autoimmune diseases, I started … Continue reading Chalk and Cheese, Chronic Illness and University
By Inga Marsden From the perspective of a University student who has had a handful of relationships, I would define infidelity as engaging in anything regarding another person, of which you would not wish your significant other to find out. Now donÔÇÖt get me wrong, IÔÇÖm no saint, we all have flirtatious exchanges from time to time. But where would this be said to draw … Continue reading Is Micro-Cheating, Cheating?
By Alexa Price Whether you choose to get rid of them completely, or to embrace your full bush, deciding how to manage your pubic hair should always be a personal choice. In a society where you can be anybody youÔÇÖd like to be, it seems silly to let yourself be defined by the preferences of others, right? While it may seem like a touchy subject … Continue reading Leave my Pubes Alone, They’re Mine
