Heather Corinna

As a sex educator, I don’t define sex as only being about penis-in-vagina intercourse, for a whole lot of reasons. If “sex” was the answer, the questions would be things like “What am I doing to try and feel good sexually or to express feeling good sexually? What am I doing that feels sexual to me (or to me and a partner)? What am I doing that feels like a way to express my sexuality, or my sexual desires and/or feelings about myself or others?”

Over the last few weeks, I have been sicker than sicker than sick. I managed to pick up whooping cough, which, combined with other health issues I already have, made my blood pressure dip to a very scary place, to boot. I had already been having some flare-ups from those other issues, so they made…

Based on everything I know and have learned working in sex and relationships for many years, people don’t tend to have or sustain healthy relationships when they do big things for or with partners they don’t also want to do and feel good about themselves. Taking out the garbage, doing the dishes…

The only sound way we can tell if someone has or hasn’t already had any kind of sex is by asking them and accepting their answer. Obviously, sometimes some kinds of sex can result in certain outcomes, like pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, which can also tell us if someone has engaged in…

I think one of the coolest things about sex is that it’s a lot like our taste in music. When it comes to music, we get to like what we like, and listen only to what we want to listen to when we get a choice. Obviously, in the grocery store or at a club what we hear not going to be up to us, but that…

Once, in a sleepless night of Netflix marathoning, someone said something on a show that stuck with me, despite the rest of the night being an unmemorable haze of insomnia. That was, “What’s so wonderful about being young is that there are no mistakes, only research.” As someone who works with young…

Lube can do some great things, it’s true. But you know what it can’t do? It can’t turn a lousy partner into a good one. It also can’t take pain away that’s being caused by a partner being a jerk. I’m so very sorry to hear about how your boyfriend treated you. But this isn’t about your body being a…

Earlier this year, I got invited to go to Australia to do some creative work, work that has nothing to do with sex education, and which I rarely get the chance to do any more. Before then, another university in Australia had pitched getting me out there to talk about the work I do in sex education…

As some of you may know, I experienced two different sexual assaults when I wasn’t yet in my teens within just one year of one another. The second time I was assaulted, my experience ticked all of the boxes there currently are in our culture for what is so often – now, anyway, easily considered a “real” or “bonafide” sexual assault, or what Whoopi Goldberg, to my great disappointment, would call “rape-rape.” The first time around was different.

Handwashing, seriously? Yep, handwashing. Seriously. (Well, mostly seriously.) Here’s how to do it and why it’s so important to do.