SEX ON THURSDAY | A Hard Pill to Swallow

I’ve been on the pill for four years and I can’t seem to break away from it. I trudge to Cornell Health once a month, dutifully retrieve my package of little blue tablets and force one down every night before bed. As much as I have thought about saying goodbye for good, I’m stuck in a (literal) cycle.

SEX ON THURSDAY | The Art of Predestined Failure: Friends With Benefits

Urban Dictionary, a “crowdsourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases,” defines friends with benefits as:

Two friends who trust each other enough to engage in sexual activity without fear of hurting the other’s feelings. Ideal scenario for folk who are not interested in a serious relationship… Not a boyfriend or girlfriend; neither party has to refrain from dating other people. … A smart alternative to random hook-ups. (Urban Dictionary)

I have some problems with this definition and am here to deduce why “friends with benefits” is a system set up for failure, designed to fuel its own demise. I am a victim of failed friends with benefits relationships, and this is my story.

SEX ON THURSDAY | What a Girl Wants

No, I’m not talking about the 2003 Amanda Bynes romcom. That is a masterpiece, though. Women, especially twenty-something-year-olds, are complex creatures. We contain multitudes, and each of us has our likes, dislikes and preferences — this extends not only to everyday life but also to our relationships and sex lives. Everyone has something that makes them tick.

SEX ON THURSDAY | Reflecting on My Slut Era

Even as I try to avoid the dreaded senior spring waves of self-reflection, no period of my college life has stood out to me more than my self-proclaimed slut era. The online discourse surrounding “slut eras” highlights their intentionality: the choice to lean into an aura of sluttiness and an influx of casual sex. My own slut era began, as many do, after a breakup. Coming back from winter break and the end of my high-school-turned-long-distance relationship, my exploration of the borders of singleness would define my sophomore spring semester. I embraced my first foray into fun, meaningless sex head-on.