Good Vibrations Magazine

“Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.”
~Julius Charles Hare via tinybuddha.com
Sex is a practice.
So let me tell you what I mean. We live in a world that presents sex as something that we can do perfectly. If only we read the right tips in the magazines at [...]

You may recall the rather nasty piece that Matt Smith wrote a while back, in which he detailed his opinions about BDSM and presented them as fact. It sparked off yet another round in the sex wars, as detailed here.
In response to this piece, BDSM video veteran Mz Berlin blogged about why she thinks that Smith’s conflation [...]

According to SF Sexual Health Examiner, Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) has introduced a bill to ban ads for medications for erectile dysfunction on broadcast TV & radio from 6 am-10 pm because he thinks that the ads are indecent, have become “an intrusion into our daily lives”, and should be restricted to times when youth [...]

There’s a lot of discussion about the influence of porn on society. And there’s a lot of discussion about the unrealistic expectations that many people (especially younger people) have because of the messages that porn offers. While I think that many of these points make a lot of sense, I also think that there are [...]

Whenever a conversation/discussion/debate about sexual practices comes up, it’s quite common for someone to suggest that people who engage in certain activities should examine where their desires come from. Most often, I see this happen in debates around BDSM, open relationships and sexwork. For example in this recent thread on Feministing, a conversation about how [...]

One of the things that I’ve noticed as a student of sexuality is how often our triggers get in the way of sex-positivity.
We all have triggers, by which I mean that we all have emotional reactions that are disproportionate to the situation that we are currently in. It’s quite common for us to have these [...]

I recently heard about a fascinating bit of research on the ways in which happiness spreads through social networks. After a little digging, I found the article “Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study”and I think it has some interesting implications for [...]

I read a lot of blogs about porn, sex, sexwork and such and I’m often struck by how many people make statements about the motivations of everyone who watches porn, or is a sexwork client, engages in BDSM, or simply enjoys a specific sexual desire, fantasy or practice. I think it’s amazing how often people [...]

I recently read a fascinating book called “The Sexual Spectrum,” which explores some of the cultural and biological factors that lead to sexual diversity. I highly recommend it. And one of the things that the author delves into sort of rocked my world.
I don’t know how often I’ve heard people talk about the gender spectrum. [...]

“Why would someone enjoy that?”
“I just don’t get why someone has sex like that?”
“Why do you do that? That’s gross!”
Have you ever heard someone something like this? I definitely have. Whether it’s about spanking & bondage, anal sex, role play, casual sex, or, yes, intercourse, there’s often a little laugh. But the laughter is usually [...]

I spend a lot of time reading sex info websites and blogs as part of my job. They can be a great place to find the latest information about sexuality, get answers to questions, and check out the current thinking about issues that affect sex. Having said that, I’m not the first one to notice [...]

I’ve been running the workshop program at Good Vibrations for 10 years and I’ve learned some interesting stuff as part of that.
One thing that I always tell my new workshop teachers is that if we put the word “communication” in a class blurb, we get a lot fewer people. We can use language like “talking [...]

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about sex-positivity, especially on teh interwebs. But I don’t see as much clarity around it as I’d like. So here’s my take on what it.
First off, what sex-positivity isn’t:
Sex-positivity isn’t about how much sex you have, how many partners you have, what types of sex you have, or [...]

In the articles and blogs that I’ve read about porn, every so often, someone talks about the “cum shot“. For the most part, I see people talking about it as objectification of women, a way to humiliate the recipient (generally, this is an argument about humiliation of women since gay porn is consistently left out [...]