What is Female Genital Cutting? (DRAFT)

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Female genital cutting (FGC) involves permanently damaging or removing portions of a woman’s external genitals when it is not medically necessary. FGC has been practiced in many parts of the world for centuries, but today is most commonly performed in Africa and the Middle East, where millions of women have undergone some variation of it. FGC may be done for a variety of reasons, with one of the most common being to ensure that a woman remains a virgin until marriage. However, in some cultures, FGC is practiced as an initiation rite to adulthood, as a way of aesthetically “improving” the appearance of the genitals, and as a means of preventing women from becoming “over-sexed.”

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Ten of the Most Sensationalized Sex Headlines From the Past Few Years (DRAFT)

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I make it a point to keep up with the latest sex and relationships news but, unfortunately, I find that a lot of the media reports on these topics are not very well written and tend to be overly sensationalized. Part of the problem is that most of the people we trust to report on science don’t have a solid understanding of statistics and the scientific method. As a result, I constantly come across articles that are rather misleading. What I’d like to do in this article is share some of most sensationalized articles I’ve come across in recent years and explain where the reporting went wrong.

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Sex Question Friday: The G-Spot, Virginity Loss, and Sex in Your Twilight Years (DRAFT)

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Every Friday on the blog, I answer a few burning sex questions submitted to me by actual college students. This week, we’re talking about whether the G-spot is real, the average age at which men and women lose their virginity, and whether it’s possible for older adults to maintain a satisfying sex life.

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Are There Different Types of “Friends With Benefits?” (DRAFT)

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“Friends with Benefits” (FWBs) are usually thought of as relationships in which two good friends decide to become sexually involved. This is how they are most often depicted in the popular media, such as in the recent films No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits. However, research suggests that FWBs are much more complicated than this and do not necessarily represent just one thing. In fact, there may actually be as many as seven distinct types of FWBs!¹

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Is Pornography Harmful to Our Brains and to Our Love Lives?

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"America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography.  A wealth of research is now available demonstrating that pornography causes profound brain changes in both children and adults, resulting in widespread negative consequences…Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women."

The above quote comes from Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s Campaign Website. He and a number of other prominent politicians have recently waged a war on porn, claiming that it is damaging to society on a number of levels. In fact, Cogresswoman Michele Bachmann has gone as far as to pledge her support for a constitutional ban on all forms of pornography in order to combat these supposed negative effects. But is there anything to all of these claims that exposure to porn is harmful? Is there really a “wealth of research” indicating that pornography causes a host of “widespread negative consequences?”

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Sex Question Friday: Do Committed Couples Have Better Sex? Does the “Pull and Pray” Method Work? And Can You Change Your Sexuality?

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Every Friday on the blog, I answer a few burning sex questions submitted to me by actual college students. This week, we’re talking about whether married couples have better sex than single people, whether the pull-out method of birth control actually works, and whether it’s possible to change your sexual orientation if you don't like it.

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A Concise Guide to Reviewing Journal Articles in Psychology

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Any reputable scientific journal utilizes a peer-review process, in which each manuscript received is sent to a small group of experts to evaluate the work and determine whether it merits publication. This process is vital to maintaining the highest possible scientific standards, because (ideally) it serves to identify and weed out flawed research, correct errors and inaccuracies, and ensure clarity. Although this process is certainly far from perfect and every scientist who has gone through it has their gripes, it’s the best system we have for ensuring that only good quality research makes it into our journals.

Unfortunately, very few scientists receive formal training in how to conduct a proper article review. As a result, many reviewers end up focusing on the wrong things, which yields comments that are unhelpful and not constructive in the eyes of editors and authors. Moreover, it is common for reviewers to write much more than is necessary, which wastes time for everyone involved in the process. Because I have seen these and other problems arise again and again in my publishing experience, I have decided to share my philosophy on how to write a helpful and constructive article review with the hope that others will find it useful as a teaching and learning tool. While the steps below apply primarily to reviews of journal articles in the field of psychology, many of these points would likely be applicable in other disciplines.

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Can A Woman Be “Revirginized” Through Surgery?

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The hymen is a membrane that partially covers the vaginal opening and is thought be break during a woman’s first attempt at intercourse. An intact hymen is therefore presumed to indicate virginity. Given that it may be possible to physically detect whether a woman is sexually “pure” simply by noting the presence or absence of the hymen, many cultures have ascribed great social value to this small piece of tissue. In fact, in some African and Middle Eastern cultures, a woman may be considered unmarriageable if her hymen is not intact, even if it was broken innocently (e.g., through non-sexual activity or rape). Because there is such great social pressure for these women to demonstrate virginity on their wedding night, “revirginization” surgery has become an increasingly popular medical procedure in some parts of the world. So how does it work, and does it produce satisfactory outcomes?

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Sex Question Friday: How Much Sex is Too Much? Is Female Ejaculation Real? And What Are the Health Risks of Viagra?

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Every Friday on the blog, I answer a few burning sex questions submitted to me by actual college students. This week, we’re going to talk about whether it’s possible to have too much sex (to the point where it damages your body), whether female ejaculation really exists, and why guys taking Viagra should be concerned if they experience an erection lasting more than four hours.

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A Top 10 List of the Most Interesting Sexual Products Available on Amazon.com

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You may or may not realize this, but Amazon.com is quickly becoming the world’s largest online sex store, carrying a huge and incredibly diverse selection of sex-related products. For instance, in the "Sexual Wellness" category on their website, there are a staggering 76,000+ items for sale as of today! In light of this, I thought it might be fun to take you on a brief tour of ten of the most interesting (and, of course, humorous) sex books and toys currently available for purchase on Amazon.

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Should Men Be Circumcised?

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In the not too distant past, circumcision (i.e., surgical removal of the foreskin from a penis) was a routine procedure performed on virtually all infant boys in the United States. However, circumcision has become increasingly controversial in recent years and the number of parents opting to perform this procedure on their male children has dropped considerably. The Centers for Disease Control currently estimates that 55-57% of newborn boys in the U.S. are circumcised.1 The percentages differ greatly around the world, with higher rates in the Middle East and lower rates in Europe. So is circumcision a good idea? Unfortunately, there is not a definitive scientific answer to this question. Thus, the goal of this article is not to advocate one position or another, but rather to present you with some different perspectives and allow you to come to your own conclusions.

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Sex Question Friday: How Long it Takes to Reach Orgasm, the Sexuality Spectrum, and the Sexual Double Standard

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Every Friday on the blog, I answer a few burning sex questions submitted to me by actual college students. This week, we’re going to talk about how long it takes men and women to achieve orgasm, whether sexual orientation exists on a continuum, and the societal double standard applied to women who are sexually promiscuous.

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How Do Men’s and Women’s Sexual Fantasies Differ?

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A few weeks back, I posted a Top 10 List of Sexual Fantasies, which contained a set of fun fantasies people have anonymously submitted to me over the years. As you read through the list, you probably found that it was easy to identify which fantasies were written by men (e.g., “Hot tub filled with whipped cream, pudding, and multiple blondes”) and which were written by women (e.g., “We're out for a drive in the country and it starts to rain. We pull into the driveway at home and my partner pulls me into the barn, where we make love on a bale of hay as the rain continues outside”). A few fantasies were more challenging to place, but the majority of them were pretty simple because they largely conformed to gender stereotypes. So is this typically the case when it comes to sexual fantasies? Can you usually tell which fantasies belong to which gender?

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Do Our Hearts Literally Beat In Harmony With Those Of Our Loved Ones?

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When people talk about love, they often talk about “two hearts beating as one.” I tend to roll my eyes when I hear clichés like this because, in my training as a psychologist, I have come to understand love as being a product of the brain, with the heart having little, and quite possibly nothing to do with it. However, recent research suggests that perhaps we’ve been too quick to dismiss the role of the old ticker.

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Sex Question Friday: Multiple Orgasms, Sex on the Beach, and the Link Between Sex and Happiness

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Every Friday on the blog, I answer a few burning sex questions submitted to me by actual college students. This week, we’re going to talk about whether people really can have back-to-back orgasms, whether it’s a good idea to have sex on the beach (actual sex, not the cocktail), and the association between sex and personal happiness.

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How Common is Cheating?

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Most societies throughout the world promote monogamy as the ideal relationship state. As a result, a large majority of people have come to believe that any form of sexual activity with someone other than one's current romantic partner is unacceptable and morally wrong.¹ Despite how widely this belief is held, people do not seem to practice what they preach. For instance, we are confronted with media headlines almost every day about the latest celebrity or political figure caught having an affair. So just how common is cheating?

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Are Couples Who Meet Online More Likely to Break Up?

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Ever since the Internet arrived in our homes, people have been using it as a tool for making love connections. In fact, research indicates that about one in five heterosexual couples and two in five same-sex couples in the United States today met online.¹ Despite the frequency of Internet dating in the modern world, looking for love on the Internet online carries some degree of stigma.² For instance, people are often embarrassed to tell others they belong to an online dating site because they are afraid this information will make them look desperate. Another factor that makes people cautious about online dating is the well-known fact that lying is rampant on Internet personal profiles.³ Between the prejudice and the lies, online romances would appear doomed to fail right from the start. But is there any truth to this idea? Are online daters really any worse off than couples who meet in other ways?

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Fantasy Friday: A Top 10 List of Sexual Fantasies

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In lieu of answering sex questions this Friday, I’m posting a Top 10 list of sexual fantasies that people have anonymously submitted to me over the years. It’s sort of like my own version of Post Secret, except that people only tell me their sex fantasies. The fantasies below are not necessarily the most common ones I’ve received—they’re just fantasies I found interesting and decided to share. As you read them, try and guess whether they were written by men or by women. The answers are included at the end of the post so that you can test your “sexpertise.” As you’ll see, sometimes it's pretty easy, but it's not always as obvious as it seems. In the coming weeks, I’ll post an article about scientific research on sex fantasies to help you better understand gender differences in fantasy content, as well as why we fantasize in the first place. Until then, enjoy!

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Are Women Really The “Choosier” Sex?

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Conventional wisdom tells us that women tend to be “choosier” than men when it comes to selecting sexual and romantic partners, and there is plenty of scientific evidence to back up this idea. Evolutionary psychologists believe there is good reason for it too: Because producing a child requires a significantly greater investment of one’s body and time for women than it does for men, it is in women’s best interests to be more selective about their partners to ensure they do not wind up getting pregnant by someone who might leave them high and dry.¹ But is female choosiness really an inevitable fact of life in the heterosexual mating marketplace? Recent research suggests this may not necessarily be the case.  

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