me to have an orgasm! Scarleteen, my favorite sex education site, has a great article about "squirting" orgasms and how some women feel pressured to "squirt" for the sake of the sexual "novelty." On a similar note, I'll close this post with an anecdote about a guy I dated a while back who was very focused on giving me orgasms. To his credit, he figured out how to make me come very quickly. But the problem was that -- I soon realized -- the biggest reason he wanted to make me come was because he wanted to feel like he could. Fundamentally, it wasn't about my pleasure; it was about him feeling like "the man.” Let me be clear: he was a great guy, and I was into having sex with him. But it became very obvious to me that if I didn't have an orgasm every time we had sex, then he would be really bothered. So there were definitely a few encounters where, although I wasn't especially interested in having an orgasm, I still closed my eyes and flicked through fantasies with a kind of panic... until I managed to kick-start my body into coming. Isn't that messed up? One thing I've learned, in years of writing about sex and gender, is that anything -- anything at all -- can be a tool for limiting or stifling sexuality... just as much as it can be a tool for releasing sexuality. Turns out, orgasms are no exception. Even orgasms can become a difficult duty. I'm so glad that I know how to have an orgasm now; for me, that was an important step for my sexuality and my self-esteem. But now that I've learned how to do that, I find myself questioning why it's such an important and destructive issue in the first place! Sex is a journey. There are so many directions, so many forks in the road, so many stops along the way. There are so many speedbumps and roadblocks, uphills and downhills, free and easy open stretches. Sometimes people stop to rest. Sometimes people double back. Everything is evolving. A lot of people find it most awesome to simply... enjoy the road. * ok oe When I was in