Exploring pleasure is a natural process for the average masturbator but sometimes the price tag attached to sex toys subdues an orgasm before it truly peaks.
In 2020, the global sex toy market was valued at $33.64 billion and even though sex positivity and accompanying pleasure gadgets are seemingly taking over the world, homemade options are popping up in bedrooms, too.
A new study has revealed that bisexual women are four times more likely than heterosexual people to have long-term physical and mental health problems.
The stereotype of the chronically ill bisexual has long been laughed about between LGBTQ+ disabled friends, and now there’s clear evidence that bisexual people – particularly women – are more likely to experience long-term health issues, the question that remains is, why?
For anyone born visibly disabled in ancient Rome, being stoned to death was a very real possibility.
According to the Twelve Tables – the foundation of Roman law – anyone with a ‘visible deformity’ was better off stoned to death before their life impacted the livelihood of other citizens.
When my last relationship came to an end, one of the primary reasons was their inability to deal with my disability.
The words spoken during their dumping explanation gave credence to a fear I’ve wrestled with for most of life: partners cannot love me with my disability, they can only love me in spite of it.
Before booking a ticket to any event, I have to figure out whether my disability will be accommodated. Although there are one billion disabled people globally, access is always stuck at the back of the priority queue for organisers and venue owners.
Then the global pandemic happened and suddenly remote events were everywhere. After years of listening to excuses for inaccessibility, true access felt like a genuine possibility.
It’s impossible to know how many of the 45 million backpacking trips taken each year end with the making of another lost boy. It’s uncharted territory – perhaps because those who become lost deliberately choose to live on continents where they cannot be found.
When I was eight, I had an unnecessary hymen check. I still remember the sound of the cheap plastic curtain rings jingling as the doctor placed me on the bed and examined my vulva.
Frequent medical interventions, investigations, and consultations have been a part of my life since I was seven years old. And as a disabled person, this consistent medicalisation of my body has corrupted my sexual development.
Vulvovaginitis describes a number of conditions that affect your vulva and vagina. Here, two experts explain why you might notice a new itch or pain and what your treatment options are.
If you’ve experienced pain or redness in or around your vulva (the outer parts of your genitalia) or vagina (the internal passage that connects your vulva to your cervix), then you’re certainly not the only one. Conditions like urinary tract infections (UTIs), yeast infections, and bacterial vaginosis (BV) are pretty well known and frequently affect lots of people. But what you might not know is that sometimes they’re grouped together and called vulvovaginitis.
We all know that a sunny spring day, a hot cup of tea or a beautifully bloomed flower can spark joy, but now there’s a term to define the impact these simple things can have on our mental health – glimmers.
Glimmers, which are amassing hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, thousands of posts on Instagram and are being touted by TikTok therapists as an important grounding technique, are cues that bring us back to calmness. They can be many different things, from a cute animal to a smell or a happy place in our mind, but what they have in common is they make us feel happy and present in every moment.
Disabled and Sexual is a new monthly(-ish) column by Hannah Shewan Stevens which will explore all the challenges, comedy, and fun that disabled people experience as sexual beings, even while we are desexualised by a predominantly non-disabled society.
One of the most pervasive myths about disabled people is that we’re either incapable of or disinterested in sex. As a result, society desexualises us because people genuinely believe that no one could possibly find a disabled person sexy. Well, I’m here to tell you that they’re very wrong.
