Ready, Set, Grow! {featured book}

Ready, Set, Grow! A "What's Happening to My Body?" Book for Younger Girls by Lynda Madaras, the author of numerous sex education books for youth, and a puberty and health educator for more than twenty years, is aimed at girls ages eight to eleven who will appreciate the book's direct language, simple questions and answers, and cute illustrations. Madaras covers a wide range of topics, from breasts and bras to hair in new places, growth and weight spurts, sweat and pimples, changes in the external and internal sex organs, getting your period, and respecting and protecting your body.

"'Til The End Of Time" {featured video}

Another music video for some more Friday fun sexiness.

Vibrators Carry the Conversation | The New York Times {featured read}

TOOTHPASTE? Check. Tampons? Check. Vibrator? Check!

For years, vibrators were bought quietly in sex shops, and later online, arriving in discreet unmarked packages. They were rarely discussed, other than perhaps during a late-night girl-talk session fueled by many glasses of pinot grigio. But now you can find them advertised on MTV and boldly displayed at Duane Reade, Walgreens and other mainstream drugstores, mere steps from the Bengay and Dr. Scholl’s.

The newest model on the shelves is the Tri-Phoria ($39.99), created by the condom company Trojan after a study the company conducted in 2008 in partnership with the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University revealed that over half of American women had used vibrators, and of that group, nearly 80 percent had shared them with their partners. James Daniels, vice president for marketing at Trojan, said: “The idea really came from consumers. They kept telling us vibrators, vibrators. And we just laughed. And then we realized they were serious.” Read More >>

Sexual Assault Continues

(nsvrc.org/saam)

Sexual Assault Awareness Month is coming to an end. At the beginning of the month we included a "featured news" about SlutWalk Toronto, and later a "featured read" of an interview with the co-founders of SlutWalk. Reviewing our content, however, it seems we have done little else to promote awareness.

Since sexual assault does not end in the month of April, we have added our first "featured contributor" submission as a reminder that sexual assault continues. All around the world. Even in small towns. As the contributor writes:

I was a bit shocked at some of the responses I received by people who said things like, “Well, this sort of thing doesn’t happen in our town.” Unfortunately this belief gets in the way of a common understanding of the prevalence of, and need for services for survivors of sexual assault. [...] We can no longer say, “This doesn’t happen in my town.” But we can say, “We will not stand for this to happen in my town.” Because the overall health and vitality of [our] community depends upon everyone living without the fear of violence, we must raise public awareness about how sexual violence impacts our community and work to educate ourselves, our children and each other about how to prevent it.