Protect yourself and your partners. Be safe and smart about sex. Get tested regularly and be honest and open with whomever you’re sleeping with. There is NOTHING lower than someone who lies about his or her sexual health. If you have something, it’s your duty as HUMAN BEING to tell the person you’re sleeping with. If you don’t, you are potentially spreading disease and that is a crime against mankind. Keep it clean. Be honest. And most of all, HAVE FUN!

Be informed about your testing and the results

Not every doctor tests for every disease. You need to inform your doctor of all the STDs you want to be tested for. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. This way there’s nothing to be unsure of once you and your lover are behind closed doors.

The Truth about HPV

HPV is spread by skin-to-skin contact, NOT SEMEN! So even if you didn’t have sex with someone you can still give them HPV or catch it. HPV can give you genital warts and cervical cancer. So if you have HPV, the minute the clothes come off it’s your responsibility to tell your partner. Here’s the kind of scary part though, men can’t be tested for HPV. Science hasn’t discovered a procedure yet. The best way to protect yourself from HPV is to get vaccinated. Ask your doctor for more details.

Pull and Pray

Having unprotected sex is stupid for so many reasons. Not to mention the STDs you could catch but you could get pregnant and if you’re not ready for a baby the after math can be incredibly stressful, whatever your decision may be. His pre-cum CAN get you pregnant and if he ejaculates right outside of your vagina his sperm can still swim to your eggs, which could still result in a pregnancy. So get on the pill and use a glove. Especially if you have multiple partners. 

Don't Double Down

Some people think two condoms is being extra safe. WRONG! In this case two is not better than one. Two condoms against each other can cause tearing of the latex or the slipperiness can cause them to come off. One and done ladies. Plus less waste!

Pee After Sex

Just do it ok, this will help prevent UTIs. WHICH SUCK!

Forms of Birth Control

If you take the pill you HAVE to take it everyday! If you’re forgetful set an alarm, maybe even have your partner set an alarm to be extra sure. Also in some very rare cases IUDs have slipped out while peeing. Keep an eye on your IUD to be extra safe. 

Photo Credit: Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee | freedigitalphotos.net

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All right girls, for any of you who may have forgotten how important Ladies’ Night is I’m here to remind you. It doesn’t matter your marital status, you need these nights with your fellow double X chromosome cohorts to get back to the roots of your femininity and strengthen bonds. I’ve laid out the eight most important reasons why you need to make Ladies’ Night an essential part of your schedule.

Relieve Stress

Life is stressful and honestly sometimes really crappy. Work, significant others, mothers, pets and so many other things can just start to bog down on you. A Ladies’ Night will help you remember what is really important about life, to live it and enjoy it! So drink up!

Bonding

I have already mentioned this. Bonding with your gal pals is so important. A sister friend supports you like no other. Also they’ll hold your hand while walking down the street and NOT complain about it.This is also a good chance to check-in with your girlfriends and see how they are REALLY doing, It’s kind of hard to convey melancholia over text message. Make sure your B-Faces are ok, ok?

To Express Your Style

Let’s all admit one thing right now. All this fashion and beauty is honestly for EACH OTHER! Men don’t care or know a pencil skirt from a pair of skinny jeans. Ladies’ Night is a perfect night to strut your stuff and look as sexy (or not) as you want to. This is a chance to dress how YOU want to. Not how work or your mother wants you to dress. 

To Have Some Stories

If you’re anything like my friends and I something weird and entertaining always happens when we’re out together. Sometimes it’s other people and sometimes it’s you acting a fool. Either way I’m sure after a Ladies’ Night you’ll have inside jokes and stories to talk about for weeks to come. Think of it as the spice of life.

To Dance

Please don’t make me elaborate on this one.

Girl Power

There’s nothing quite like a gaggle of gals taking on the world at night. Let your energy explode across the universe and re-discover your inner amazon warrior princess! Fuel each other’s fire and awaken the feisty women that dwell with in all of you.

Space From the Mate

This one really only applies to us dwelling with roommates or significant others. It’s important to spend time away from them or you’ll rip each other’s heads off. 

Be Who You Are

Your friends helped to make you the woman you are today. Don’t forget that. They also allow you to be completely yourself, They love that you’re a psycho maniac so live it up on girls night and get weird with the women who made you that way. 

Photo Credit: photostock | freedigitalphotos.net

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Statutory rape laws are designed to keep young people safe, and a quick gander at any newspaper will show that there is a very real need for these kinds of laws. What happens though, when the legal terminology and parameters of a law comes into direct conflict with a more nuanced reality?

Though it sounds like the kind of annoying hypothetical question law students are asked in their ethics courses, this concept became a very serious reality for an 18 year old girl named Kaitlyn Hunt from Sebastian, Florida. 

Kaitlyn, a high school senior at Sebastian River High School, fell for a freshman attending the same school. Most of us can remember at least a few couples with similar age gaps from our high school days, so what makes this case so different? Well Kaitlyn, who was voted by her peers as being the student with the most school spirit, is now being charged with two counts battery of a minor for having a relationship with this freshman. The other component to the story is that the freshman in question happens to be a girl, a girl with very conservative parents. 

Here’s where the story probably divides people based on their views of “the gays,” in an almost Shakespearean twist to the story, Kaitlyn’s parents are claiming that the parents of the freshman girl conspired with the police and waited until Kaitlyn turned 18 to pursue any kind of legal action against her, presumably because they would not have had a case until after she turned 18. They could also have been waiting for the punishment to get more sever, which if that is the case, they may be on their way to getting what they were after.

The situation gets worse. Even after two judges ruled that Kaitlyn has a legal right to finish her senior year at her high school, the parents of the freshman girlfriend petitioned the school board until they expelled Kaitlyn formally, and sent her to an “alternative” school to finish our her academic year. 

Despite public testimony from the 15 year old freshman she was dating, explicitly stating that their relationship was consensual, and according to some sources the initiated by the freshman, Kaitlyn now faces multiple felony and abuse charges, up to 15 years in prison, and could be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.  

Now it’s true that if she was a boy, the law would have treated the situation the same, what the people of Florida need to ask themselves is whether the case would have been reported had she been a boy, and what that says about the effectiveness of this law. Is this particular policy protecting children or creating additional victims? 

If you happen to side with Kaitlyn on this issue – check out the change.org page her dad started. 

Photo Credit: Facebook/Free Kate

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A study conducted in the United Kingdom set out to see what effect shopping with our friends has, in comparison to what we do when we shop alone. The results were not all that surprising. 

It turns out the women in the study spend £900 (about $1,300) more a year in comparison to their solo shopping counterparts. That’s some serious pocket change, but apparently there is an upside. 

The study, which polled over 2000 women, was sponsored by Liverpool One, which is a development project that sought to redevelop the city through retail initiatives, and was published in the website Dailymail.co.uk. Despite the clear vested interest in studying the shopping habits of its potential customers, the study was able to lend some insight into how our spending habits are affected by our friends. 

It looks like there were also some positive aspects to shopping with your friends. Though it might put a bigger dent in their bank accounts, the women who reported shopping with their girlfriends on a regular bases said that they enjoyed the experience more, and felt more connected with their friends. The majority of the women polled also reported that they enjoyed getting input from their friends on clothes that they bought, and over two thirds of the women felt more confident in clothes the bought with their friends. 

The study found some negative points with shopping with friends too though, 1 out of every 10 women in the study ended up returning an item they had purchased after being encouraged to buy it by a friend. Not a terrible statistic, but in the a bigger context it’s pretty clear that our friends have a huge impact on the decisions we make. All that being said, I think the more relevant decision boils down to be who we choose to be friends with, though I didn’t see any data in the study to suggest this – I think it’s pretty obvious that good friends will help you make good decisions both in and outside of the mall. 

Photo Credit: photostock | freedigitalphotos.net

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