Talking about sex, intimacy and risk-taking with adolescents is not as easy as busting out a Salt-N-Pepa classic. Catchy lyrics aside, parents may be grappling with a number of questions: Is my adolescent…
Our culture tells women there’s something wrong with them if they don’t orgasm.
Gustavo Gomes/Flickr
The recently published Italian study suggesting women can only have clitoral, rather than vaginal, orgasms raises important questions about the medicalisation of female sexuality and sexual dysfunction…
Unlocking the secrets of the chastity belt.
Science Museum / Science and Society Picture Library
“Undress your mind” shouts the promotional material for the Wellcome Trust’s latest exhibition, The Institute of Sexology. It’s an apt tagline, encapsulating how sexology – or the science of sex – has…
Australian couples had sex an average of 1.8 times a week in 2003, this has dropped to 1.4.
benik.at/Shutterstock
Australian couples are having sex less often than a decade ago, the latest national survey of sexual activity reveals. People in heterosexual relationships have sex an average of 1.4 times per week, down…
Technology has done away with the need to insert swabs into the male urethra and speculums into the vagina. Instead, blood and urine are tested.
In Tune/Shutterstock
Sexuality is a means of pleasure, fulfilment and intimate connection with other humans. But it can also be a source of anguish. So it’s perhaps no surprise that of all the areas in health care, the “STI…
The extraordinary synod of bishops on family is meeting for two weeks at the Vatican.
EPA/L'Osservatore Romano
A report of debate from the first half of the extraordinary synod of Catholic bishops meeting in Rome has been described as a “pastoral earthquake” and a “seismic shift in Rome” for praising gay relationships…
Brooke Hemphill’s book Lesbian for a Year has stirred new conversations about what it means to be a lesbian today.
Purple Sherbet/Flickr
I recently found myself at a bookshop at Sydney’s domestic airport with less than ten minutes until my plane boarded. Scanning around frantically for something to read, my eyes were immediately drawn to…
Women’s Liberation was a worldwide mobilisation that paved the way for powerful critiques of conventional thinking about gender, sexuality and identity.
Warren K. Leffler, 1970/Library of Congress
The past four decades have produced gains around the world for women and girls in literacy, formal education, life expectancy, workforce participation and access to some professions. We have also seen…
In a 2007 speech at Columbia University, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then president of Iran, famously proclaimed that there were no homosexuals in Iran. Despite the controversy that his words sparked, many Arabs…
Ian Thorpe in 2012. In 2014, do sponsors still only back certain sporting stereotypes that support social norms?
AAP/ Ben Macmahon
Ian Thorpe is unpopular with some critics, despite a largely positive reaction when he came out last weekend. The issue is money. Stories are circulating that he was warned prior to the 2000 Olympic Games…
You don’t have to look too far to find homophobia, hostility and discrimination against LGBTI people.
Network Ten/ AAP
Few who watched Ian Thorpe’s “coming out” interview with British interviewer Michael Parkinson on Sunday night could haved failed to be moved by his story. The anxiety and turmoil he felt in telling the…
Research shows that high-profile gay and lesbian people have made a real difference to the lives of others.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
In his unassuming way, Ian Thorpe is probably quite accustomed to making history. His swag of Olympic medals and world records makes him Australia’s most successful swimmer. Last night, when he told interviewer…
Ian Thorpe spoke to Michael Parkinson about being gay.
Network Ten
Ian Thorpe coming out as gay during an interview with Michael Parkinson last night was both the most ordinary of stories and the most extraordinary. It also showed how deeply homophobia is ingrained in…
It’s worth considering how seemingly open language can be exclusionary.
Wagner Macedo
At first blush, the increased visibility of sexual minorities in popular culture would appear to reflect a growing openness and acceptance of non-heterosexual forms of sexuality. Since the late 1990s…
Is this magazine cover too racy – or did other factors make newsagents decide not to stock Archer?
Archer Magazine
When a Google search can summon any image you like online, it seems anachronistic to hear of a print publication supposedly encountering distribution problems on the basis of its content. Yet that’s just…
Recent reports have suggested that Section 28-style bans on the promotion of homosexuality are on the rise in UK schools, causing concern among teachers’ unions. Based on research by the British Humanist…
Without data, we don’t know the actual size of sex and gender diverse populations.
AAP Image/Daniel Munoz
The landmark ruling this week by the High Court – that the New South Wales Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages must recognise a third category of non-specific sex in addition to male and female – represents…
In 1981, MTV was launched with a woman in a tinsel wig being beamed to Earth (well, she actually slid awkwardly down a plastic tube) to join men in shiny suits playing wood-grained synthesisers. The Buggles…
Masculinity must be learned and there are severe consequences for not upholding it.
Vladimir Byazrov
On Sunday, So You Think You Can Dance Australia returned to Channel Ten, promising spectacular performances from male and female dancers around the country. And yet, in the non-TV world, it seems the men…
Professor of Media and Communication and Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, Swinburne University of Technology