Psychology
essay
Stories and literature
The honesty of pornography
Often vilified as a weapon of male supremacy, pornography in fact has much to tell us about ourselves and our culture
Kathleen Lubey
essay
History of ideas
The invention of free love
Percy Shelley thought romantic love freed men and women from the strictures of monogamy, but did it free them equally?
Neil McArthur
video
The ancient world
Sappho’s homoerotic poetry was beloved in ancient Greece – and burned centuries later
5 minutes
video
Human rights and justice
The staggering cruelty of Ireland’s Church-run ‘mother and baby homes’
18 minutes
essay
Love and friendship
Tainted love
Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands
Anna Machin
video
Teaching and learning
The vulva dialogues – inside a sex-ed class that rebels against genitalia shame
11 minutes
video
Personality
Art students divulge (and animate) the dating pet peeves they find unforgivable
3 minutes
essay
Biology
Slow sex, long life
Tokyo’s imperial archives advise what science now confirms: the secret of longevity lies in the gentle arts of the bedroom
Denis Noble
essay
Sex and sexuality
Idealising the predator
How did certain French intellectuals get away with preying upon young girls, shamelessly, in public and over decades?
Lily Dunn
essay
Gender
Are men animals?
Diagnosing men as violent and oversexed beasts is tempting but it’s a regressive idea built on dubious analogies
Matthew Gutmann
video
Human rights and justice
When the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence canonised Derek Jarman
24 minutes
video
Sex and sexuality
What does the Dutch model of comprehensive, ‘shame-free’ sex-ed look like?
9 minutes
essay
Education
Sex on the curriculum
Sex education is a battlefield over morals and young bodies, and has exposed fractures in American life for over a century
Kristy Slominski
essay
Stories and literature
Literary prostitutes
I self-published erotica to make ends meet. Could I follow in Anaïs Nin’s footsteps or was I doomed to churn out filth?
Sam Mills
essay
Stories and literature
Shameful
Women who write about their pain suffer a double shaming: once for getting injured, twice for their act of self-exposure
Katherine Angel
essay
Sex and sexuality
The case of Norman Douglas
He was a literary lion and an infamous pederast: what might we learn from his life about monstrosity and humanity?
Rachel Hope Cleves
essay
Biology
The penis: a life
Boned, spined, spiked, corkscrewed or double-headed: why did so much variety arise when a simple tube would do?
Emily Willingham
video
Love and friendship
‘What does sex mean to you?’ A fly-on-the-wall view of relationship counselling
50 minutes
video
Mental health
The pioneering psychologist who proved that being gay isn’t a mental illness
7 minutes
essay
History
Female husbands
Far from being a recent or 21st-century phenomenon, people have chosen, courageously, to trans gender throughout history
Jen Manion
idea
Gender
Testosterone is widely, and sometimes wildly, misunderstood
Matthew Gutmann
essay
Sex and sexuality
Islamic sexology
Popular stereotypes of Islam as a prudish religion ignore rich traditions of freewheeling, explicit erotica and advice
Mark Hay
essay
Love and friendship
The joy of intimacy
A polyamorous friend challenges me: are you really happily monogamous or are you just hung up about your philandering dad?
Lily Dunn
essay
Sex and sexuality
Anti-climax
Coitus reservatus is an ancient technique promising bliss and longevity. Does orgasm data back up these tantric ideas?
Peter von Ziegesar