Tagged:

Lena Chen

August 30th 2010

A Sexpert's Advice: Don't Listen To The Advice

- Lena Chen

When it comes to a divisive topic like first-date etiquette, there are so many divergent viewpoints that a girl needs to get some perspective before she dives headfirst into the self-help section at her local bookstore.

So step one: Let's take it back to the old school. What were the love gurus of yore telling young women? According to one 1938 dating guide, women are advised to avoid getting drunk, sitting in awkward positions, chewing gum with their mouths open, or talking while dancing. That last one aside, all the other tips actually sound quite reasonable to me. If anything, dating rules have gotten wonkier in the post-war era.

August 12th 2010

Should Lying to Get Into Someone’s Pants Be a Crime?

- Lena Chen

Last month in Israel, a court found Sabbar Kashur, a 30-year-old Arab man, to be guilty of “rape by deception” after he pretended to be Jewish in order to bed a Jewish woman. Upon learning of the deception, the woman filed charges on the grounds that she wouldn't have had sex with him if she’d known, given that a long-term relationship would have been out of the question since they didn't share the same religious beliefs. Now Kashur faces 18 months in prison.

July 14th 2010

A Novice's Guide to Sex Toy Shopping

- Lena Chen

Whether you're walking into your local sex toy shop or browsing an online storefront of adult products, the style and variety of the buzzing erotic delights awaiting you is enough to overwhelm any first-time consumer. How does a novice differentiate hype from quality? Should you really be getting the same vibrator as the gals from Sex and the City? And once you narrow it down to the most promising candidates, how do you choose the color, material, and most importantly, the size? Luckily for our readers, here is a guide to navigating the marketplace of sex products like a seasoned user:

April 29th 2010

Lost In Translation: A Call Is Worth A Thousand Texts

- Lena Chen

"Where's my water bottle?" read the note on the screen. I was sitting at a rest stop on the road to Washington, DC, when my phone vibrated urgently and flashed the above text message from my roommate/boyfriend. I looked at my feet. His Nalgene was sitting on the floor of the car, approximately 500 miles from our apartment. Whoops. "I took it with me, my bad!" I texted back. A few back-and-forths later, he sent a response that I considered somewhat condescending: "Next time, ask me before you take my things."

March 3rd 2010

Oxytocin: The Pseudoscience of the Hook-Up Hormone

- Lena Chen

As a now-monogamous former sex blogger, I'm living proof that hooking up doesn't make you crazy or unable to commit. But if mainstream media reports of the past few years are to be believed, I'm the exception, not the rule.

December 23rd 2009

Surprise, Hooking Up Doesn't Kill!

- Lena Chen

In early 2008, an article in The New York Times claimed that "no one at Harvard represents the hookup culture better than Lena Chen." I'm Lena Chen. Right, how awkward is that? At the time, I was a college junior blogging quite publicly about my sex and love life -- but the last thing I thought was that my vagina represented anyone else's (let alone a whole "culture"). I tried to make that clear to the Times, obviously to no avail.

November 11th 2009

No Pain, No Gain: The IUD Insertion Process

- Lena Chen

I wish I could say that getting the IUD was easy once I made my decision that the love affair with the Pill was over. In reality, it took me three visits (one of which was an appalling comedy of errors) before I finally baby-proofed my uterus. First, I had to get a pap smear, since STIs in IUD users can cause Pelvic Inflammatory Disorder and in rare cases, infertility.

November 4th 2009

How I Dumped The Pill And Met The IUD

- Lena Chen

Two weeks ago, I ended my longest and most tumultuous relationship to date. Four years and hundreds of dollars after my first prescription, I decided that I had swallowed my final birth control pill. I tossed out my last packet, lay back in stir-ups, and got an IUD.