Join Catcall, the Kansas City-based intersectional feminist collective, on July 13 for But I’m a Comedian at Crossroads Hotel—a night of cocktails and laughter benefiting Kansas City sex educators, Barrier Babes. The evening will begin with a local vendors market, include spicy raffle prizes, and conclude with a special edition of the comedy and draglesque showcase by Body Language.
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By Sophia-Joelle McDowell
When Tricia Wise, or Safe Slut, was diagnosed with genital herpes in November of 2019, everything changed. Shut down your unconscious biases here, because things changed in an unpredictably positive way.
Like most of us, Tricia didn’t receive any education about STIs growing up, apart from the common lecture that they’re the worst thing that can happen. After receiving the news of her herpes diagnosis, she spent days in bed and thought her sex life was over.
These days, Tricia believes getting herpes was the best thing to ever happen to her.
That diagnosis forced her to advocate for herself and have vulnerable conversations. It took her on a transformative journey of self-love and reclaiming her sexuality. She was even able to work through previous sexual trauma from past relationships and experiences.
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By The Babes (Katie Harbinson and Maddie Womack)
Art by Sarah Forgey
One of our most asked-about topics is squirting. What is it? How do I make my partner squirt? How do I make it less messy? Is it normal to squirt (or not)? We’re here to give the people what they want. And the people very much would like to squirt.
Before we get into it, let’s address the elephant in the room. Squirting is not pee. While it comes from the bladder and contains a little urea, it’s most similar to water. The exact makeup of a squirt varies by person, as does the volume of liquid squirted. As shocking as it may seem, the fire hydrant-esque portrayal of squirting in porn isn’t the most accurate. While some people do experience large squirts, some people only squirt a little. It’s very common to have squirted before and just not known it! In fact, anywhere from 10-75% of those with a vagina report squirting at some point. Why the big range? Well, the data on squirting is largely self-reported, so there are some gaps in what we know about squirting. In a 2013 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, 10-54% of participants reported squirting, but in a study published in 2017 by the same journal, 75% did. Overall, it’s totally normal to squirt, and totally normal not to.
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By Katie Harbinson and Maddie Womack
When it comes to our sexual health, STIs are more common than you might think. The CDC estimates that one in five people have had a sexually transmitted infection. And yet, with that prevalence, there’s still a stigma around STIs.
You might have previously heard these infections called sexually transmitted diseases or STDs, but many professionals and activists are moving away from that term. The American Sexual Health Association explains: “the concept of ‘disease,’ as in STD, suggests a clear medical problem, usually some obvious signs or symptoms. But many common STDs have no signs or symptoms in most of the people who have them. Or they have mild signs and symptoms that can be easily overlooked. So the sexually transmitted virus or bacteria can be described as creating ‘infection,’ which may or may not result in ‘disease.’” Many public health professionals also prefer the term STI, because of the stigma associated with the word “disease.” Stigma around sexual health stems from many factors (don’t even get us started), but today we want to dive into the history of the sexual health field and how it has laid the groundwork for some of those stigmas.
It’s important to start at the beginning. Much of the information on STIs that we have today was discovered due to unethical testing on Black bodies and overall government neglect of queer health—resulting in unnecessary suffering and deaths. We’re going to walk through some of these histories, to help us all better understand and destigmatize STIs. History classes in the education system tend to skip over these stories, and even those who lived through these government-inflicted tragedies were actively fed misinformation. Hell, we still don’t even have the whole story. Not all deaths or illnesses involved in these events were accurately recorded. But these stories contribute to the rightful distrust of the government and its healthcare systems today, as well as the stigmas that resulted from them. In order to properly destigmatize sexually transmitted infections and sexual health in general, we believe we must first understand and learn of its roots.
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By Nicole Mitchell & Kelcie McKenney
In our experience, we’ve found that the best sex includes a little bit of magic in the mix. Sometimes that’s because you’ve had the hottest date with your partner or you’ve been reading smut all damn day or you bought a new lingerie set that has you feeling fantastic. And sometimes that magic came from being in juuuussst the right mood. And what better to set the mood than a solid sesh of foreplay. You heard it babes, this Catcall-approved list covers some of our favorite foreplay toys, games, and accessories to help you mix up the mood-making. As always, we try our best to recommend ethical stores that embrace and empower sexuaity in a healthy way. Let us know your faves! Sharing is caring.
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