| Nickie Zimov |
After 12 years together, she told me how many people she had slept with before we met. It has made it harder for me to accept how rarely we have sex
| Highland fling … Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe in Outlander |
Non-stop coitus, controversial nudity and shocking sex toys: steamy scenes in costume dramas have changed since Colin Firth got his shirt wet in Pride and Prejudice. Here is an outrageous history of small-screen sauciness
Outlander first sizzled our screens in 2014, with Vulture soon declaring that the period drama had “the best sex on television”. Its tale of second world war nurse Claire (Caitriona Balfe) time-travelling to 18th-century Scotland and falling in love with clansman Jamie (Sam Heughan) certainly earned the accolade. The wedding night episode features Claire reaching such an explosive orgasm that it requires smelling salts for viewers to get through. There’s a knee-trembling “castle cunnilingus” scene and, at one point, the extraordinary moment when Claire saves Jamie’s life by masturbating him. It has proved so popular that in 2026 its eighth (and final) season will air.
Is it weird to think about Miley Cyrus during sex?...asking for a friend.
Turned on by whips? Tickled by images of same-sex lovers, threesomes, and sex on public park benches—despite your straight, monogamous, and law-abiding identity?
Sexual fantasies are common. The content of our fantasies revolves around situations, items, or characteristics we find arousing, and can inspire scenarios ranging from the mundane to the bizarre.
Not everyone understands their own sexual needs and desires, and may be surprised or even repulsed by their own fantasies, especially if they have been taught to believe that fantasising is unhealthy or wrong. However, we do not get to choose our sexual needs, and fantasies that may not align with our moral compass do not predict similar real-life behaviour.
Inspired by research for her role in Sex Education, the actor has collected a rich picture of modern women’s sexuality through clandestine contributions
Nancy Friday’s groundbreaking anthology My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies was first published in the US in 1973, though Gillian Andersononly read it for the first time when she took on the role of sex therapist Dr Jean Milburn in Sex Education. “Their unfiltered and painful honesty shook me,” she says of Friday’s letters and interviews in the introduction to Want, a new collection billed as the 21st-century update. Considering the issues raised by Friday’s book – what women want, and how that relates to the gender roles imposed on us – led Anderson to question how much might have changed in the intervening half-century, and to issue an appeal for answers.
MODERN LOVE
My job has meant independence, healing and freedom. Why couldn’t my partner see that?
I was 24 when I started stripping. A friend and I were sipping tea on the couch, two young idealists in Berlin discussing how we needed money. From there, things went surprisingly fast, as they tend to do in this industry. My friend saw an ad on Craigslist, and not long after we found ourselves staggering half-naked down a smoky, strip-club hallway in high platform heels.
Just over a year-and-a-half ago, queer New York nightlife legend and musician Queenie Sateen packed her bags and moved to Hollywood. But it wasn’t traditional fame she was after. Rather, Sateen found herself gracing a sultrier silver screen as an adult actress and singer with a knack for creativity (she helps score and style some of the features she stars in), quickly rising the “most watched” charts on some of your favorite tube sites. “Porn is an art, like music, like photography,” she tells her friend and fellow performance artist Amanda Lepore shortly after being appointed Pornhub’s newest brand ambassador. “I just want to be able to show that to people.”
F
ifty years ago, an extraordinary pornographic novel appeared in Paris. Published simultaneously in French and English, Story of O portrayed explicit scenes of bondage and violent penetration in spare, elegant prose, the purity of the writing making the novel seem reticent even as it dealt with demonic desire, with whips, masks and chains.