Why can asking for consent be so weird? In a lot of communities, it isn’t. In kink communities, consent conversations are as “normal” as fumbling with a condom wrapper in the dark. Why can’t we do that in mainstream society? It seems like consent requires a little more debate and disagreement for the rest of us, but it actually could be so easy. It's time to normalize talking about pleasure, and that includes boundaries. Keep it respectful. Keep it cute. Asking for consent is sexy too.
When I started masturbating, all I knew was channel 3 after 10 pm. But when my great aunt passed and we got a bunch of her stuff, I discovered my aunts love for a classic erotic novels. It was a new world for me and I loved it because I already loved reading in general. I'd sneak and read chapters late at night and hid the books under my mattress. THEN when I got a computer in my room, I discovered erotic stories on Xanga, a platform I used to frequently blog. This was my mid-day porn when I couldn't watch Channel 3 or be caught with an erotic novel in my hands. And thus shaped my Freshman-Senior summers of curiosity.
