In 1857, the first edition of “The Language of Flowers” was published. This book offered its reader a wealth of knowledge about the messages and emotions that could be shared through flora. You know. Sage to show esteem, basil to signify hatred, and violets to tell the world that you’re […]
The Answer is No: “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and Our Evolving Understanding of Consent Put down the milk and cookies and gird your loins, guys, gals, and non-binary pals. The War on Christmas is here again. Starbucks released their holiday cups, alleged serial sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly is on Twitter […]
Every night in America, there are heroes patrolling our streets, keeping them safe and clean. They don’t do it for the fame or the glory. They don’t even do it for the soft, internal glow of altruism. They just do it because they’re Opossums and they’re hungry. As the only […]
Say what you will about medieval Europeans, but they knew their way around crude humor. Whether the jokes be scatological or sexual, they were often exceedingly dirty and delivered with the same gusto as a fifth grader telling a brand new fart joke. For most of the middle ages, most […]
While many contemporaries regarded Dr. John Harvey Kellogg as a respected visionary, modern depictions tend to paint him as masturbation-obsessed wackadoodle. But Dr. Kellogg was so much more than that – he was a racist, eugenicist, masturbation-obsessed wackadoodle who had some admittedly good advice about dietary fiber. Starting in the […]
How do you know if someone’s a virgin? Well, you could call in an expert. You know, like a doctor. Or a bee. Or a snake. All have been asked to comment on the subject, and all are pretty equally qualified. “Virginity tests” have been around for centuries in most […]
If you ever need to pick a fight with a bunch of 17th and 18th century European nerds, I suggest asking them where they think babies come from. That’s almost guaranteed to get them all riled up. People around the world had been documenting their observations of and theories about […]
Is space the final frontier? Honestly, I doubt it. If history has taught us anything, humanity’s final frontier might just be the uterus. After all, over a decade after putting a man on the moon, NASA still hadn’t managed to do the math on how many tampons a menstruating person […]
Douglas Russell, curator of avian eggs and nests at London’s Natural History Museum, was shuffling through an old file one day in 2011 or 2012 (the exact date is lost in the annals of time) when he happened upon a pamphlet stamped “NOT FOR PUBLICATION.” He immediately consumed this titillating, […]
#SexEdSaturday is a series where Jessica Smarr answers anonymous questions received in Unhushed classes. As a teenager, I had at least five turtleneck sweaters, one very embarrassing CD collection, and exactly two sweaty, smelly feet. I mean, they were bad. So bad, in fact, that they once stunk up an […]
