2,229 articles
Sexology
Sexology is the scientific, interdisciplinary study of human sexuality, emerging from 19th-century European medicine, globalized by 1880-1960, and advanced by Kinsey and Masters and Johnson; it underpins WHO sexual health and sexuality education.
Sexting
Sexting, from 'sex' and 'texting', is sending or receiving sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos by phone or internet. Key facts: youth prevalence 14.8% sending, 27.4% receiving; nonconsensual forwarding 12.0%; links to image-based sexual abuse and laws against it.
Sexual abstinence
Sexual abstinence, also called celibacy or chastity, is refraining from sexual activity. Distinguished from abstinence-only education (found ineffective in trials) and abstinence-plus programs; CDC lists it for STI prevention.
Sexual abuse in the American film industry
Sexual abuse in the American film industry, also called the casting-couch problem, covers harassment, coercion, and assault in Hollywood production; #MeToo (2017, Harvey Weinstein allegations) and Hollywood Commission surveys document prevalence and weak accountability.
Sexual arousal
Sexual arousal: physiological (genital vasocongestion, lubrication, erection) and subjective (mental) activation in response to sexual stimuli; distinguished by Masters and Johnson's four-phase cycle, Kaplan's desire phase, Basson's circular model, and the concordance gap between men (r=.66) and women (r=.26).
Sexual attraction
Sexual attraction is the desire for sexual contact directed by another person's sex or gender, one component of sexual orientation alongside identity and behavior; studied via the Kinsey Scale, it varies by gender and culture.
Sexual desire
Sexual desire, or libido, is the urge for sexual activity. Key facts: Masters and Johnson 1966 four-stage model, Kaplan 1979 desire phase, Basson circular responsive-desire model, dopamine and testosterone mechanisms, HSDD diagnosis, flibanserin and bremelanotide.
Sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism, erotic arousal from nonliving objects or nongenital body parts; named by Binet (1887), codified by Krafft-Ebing; fetishistic disorder in DSM-5 requires distress or impairment, and ICD-11 removed fetishism as a named category.
Sexual fluidity
Sexual fluidity is situation-dependent flexibility in sexual responsiveness, allowing attractions, identity, or behavior to change over time. Introduced by Lisa Diamond's 2008 study of 100 women, it is distinct from bisexuality and from conversion therapy claims.
Sexual identity
Sexual identity, also called sexual identification, is a person's self-labeling in sexual terms, such as lesbian, gay, or queer, one of three components of sexual orientation alongside attraction and behavior.
Sexual masochism disorder
Sexual masochism disorder (DSM-5-TR; ICD-11 removed masochism) is a paraphilic disorder: recurrent arousal from suffering for 6-plus months with distress, impairment, or nonconsent, distinct from consensual BDSM and treatable with CBT plus antiandrogens.
Sexual objectification
Sexual objectification: treating a person as a body or body parts, central to feminist theory (Nussbaum's seven features; MacKinnon, Dworkin) and objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997), covering self-objectification, body surveillance, mental health outcomes, and philosophical debate.
Sexual Offences Act 1967
Sexual Offences Act 1967 (1967 c. 60), the UK statute decriminalising private, consensual homosexual acts between men over 21 in England and Wales only, following the Wolfenden Report;Scotland and Northern Ireland followed in 1980-82.
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation: enduring patterns of sexual and emotional attraction, behavior, and identity (lesbian, gay, bisexual, straight). Covers its three dimensions, history, biology, measurement, and global legal treatment.
Sexual practices between men
Sexual practices between men, also called sex between men, are the sexual behaviors and roles males engage in with other males, studied through the MSM public health category.
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution, also called sexual liberation, was a period of rapid change in sexual values in the 1960s and 1970s, driven by the contraceptive pill.
Sexual roleplay
Sexual roleplay (RP, ERP): consensual adult play using fictional roles, costume, story, or language during intimate or game settings. Distinguished by consent frameworks (four C's), safewords and stoplight calibration, digital and AI variants, and use in sex education.
Sexual sadism disorder
Sexual sadism disorder (ICD-11: coercive sexual sadism disorder, 6D33): a paraphilic disorder defined by 6+ months of sexual arousal from another's suffering, with non-consent or distress; distinct from consensual BDSM, rare clinically, concentrated in sexual homicide samples.
Sexual tension
Sexual tension: unresolved mutual attraction shaped by desire, uncertainty, and ambiguous cues; studied in relationship psychology and neuroscience and used as a narrative device in romance fiction and screen media.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempted act using coercion, from unwanted comments to forced penetration, recognized by the WHO as a major public health and human rights problem.
Sexuality in Japan
Sexuality in Japan (セクシュアリティ): the social organization and study of sex, sexual identity, and norms in Japan. Covers premodern nanshoku, Meiji family ideology and prostitution debates, 47.2% married sexless rate (2016), 3.5% LGBTA estimate, and the 2023 LGBT Understanding Promotion Law.
Sexuality in South Korea
Sexuality in South Korea: Confucian-influenced marriage and gender norms, state-managed prostitution history, sex education, and contested LGBT rights including the military ban and 2025 census recognition of same-sex couples.
Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln
Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln: the debate over whether the 16th US president, married to Mary Todd from 1842, had intimate relationships with men, centered on Joshua Speed, bodyguard David Derickson, and C.A. Tripp's 2005 thesis.
Sexualization
Sexualization is the assignment of a person's value through sexual appeal or imposed sexuality, distinct from healthy sexuality per the APA's 2008 Task Force definition. Related concept: objectification; key mechanism: self-objectification with measured cognitive and health consequences.
Seymour Fleming
Seymour Dorothy Fleming, Lady Worsley (1757–1818), British heiress whose 1782 criminal conversation trial with Sir Richard Worsley and Captain Bissett, ending in one-shilling damages, became a landmark sex scandal.
Shaadi.com
Shaadi.com is an Indian online matrimonial and matchmaking platform launched in 1996 by Anupam Mittal's People Group in Mumbai, serving about 35 million members across India and the diaspora.
Shabbos Kestenbaum
Shabbos Kestenbaum (Alexander Kestenbaum) is an American Jewish activist and Harvard Divinity School graduate who was lead plaintiff in the 2024 Title VI antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard, settled confidentially in May 2025.
Sham marriage
Sham marriage, or marriage of convenience, is a legally valid marriage lacking genuine relationship, typically for immigration advantage. UK law defines it statutorily; enforcement, burden of proof, and criticism of the genuine/sham binary distinguish the concept.
Shan Boodram
Shan Boodram, also known as Shannon Boodram, is a Canadian sex educator and sexologist. She is the author of The Game of Desire and host of Lovers by Shan.
Shannon Watts
Shannon Watts, American gun violence prevention activist, founder of Moms Demand Action (originally One Million Moms for Gun Control), started after Sandy Hook 2012, later part of Everytown for Gun Safety.