I was having a lovely walk with my fellow sex geek friend Kimu when I noticed the logo on this recycling bin. I asked her, “How have you not told me your city’s emblem is a vulva?!” It even has asymmetrical labia and a clitoris for goodness sake. Needless to say, this genital-in-the-wild sighting significantly enhanced my morning as well as my opinion of the city of Boroondara. Continue Reading →
Kate McCombs
Kate McCombs is a sex educator, blogger, and speaker, specializing in sex-positive and pleasure-inclusive approaches to sexual health promotion. She's originally from California, but moved to Australia to get her Masters in Public Health at the University of Melbourne, which she completed in 2011. In addition to facilitating workshops, Kate works as a teaching/research assistant and guest lecturer for the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne. She's also the founder of sexgeekdom.com, a website designed to bridge the gap between online and real-life community for sex educators, researchers, and others who might identify as sex geeks.
Recent posts
How I Became a Sex Educator: Lessons from My Mom
Most sex educators I know are constantly being asked why they go into the work they do. Fair enough, I think, since it’s a bit surprising when people learn that someone’s chosen to spend their days talking about a subject that most people find uncomfortable. I think it’s exactly that discomfort that inspires many sex educators to pursue their field. Sex is a near-universal human experience, yet it’s clouded by cultural shame, embarrassment, and mis-information. The light bulb moments that can occur as the result of actually talking about sex are powerful (and sometimes even healing). Continue Reading →
My Visit to Tokyo’s Female Masturbation Bar
Like many sex geeks who inhabit the internet, I delighted in reading about the existence of Love Joule, Tokyo’s “female masturbation bar” when it made the rounds on Jezebel, Huffington Post, and Wired back in October. I was especially excited because I had an upcoming trip to Tokyo planned, and any place whose sole purpose is the de-stigmatization of female masturbation was surely going to top my to-do list. While Love Joule’s website is (not surprisingly) in Japanese, I managed to find their location and opening hours through their Facebook page. Completely coincidentally, Love Joule was a five-minute walk away from my hotel. Call it divine intervention or sex geek synchronicity: given how giant and sprawling Tokyo is, I considered this a sign of awesomeness to ensue. Continue Reading →
A Tribute to Our Sex Professor, Debby Herbenick
In celebration of Mentorship week here at MSP, the other contributors and I have each written a small piece in appreciation for MSP’s founder, Debby Herbenick. She’s influenced all of our careers and we wanted to take the opportunity to express our gratitude for her contribution in a public (and surprise!) way. Craig: There are two things I really admire about Debby. First, her posts strike the perfect balance of thoughtful personal sharing and not revealing too much information about her life. I’m thinking about this post on the messiness of relationships, this one on non-thing gift giving, or especially this one on being a conventionally attractive sex researcher. Continue Reading →
My Mentor, Sexuality Educator Ivy Chen
While many people have trained me, offered me career guidance, and encouraged my career as a sex educator, my very first (and most influential) sex ed mentor was Ivy Chen. When she’s not mentoring, Ivy’s a lecturer at San Francisco State University and teaches age-appropriate sexuality education classes to primary, middle, and high school students throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. I first learned about Ivy when I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about her work in schools. The article described her passion for educating young people about making healthy choices and reflected the sex-positive approach she takes to her work. At the time the article was published, I was starting my first year as a sexual health peer educator at my university and just beginning to learn about the possibilities for how I could turn my love of teaching others about sexuality into a life-long career. Continue Reading →
This Week on MSP: Mentorship
Mentorship – the art of nurturing a relationship between a mentor and mentee – is important in all fields but mentorship is particularly crucial for those of us who study sexuality. There’s no Occupational Outlook guide for how to become a sex educator or researcher, so it’s left to mentoring relationships to help us navigate that career path. Since January is National Mentoring Month, it seems an opportune time to reflect on the mentorship process and to honor and highlight the efforts of those who’ve nurtured our work. This week on MSP, the blogging team will be writing about their individual mentors’ work as well as about mentorship in the sexuality field in a broader sense. For aspiring sexuality professionals, this week’s posts might shine some light on future directions you might take. Continue Reading →
Where in the World is the Wondrous Vulva Puppet? Chichén Itzá Edition
My favorite travel accessory and I recently got to see the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá, located in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The archeological site covers a spectacular five square kilometers and includes the pyramid (called El Castillo), the observatory (called El Caracol), and the Great Ball Court, among other fascinating structures. Here’s the vulva puppet posing in front of El Castillo (which is actually a calendar, not a castle as the name suggests). Despite attracting over a million visitors a year to the site, this shot is delightfully free of throngs of tourists to share the vulva puppet’s limelight. Travel with your own vulva puppet? Continue Reading →
My Traveling Tradition: A Couple’s Christmas
Every other year or so, my husband and I forgo presents and family gatherings in favor of traveling someplace new together and celebrating the holidays with just the two of us. Although it might seem paradoxical, I love how this practice balances the comfortable predictability of a tradition with the energizing excitement of the unknown. Since we live thousands of miles away from our nearest relatives, it makes the decision a bit easier when the cost of traveling to parents and siblings is often much greater than one of our couple’s adventures. To further reduce the holiday financial burden, we give each other homemade cards on Christmas morning instead of exchanging traditional gifts. My husband’s quite a cartoonist and he makes these wonderful drawings that celebrate the previous year, often reflecting the adventures (local and international) that we’ve had together. Continue Reading →
Eight Holiday Gifts for the Sex Geek in Your Life
It’s that time of year again! While everyone’s out buying gift cards and ill-fitting sweaters, you can be the holiday hero to a sex geek in your life. If you’re the sex geek in need of a gift, pass on the list as a hint to a friend or lover, or just keep it as a shopping list for yourself. 1. Giant microbes of STIs
Who wouldn’t love a cute plushie syphilis? Continue Reading →
This Week on MSP: Celebration
Now that we’re in the full swing of the holiday season, MSP’s blogging team will discussing “celebration” in its many forms. We find cause for celebration in many things: great sex, fantastic relationships, and even one’s gender. While family gatherings for the holidays aren’t always stress-free, the practice of celebration over the season can remind us of what we want out of our lives and relationships. It can catalyze self-awareness about what we value, such as whether you find tradition satisfying, or if it’s spontaneity that lights your fire. We hope our posts will interest, inspire, and offer a pleasant antidote to the increasingly annoying Santa-themed songs that have been playing in every store since October. Happy Holidays from MSP! Continue Reading →