#Consent for Everyone!

www.ohjoysextoy.com

#SEXPERIOD Join us for a Twitter chat on Thursday, 2/5, from 6-7pm PST with hosts Scarleteen, GladRags, and Oh Joy Sex Toy’s Erika Moen. What are we chatting about? SEX! It’s a party as old as time, but now with more advice and accessories. Non-profit sex experts, Scarleteen will be on hand to lead a fun conversation about sex and menstruation. All chat participants will receive an exclusive coupon to GladRags, and one participant will be chosen at random to receive a prize pack that includes: A Moon Cup + 3 Pantyliners from GladRags, 1 Oh Joy Sex Toy book, and the book “S.E.X. : The All-You-Need-to-Know Guide to Get You Through High School and College”. We’re excited! Bring your friends and frenemies!

I am tired of disbelief.

I am tired of skepticism.

I am someone who does, genuinely, believe in the value of looking at things with a critical eye, of being cautious, of acknowledging that there are two sides to every story.

But I am tired of it when it comes to people who have been, or are being, harmed or made vulnerable.

In our work here at Scarleteen, we have people who talk with us about rape, or abuse, or relationships that they haven’t yet pegged as abusive but that make my shoulders go up around me ears. And I have been asked:

Hanne Blank is not a virgin. (She’s almost 37 and she’s been living with her life partner for nine years — we just thought we’d get that out of the way.) But she is a historian, a writer, and an expert on virginity, having written the first-ever history of the subject, Virgin: The Untouched History.

Please stop calling rape sex (especially if you are not talking about your own experiences with sexual abuse and assault, where those experiences are things you yourself choose to call sex). Please stop calling rape or other kinds of sexual violence things like “unwanted sex.”

Please stop...