by yoursl | Mar 19, 2015 | Just For Fun, Men's Sexual Health, Sexual Discussion, Women's Sexual Health |
I was that child who asked “Why is the sky blue?” until I was satisfied with the answer I was given. My mother quickly adapted to my questions; she bought my brother and me a set of encyclopedias and a “how science works” book series along with two dictionaries. She gave us both unlimited access to the public library and encouraged me to bestow some questions on the librarians. We were both encouraged to read anything we wanted, no matter how challenging the material or how questionable in nature the material was deemed by other mothers. Our mother never stifled our creativity, intelligence or curiosity. Perhaps this is why I still ask questions to this day. I want to know as much as I can about everything that interests me, which is one reason I spend more time reading and researching than watching television. The other day I was reading a book for some ideas for some Tweets and found information that excited me. I discovered a treasure trove of anatomy-related information about sex and reproduction. I want to share this information because it is just good stuff to know. The Italian anatomist Gabriel Fallopius was born in 1523 in Modena, Italy, and served as a canon of the cathedral of Modena before returning to the study of medicine. In 1549, Fallopius became a professor of anatomy at the University of Pisa. He performed multitudes of dissections using human cadavers and described his work in the book Observationes anatomicae, which was published in 1561. Fallopius described many of the major nerves of the head and face as well as...
by yoursl | Mar 12, 2015 | Men's Sexual Health, Sexual Discussion |
It is a myth that the human male orgasm is synonymous with ejaculation. Orgasm is a nervous-system response while ejaculation is a reproductive one. Men can achieve an orgasm without ejaculating and can ejaculate without achieving an orgasm. The two acts are independent of one another and both do not always occur in the same sexual encounter. The male orgasm has 13 stages, as described in Sexy Origins and Intimate Things, by Charles Panati. A summary of the individual stages follows along with other nuggets of knowledge gleaned in my research of male anatomy and sexual response. During orgasm, the stage is when the shaft of the penis reaches its maximum length, width and rigidity. This phase is commonly referred to as a “hard-on.” Second, the head of the penis, or the glans, swells and darkens. This is the result of vasocongestion of blood in the penis itself. Prescription medications for treatment of erectile dysfunction can aid with regulating vasocongestion. (For the mechanics behind these drugs, please read the Your Sexy Librarian blog about these medications.) Third, the opening at the tip of the penis widens and is lubricated by fluid from the Cowper’s glands. These two glands, originally known as the bulbourethral glands but called Cowper’s glands in honor of English anatomist William Cowper, are about the size of peas and are located inferior, or lower than, the prostate and lateral, or sideways, from the urethra in the urogenital diaphragm in the male pelvis. Fourth, the testes enlarge by 50 to 100 percent of their normal size before rising and rotating to come into close contact with the body....
by yoursl | Mar 5, 2015 | Dating/Relationships, Just For Fun, Sexual Discussion, Taboo Topics |
Last week, these news articles about sex made national headlines and created some conversational buzz. The North Carolina Ethics Commission publicly announced that it is “perfectly legal” for a lobbyist and a government official to have a sexual relationship with one another. The commission’s opinion, as reported in The Daily Beast, “essentially says that your body is a temple and sharing it with anyone else is a priceless gift.” The commission’s view that sex is “priceless” equates to “sex has no value.” Items of value need not be disclosed, according to the commission. In an editorial published by the Beaufort Observer, the paper denounced the commission’s opinion. “[S]ince the Ethics Commission has now ruled that sex has no value how will prostitution ever be prosecuted any more in this state? If sex has no value, how can prostitution be illegal?” the paper’s editorial argued. I prefer to think that the commission meant “having incalculable monetary, intellectual, or spiritual worth” or even “precious” as the meaning of “priceless.” In this regard, sex would indeed have value, even if we cannot describe that value in monetary terms. At the very least, a sexual relationship between a lobbyist and a government official should be considered unethical, a position that U.S. Senator Tom Tillis supports. In 2012, two of Tillis’ staff members due to relationships with lobbyists. Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, enforced his personal policy of banning such behavior between lobbyists and members of his staff. “What these people are guilty of is very bad judgment,” Tillis said at the time of this staff members’ resignations. Since mid-December 2014,...
by yoursl | Feb 5, 2015 | Dating/Relationships, Sexual Discussion, Taboo Topics |
On the night of June 23, 2013, a 21-year-old female Vanderbilt University student was drinking at a local bar. Her boyfriend of just a few weeks, Brandon Vandenburg, who was a football player at the college, had given her a blue drink, which was laced with a date-rape drug. This female student doesn’t remember anything between drinking the blue drink at the bar and waking up in an unfamiliar room at 8 something the next morning. Several people stood by and watched while Vandenburg, who was driving the victim around Nashville in her own Mercedes-Benz, pulled the unconscious woman from the vehicle and he and three of his teammates, Cory Batey, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie, dragged and carried her into Gillette House, into the elevator and then down a hallway to Vandenburg’s room. Sadly, this young woman was victimized, sexually assaulted, and raped for 30 minutes in Vandenburg’s dorm room while she was unconscious. According to court testimony, as published by several media outlets, Vandenburg dragged the young woman out of an elevator, dumped her on the floor and took several photographs of the unconscious woman. He and one of the players carried the young woman to Vandenberg’s dorm room and, within minutes, Batey began sexually assaulting the woman with his fingers. One of the men penetrated the woman’s anus with a water bottle while Vandenburg cheered on his fellow teammates with lewd comments and, as testimony proved, handed out condoms to the other players, slapped the woman’s buttocks, and claimed he could not have sex with her because he could not get an erection. Vandenburg filmed the...
by yoursl | Jan 8, 2015 | Men's Sexual Health, Sexual Discussion, Women's Sexual Health |
A urinary tract infection (UTI), which is sometimes called cystitis, happens when bacteria in the bladder or kidney multiples in the urine and enters the urinary tract. UTI’s are not necessarily sexually transmitted, but being sexually active can increase the likelihood of developing a UTI due to the transfer of bacteria during sex between the vagina, rectum and urethra. UTI’s are relatively common among both men and women, but women tend to develop UTI’s far more easily than men due to the structure of female anatomy. The distance between a woman’s bladder and the urethral opening is relatively short with the opening in close proximity to the vagina and rectum, making quick transfer of bacteria possible. Brown University reports that an estimated 50 percent to 80 percent of women will develop UTI’s sometime during their life and that 20 percent to 50 percent of these women will have recurrent UTI’s. Common symptoms of a UTI include urine that appears cloudy, presence of blood in the urine, foul-smelling urine, urine with a strong odor first thing in the morning, frequent or urgent need to urinate, pain or burning with urination, needing to urinate with very little fluid coming out, night sweats, shaking or chills, pressure in the lower pelvis and low-grade fever. Men with UTI’s may experience a feeling of fullness in the rectum. A UTI can occur anywhere along the urinary tract. As a general rule, the higher up into the urinary tract that the infection is, the worse the infection will be. The most common type of UTI is iscystitis, or infection or inflammation of the bladder which...
by yoursl | Dec 18, 2014 | Sexual Discussion, Women's Sexual Health |
Mastora, who was born in Sudan, cannot return to her birth country because she has spoken out about the sexual violence faced by women in Darfur. When I told a fellow networker that I was planning on writing about the sexual violence facing African women in refugee camps housing people affected by genocide, he advised me not to write about this particular taboo until my blog was “very well established.” I’ve always done things my own way, following my inner compass and not the opinion of others for self-guidance on the right thing to do. I am a believer in the First Amendment, which allows us freedom of speech as well as the freedom to stop listening to others and to decide what we want to read for ourselves. For those reasons, I am giving you the story of Mastora and the women she is trying to help in her native country of Sudan. A geography lesson is in order first. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, is located on the eastern side of the continent, and borders the Red Sea, Egypt, Chad, Uganda and six other countries. Across the Red Sea from Sudan lies Saudi Arabia. The region of Darfur is roughly the size of France, is located in the western part of Sudan and shares a border with the country of Chad. The United Human Rights Council website reports Darfur is home to about 6 million people from 100 different tribes, with all of those people being Muslim. Sudan did not make worldwide headlines due to the Ebola virus, but due to past and present...
