"I don't think that being a strong person is about ignoring your emotions and fighting your feelings. Putting on a brave face doesn't mean you're a brave person. That's why everybody in my life knows everything that I'm going through. I can't hide anything from them. People need to realise that being open isn't the same as being weak."

- Taylor Swift

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

speak now #20: everything that porn won't teach you

Now Playing: Terrible Love by Birdy (it takes an ocean not to break)

So if you're a teenager and you haven't made your sexual debut, your knowledge of sexuality comes from two main sources - school, if you're lucky enough to avoid the wrath of abstinence bullshit, and porn. School teachers are freakishly squeamish and porn is freakishly inaccurate, so here is what the above sources don't tell you:

1. The average erect penis length is between 4-6 inches, or 10-15cm. Pornstars are either naturally extremely well endowed, use prosthetics or surgery, or various camera tricks to make themselves appear larger.

2. Most biofemales before their sexual debut don't know much about penises. Most biofemales who have made their sexual debut will tell you that size doesn't matter. LIKE IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. 

3. The hymen does not break. It stretches through lots of different things - exercise, masturbation, inserting tampons, sponges, diaphragms, menstrual cups, sex toys, fingers, penises, etc... If someone is very tense, not aroused enough, if you go to rough or don't use enough lube the hymen may tear slightly and it can bleed.

4. Vaginas become erect during arousal in much the same way penises do, lengthening from about 2-3 inches or 5-7cm to about 10 cm. If your maths is at least as good as mine (and I can barely count) you'll notice that even when aroused the vagina is only as big as the average erection; so nobody really needs ten inch cocks except for insecure vain liars. The vagina will also lubricate itself ('getting wet'), although some biofemales suffer from vaginal dryness and extra lube is almost always needed.

5. Lube is the forgotten essential for almost all sexual activity, either solo or with partners. Biomales can use almost anything as lube (as long as it isn't, you know, damaging or painful) but biofemales should avoid getting oil-based lubricants in the vaginal canal as it is hard to flush out and can harbour harmful bacteria; although straight-up natural oils like olive or coconut oil is okay. Oil based lubricants of any kind can also damage latex condoms and make them more likely to split. Silicone based lubes shouldn't be used on sex toys made of silicone. Water based lube is safe for pretty much anything with anything or anyone.    

6. Anything that is used for anal play shouldn't be brought anywhere near the vulva or the mouth without washing first

7. If there is anything you shouldn't do porn-style, it's anything anal-related. Like seriously. Somebody is going to end up injured or catching something. 

8. Most girls haven't got a full brazilian wax. Putting boiling hot wax on your genitals and then ripping out hair from the root is an expensive, messy, painful business. I'm just saying, hair is kind of the default. Incidentally, female pubic hair naturally grows on the mons pubis, the labia majora, and the perineum up to the anus - with some girls having hair on their inner thighs and some having a line from the mons pubis to the navel. If someone is maintaining good hygiene there's nothing dirty about pubic hair and if you think somebody should be obligated to do anything painful to make a more appealing hole for you to stick your penis in...you're going to be going a long time with nothing to stick your penis in. 

9. Boobs in porn? Plastic surgery and really good bras. Not real. Australian obscenity law also claims that the labia minora is 'too obscene' for...porn...(yeah, I don't get it either) and so most softcore porn images have female genitalia 'healed' to a single crease either digitally or surgically. Unmodified women don't look like that. Actually, nobody looks like porn stars; porn stars don't even look like porn stars. 

10. The way in which people interact in porn, especially the treatment of women, is just...not okay. Most of it is rape and sexual assault. The porn industry comes from the film industry and not the sex industry and so its primary purpose is to entertain - often to appeal to the male gaze and to perpetuate the glorification of sexual violence as erotic.

11. Just keep in mind that depictions of sex, not just in porn but also in mainstream media...it's a scene. It's just acting. Whether it's just a simulation or if they're actually getting it on, they're not making love, they're not having sex it's just...some body parts going into other body parts. People probably aren't enjoying themselves, probably wouldn't do their costars in real life and there's more to human sexuality than what goes where.   

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