Commonly thought of as a woman’s joy – the use of sex toys has become increasingly acknowledged in the scientific literature. This literature has opened our eyes to know that, yes, women use them. They use them alone and they use them with both male and female partners. However, research on sex toy use has… Read More

As a sex researcher, I get a lot of questions from friends, students, and random people I meet at cocktail parties. A lot of questions. Well, I’ve decided to compile a list of these questions and talk about them here on Kinsey Confidential. Because if friends, students, and randoms are all asking about it – you’ve likely… Read More

  If your biggest regret is a romantic one, you aren’t alone. Researchers from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern recently released a study that examined what the typical American felt their biggest regret was. They qualified these regrets based on action or inaction – whether the regret was based on taking a particular action, or sitting back… Read More

In a recent issue of The Journal of Sex Research, there is a paper by Carvalho and Nobre titled “Predictors of Men’s Sexual Desire: The Role of Psychological, Emotional, Relational, and Medical Factors” (2011, v.48, i.2). For all of my years as a sex researcher, I have been fascinated with women’s sexual desire. There has been a good… Read More

Bisexuality Alfred Kinsey was the first to acknowledge that sexuality may be fluid rather than simply dichotomous. Brian Dodge, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, reiterates this: “We come out of the womb unprogrammed. Kinsey was the first to back that up with behavioral data. There are very few dichotomies in… Read More

What exactly IS cybersex, anyway? Well, research shows that people really vary in terms of what behaviors fall under the category. Most people say that cybersex is an interactive, real-time activity that occurs between at least two people through the Internet. Research has also pretty much ignored any positive outcomes of online sexual activity…and come… Read More

I’ve always been interested in sexual desire, and with the interest I have in couple dynamics, the concept of sexual desire discrepancy is naturally also of great interest to me. A colleague and I have a paper in press on the topic, I wrote my qualifying exams on the topic, and my dissertation will examine desire… Read More

An incredibly interesting study has recently been published by Dr. Barry Komisaruk and colleagues in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The paper, titled “Women’s clitoris, vagina, and cervix mapped out on the sensory cortex: fMRI evidence”, sought to elucidate the neural systems under women’s sexual response using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This is the first study to… Read More

Have you ever wondered what is happening in the female brain during orgasm? Of course you have… Well, no need to wait any longer. Researchers at Rutgers University have mapped it out in video format for our viewing pleasure (pun intended). Dr. Barry Komisaruk, a psychology professor at Rutgers, and easily dubbed a “king” of female orgasm research, has… Read More

“I didn’t even know you could make a career out of that!” is a very common comment that myself and many sex researchers/educators/therapists receive. This comment is quite often followed by the question “how exactly did you get into that?” or “how do I get into that field?” How I Became A . . …. Read More