✨🌵 (val)iant: or, val’s guide to having a broken vag 🌵✨
…is a narrative game about vagina problems, like pelvic floor dysfunction. Play as Val, a gremlin college student struggling with their relationship to their body, as well as their relationship with sex. This game is fundamentally about how we as a society learn (or don’t learn) about sex.
It’s hella gay, there’s a rhythm minigame (impossible), and some difficult but important conversations about bodies and sex. Let me know how you do on the rhythm game btw.
We also have a website because I finally got my shit together!
Title screen art (above) by Arielle Blaise Toney and UI work by Stella Shi
💖
âthat time of the monthâ âmonthly visitorâ âfeminine hygiene productsâ GRRAH!!! SHUT UP SHUT UP!!! PERIOD!! MENSTRUATION!!!! TAMPONS!!! PADS!! MENOPAUSE!!!!!!!!!!!
VAGINA!!!!
I felt so vindicated when that study on period blood loss that used ACTUAL blood instead of water came out and confirmed that women bleed a lot more than we were previously told because I had BEEN saying that the amount that was showed in studies was absolutely incorrect for years. My old doctor was like “I’m sure it feels like it’s a lot more than that, but it’s only about two tablespoons a day!” As if I wasn’t filling up three overnight pads a day and still bleeding through and somehow getting it all over my underwear. I lose like 8 ounces on day two alone, fuck all of these people who do jank ass studies you can’t trust any of these men in the labs
A public health researcher I know had an informant who was recording the contents of her diva cup every cycle and when she brought the data to her doctor he was like “that’s not true”. 🙃
Frothing at the mouth every time I see a sex ed resource that says “use condoms” without any further elaboration. “Condoms prevent STIs and pregnancy in the vast majority of cases when used correctly” but then they don’t talk about what correctly IS
Correct use of a condom means
- Using the right size, because if it’s too big it can slide off or leak and if it’s too small it can break or come off. Condoms usually come in 5 sizes, I’m sure you could find others outside of that as well but in ten years of sex work I found they covered everyone
- Using lube, even if you think you don’t need it. With the exception of oral sex, condoms should always be used with lube, 100% of the time. Most important lube should be applied to the outside but a drop in the tip of the condom before putting it in is also a good idea
- Being mindful that latex is prone to wearing out, being damaged by heat etc. Condoms should be kept somewhere cool, not folded in wallets or sat on in back pockets and should be changed between activities and after about 15 minutes of any vigorous activity. Ask me how I know (a condom snapped on my leg when a client was pulling out, because I didn’t change it when I should have)
- The penetrative partner should hold the base of the condom when they pull out, and should do so immediately after they ejaculate so the condom doesn’t leak or come off as the penis gets flaccid
Bonus: a lot of people think hand stuff can’t transmit STIs. Wrong! If you give your partner a handjob and then touch yourself you can get HPV, herpes (low risk), and infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea
This isn’t meant to be stressful, and the most common STIs are the most treatable - and often curable - but getting gonorrhea in your eyes after a facial still extremely sucks and yet no one talks about the fact that any mucous membrane can be effected, not just your genitals (yes this includes your mouth and throat)
In ten years of doing sex work where I saw 10 clients a day most of the time I’ve had 4 condom fails ever. One was what I mentioned above when it snapped on my leg, one was a client on top of me didn’t get off fast enough after he finished and the condom came off, and the other two were a Glyde brand magnum that was inexplicably twice the thickness of a regular condom and didn’t stay put on anyone so I suggest just avoiding Glyde entirely (their water based lubes also stain fyi). With all other brands correct use = extremely safe
Oil-based lube and latex condoms are also incompatible! Condoms can and should be used on toys.
I’d normally tag nsfw but I never got sex ed in school or at home. Even if you yourself don’t need to use this information, it’s still good in general to know, whether that be for fiction writing or advice to a friend or just to have in your back pocket (which is apparently hopefully not where you’re keeping the condoms). The more you know!
jerrycummblr-deactivated2025012:
Itâs really simple. If youâre born with a vagina and you naturally have elevated testosterone levels, youâre a man. If you have a vagina and you take testosterone, youâre a woman. But also if you have a vagina, youâll never be a man. But also if you have higher testosterone then you were never a woman. Woman never yes man a vagina testosterone no was an elevated. Vagina man.
Some things to remember about vulvas and vaginas in porn:
- Labia come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors. It is perfectly normal to have inner labia that extend outside the outer labia, or to have inner labia that stay within the outer labia. It is also perfectly normal to have labia that are two different sizes and shapes.
- Queefing, farting, and periods are all common, normal parts of sex!
- Vaginal and anal intercourse (and other types of sex!) are usually more comfortable, pleasurable, and safer when one’s natural lubrication is supplemented by additional lube—and saliva is no replacement, since it only remains effective for short periods of time and isn’t as slippery as lube.
(Read more about this in Bare Bodies: Reality Checking Mainstream Porn)
Thanks to trans men donating their tissue, we know the exact number of nerve fibers in the clitoris. Read about it here.
thank you trans men
thank you trans men
thank you trans men
thank you trans men
My cishet friend works at Planned Parenthood. She fought for 6 months to get the condom labels changed from “male/female” to “internal/external” and they finally did. She brought it up at every single staff meeting until it was fixed.
That’s how you ally.
but male/female is your sex??? like it’s literally fact, why bother changing it??
Ignorance, on my post? It could happen to you.
1. “Male/female” is not the same as “penis/vagina”. Some men have vaginas. Some women have penises. Some people have neither, or both!
2. Contraception should be accessible and worry free for everyone. Cis, trans, intersex… all bodies. We need to remove all physical and mental barriers from education and access to healthcare.
3. Internal condoms can be used for anal sex. Anal sex can be enjoyed by all bodies.
4. External condoms are a great way to share sex toys and/or keep them clean. (make sure the material of the toy and the material of the condom are compatible). Sex toys can be enjoyed by all bodies.
5. Toxic masculinity is a thing. Don’t stop a dudebro from safe sex because god forbid he needs a product labeled for females. They can’t even buy shampoo unless it’s labeled for men, you think they want to buy “female” condoms in order to have safer sex?
âIâve known people who menstruate to refuse painkillers for a variety of reasons, but often those reasons fall under the umbrella of believing that they, for whatever reason, deserve to experience this pain â that it is their plight, it is their lot in life. I remember feeling this way while in the throes of pubertyâ : I have a uterus, therefore pain is inbuilt into my body. When going down this line of thinking, it is easy to lean into a dangerous, tragic vein of biological essentialism, and to problematically view pain as being fundamental to so-called âwomanhood.â
Menstrual health is a health and human rights issue. And it should be treated as such by you and everyone around you. The taboos and stigma surrounding it are outdated, cruel, and dangerous.â
Emily Wilson is back with yet another fantastic and paradigm-shifting piece here at Scarleteen! Emily speaks to all the ways weâve been taught to believe we deserve pain and is here to dismantle those beliefs in her latest. Youâll also find some guidance on supplements, activities, and other resources that may be available to you so that instead of being forced into a harmful relationship with pain, you can create your own (re)connection with the body, pain, and cramps.
I think teens need to be able to go to trusted adults and say “I saw something in a porn video that freaked me out and now I’m worried I’ll have to do it too” and then the adult can say “it’s ok to be nervous about sex, but remember that you don’t have to do ANYTHING you don’t want to do, ever, no exceptions” and this should be an ongoing conversation to remind young people that sexual desire isn’t monolithic and they are not uniquely weird, cowardly, or undesirable for expressing their feelings, and they deserve sexual partners who prioritize consent & autonomy always
recent events got me thinking
the stigmatization of sex leads to the stigmatization of sex workers and hypersexual people and people with other sex/sexuality related mental illnesses, it leads to a lack of understanding of reproductive health and stds, it leads to people having a much harder time figuring out their sexuality (especially when theyâre on the ace spectrum and/or their sexual orientation doesnât align with their romantic orientation), it leads to unsafe sex, it leads to abuse and rape going unnoticed, and itâs wholly unnecessary.
just fucking talk about sex and masturbation and attraction, itâs not a big deal!!
ID: A screenshot of a meme with Sonic the Hedgehog, leaning against the ground, a speech-bubble above him reading: âI Want People To Be Able To Talk More About Their Sex Lives In Public Spaces And Iâm Not Kiddingâ
End ID.