culture

While it can sure feel like there is sometimes, there is no default setting when it comes to feeling sexual desire. There's no one default, nor a universal normal, for who has those feelings, how often they have them, when in life they have them or they first develop, in what specific circumstances...

The tradition of "men pursue, women wait" is still culturally prevalent, and a lot of families (yours included) teach their children that men should be the ones doing the asking when it comes to romance. This notion is problematic for a number of reasons. It reinforces not-so-great ideas about how...

For two years, I worked in a bookstore that was aimed primarily at children and teenagers. It was a job I quite enjoyed, but I quickly discovered that when you work near books, people always want to tell you their opinions on said books. That's fine most of the time. But I noticed a pattern when parents or adults would refer to The Hunger Games series. They would express dismay over a child wanting to read the book, wondering what they saw in it, and either implicitly or explicitly stating that they thought the book was not good for youth to be reading. What struck me about these conversations was that ninety-nine percent of the time, the adult in question had not even read the book they were criticizing. They dismissed it, either as inappropriate trash or as mindless fiction without ever actually seeing what it had to say.

Feeling ashamed about sex or sexuality? Here are some steps to help you get started on turning that around so you can learn to love, not revile, your sexual self.

I hid my fears and insecurities by desexualizing myself. Now I'm on the path of uncovering ways to unlearn ugliness as an identity.

Scarleteen volunteer Sam reflects on the significance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and how it relates to sexuality, identity, and her middle school experience.

People do say that people are ready for sex -- and not just the first time, either -- at different times, different ages and in different situations. And that's absolutely right. Whether we do or don't want any kind of sex at any given time, with any given person, in any given situation, and also...

Everyone has a sexual orientation and a sexual identity. Here are some basics and not-so-basics about what orientation is, some of the ways we can talk about it, how to figure yours out, and finding support.

When it comes to sex with and for only yourself -- masturbation -- it should be just like sex with a partner when it comes to if you do it or not. If it's something you want to do and feel comfortable doing, then you can choose to do it. If it's not something you want or don't feel comfortable with...

I'm most interested in how you feel now about this, and separate from how you think everyone else would feel. Hopefully, if you haven't identified your own feelings yet, my answer can give you some help doing that. So, values. Here's the thing about values: they aren't universal. They also aren't...