Beauty
Personal Essays
Learning to Love Your Body Is a Life-Long Endeavor

Learning to love your body? It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I took off my shirt and my confidence plummeted. I was at home, staring at my naked stomach in the mirror, but I felt like I’d just been punched in the gut.  On either side of my belly, 3 inches (give or take) of […]

How To
Relax, Then Do It! How to Decompress for Better Sex

Good sex is no endeavor for the weary — especially, it must be said, for the women among us. Alas, the world — a frenetic, kinetic, frantic, and frenzied place — often makes you so. Your senses are bombarded daily by unpleasantries (can you say rush hour commute?), so you’ve got to take care to […]

How To
10 Requirements for a Sexy Bedroom (Video)

In case you’ve been experiencing a bit of a dead bedroom lately, here’s a quick reminder of the basics of bedroom beautification. Because a beautiful bedroom is much nicer/more inspiring/less psychically distracting to make beautiful music in. Invest in sheets with a decent thread count — there’s nothing sexy about your bare skin against the […]

Dear Em & Lo
I Hate My Big Vulva/Vagina — What Can I Do?

Dear Em & Lo, I am always self-conscious when it comes to wearing jeans and tight dresses and it’s all because of my big vulva/vagina. This really affects my self-esteem really bad and I think that I am not normal. My vulva/vagina looks big and when I push in too if it, I can already […]

TV
This TV Show Actually Exists: Expose Your Genitals, Get a Date (WTF?)

What? Tinder’s too slow for you? You’re fine with judging by surface attraction (after all, didn’t Oscar Wilde say only shallow people did otherwise?), but there’s still all that meeting and small talk and general dithering before you get to the Netflix and chill part of  the evening. Wouldn’t you just like to cut to […]

Research
The 4 Physical Traits Found Most Attractive in Online Daters

We all have preferences for people we are attracted to, right? But have you ever wondered why certain types of people are just attractive and almost everyone’s type? In the world of online dating, especially, you are connected to various types of potential dates, yet there are some users who get more attention than others. The world’s largest […]

Advice
5 Reasons Not To Mess With Your Pubic Hair

by Sarah Marcantonio Our world’s war on pubic hair is never more apparent than in the summertime, when TV commercials and Internet ads tout the necessity of super smooth hairless skin. While some brave young women dare to rock the bush — whether as a bold feminist act or an ironic retro fashion statement — pubic lawn […]

What's Up Doc?
Dr. Kate, What’s With My Genital Hair Growth?

Dr. Kate is an OB/GYN at one of the largest teaching hospitals in Boston who lectures nationally on women’s health issues and conducts research on reproductive health. She regularly (and generously!) answers your medical questions here on EMandLO.com. To ask her your own, click here. Dear Dr. Kate, The hair around my private parts grow […]

Videos
VIDEO: An Abridged History of Modern Merkins

At the 2016 Oscars, when presenting the award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, hair-god Jared Leto sung the stylists’ praises to all 34 million viewers: [T]hey deserve an award just for putting up with us actors, not to mention the prosthetics, the wigs, the occasional merkin. If you happen to be laughing, please explain it to the […]

Pop Culture
An Abridged History of Modern Merkin Styles

At the 2016 Oscars, when presenting the award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, hair-god Jared Leto sung the stylists’ praises to all 34 million viewers: [T]hey deserve an award just for putting up with us actors, not to mention the prosthetics, the wigs, the occasional merkin. If you happen to be laughing, please explain it to the […]

How To
7 Must-Have Handbag Items for Spontaneous Casual Sex

Straight ladies, if there’s any chance your evening will end up in a sleepover, transform your purse into a make-shift washbag. Even if there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell you’ll be getting nooky tonight, carry these items with you anyway — because the best hook-ups happen when you least expect them. Compact ballet flats. […]

Wise Guys
What Guys Really Think About Short Hair

Advice from three of our guy friends. This week they answer the following: “Short hair vs. long hair? We’ve heard porno stars give advice to women like, “Never cut your hair short,” but then, they’re porn stars. What’s the real deal? Straight Single Guy (Mark Luczak): I truly run the gamut on this one. I […]

Sex Poetry
Sex Poetry: Chaucer’s Most Romantic Lines in “The Canterbury Tales”

It’s the bawdiness of some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that stays with you from high school lit class (literal ass-kissing? come on!). But it’s the first tale in this collection of stories told by pilgrims lodging at an inn — The Knight’s Tale – that’s quite the opposite of bawdy: a traditional romance of courtly love […]

Wise Guys
Is There Such a Thing as Ugly Breasts?

Advice from three of our guy friends. This week a straight woman asks, “Is there such a thing as ugly breasts, how do you describe them, and are they a dealbreaker for a guy?“ Ask the guys your own question here. Straight Married Guy (Ben): I’m beginning to think that breasts are to women as dick […]

Confessions
The Myths of “Neat” Labia & Big Boobs in Porn

Emma P, the founder of LargeLabiaProject.org and OurBreasts.org (both of which aim to show that body parts aren’t “better” or “worse,” just “different), took issue with a few of our points in the recent post, “10 Myths About Labia Debunked“: I do have a big problem with what you’ve written in myth #8 about porn […]

Research
Why You Shouldn’t Depend on First Impressions to Find Love

By Julie Ferman for YourTango.com Why “slow love” is so much sexier than “swiping right.” Have you ever wondered if you’ve possibly missed opportunities to date someone REALLY great simply because they didn’t dramatically strike your fancy at first glance? I’m here to tell you … you’ve probably missed out on some wonderful potential partners. And likely, plenty of great […]