Life Coaches Central: Where Coaching Insiders Blog About Real Issues

Love

Will There Ever Be Orgasm Equality?

You've heard it muttered in hushed undertones from a female friend at a party or over Sunday brunch, or in a confessional phone call, those dreaded, embarrassing words: "I faked it last night." It's depressing to hear, not just that a woman didn't achieve an orgasm, but also that she felt the need to fake one. A 2004 Sex Survey found that almost 50% of women responders had faked orgasms. Another startling statistic? Men who responded "always had orgasm" 74% of the time, compared with 30% of women. Not surprisingly the percentage of women who "greatly enjoy" sex was 59% compared with 83% of men.

Why the disparity? An interesting study on feminism and sexual pleasure found that women who identified as feminists who were dating men who identified as feminists (feminism being the belief that women and men should be treated equally) were more likely to achieve a higher level of sexual pleasure. It makes sense to me -- if you feel open and equal to someone, then you're more likely to work at getting equality in all aspects of your relationship. And the two of you will respect each other enough to work at ensuring equal love and affection while being intimate.

There is plenty of advice for achieving an orgasm , but in addition to reading up on good relationship and intimacy advice, being in a relationship where both partners have a goal of achieving orgasm equality is an important part of moving away from "faking an orgasm" and not "greatly" enjoying sex. Here's to you and your partner's next shared Big O!

Digital Snooping in a Relationship?

It's bad enough that we have strangers spamming and phishing in our email in-boxes, both of which are major time-wasters and money-drainers. Not just that, those pesky emails can lead to invasion of privacy and one wrong click or one wrong send later, and you could become a victim of identity theft.

Now take add digital invasion to a floundering relationship and you're just asking for trouble. A friend of mine was telling me about friends of hers (you know, girl gossip) whose relationship was on the rocks because the girl, let's just call her Sarah gave her boyfriend (let's just call him) William her email password. William, in a moment of insecurity, checked Sarah's email to see if she was doing anything suspicious behind his back. Turns out she got an email from an ex-boyfriend who she was planning to "meet up," and naturally she hadn't said a word to William. William got mad and said something to Sarah, and she was even madder at him for not trusting her. They managed to move on, but William was still weak and suspicious. So he checked her email again (yes, Sarah, hadn't learned that William was weak and could still read her emails whenever he pleased) and found another email from the other guy. Well you can probably guess what happened next -- Sarah and William both changed their passwords -- and broke up.

Password sharing should only happen when you're both ready to share all of your lives together -- digital and past histories alike. Allow password sharing the same amount of time and trust you would consider before discussing money and bank accounts in a relationship. Or, better yet, before you'd feel comfortable enough saying "I love you." Because you've got enough problems to worry about, without adding password security to the list.

The Fellini Family

Over the holidays, my boyfriend met my extended family for the first time. Not my brother and sister and parents and my closest cousins, who he has met several times before, but the whole extended family that comes out of the woodwork at holiday time. I was not really worried about it, because they're my family and they have also just been a part of my life. I've never judged them, though I guess on some level, I would spend more time with them if I really thought they were my kind of people (it's true that early in life I said to my mother -- I guess we have relatives so we know people we wouldn't ordinarily choose as friends). In any case, I was surprised (and, of course, insulted), when my boyfriend commented at one point, "I feel like I'm in a Fellini film." Yikes! Are families really that bad?




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