Tag: Powerful

Health

Solange Knowles Just Dropped Some Powerful New Music

Post author By news22
Post date August 25, 2017
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Solange Knowles’ album A Seat at the Table was one of the best records of 2016. The LP was both sonically breathtaking—a lush collection of funk and psychedelic-soul—and culturally important. Like her sister Beyoncé’s album Lemonade, A Seat at the Table is a deep exploration into the lives of black women—their triumphs, their hardships, and their lived experiences. It’s a record that takes on new meaning with every listen.

And now Solange has given us another gift: fresh new music she just dropped this week, according to W magazine. On Friday morning (August 25) the singer debuted a new online “dossier” called “Seventy States,” which includes a slew of goodies: unreleased content from A Seat at the Table, new poetry, a never-before-seen original performance, and yes, new music. You can check out the exciting package, in full, right here.

If you’re a Solange fan, then you know “Seventy States” isn’t the only project she’s announced this week. The 31-year-old revealed she is headed to Marfa, Texas, to perform “Scales,” a combination of arrangements from A Seat at the Table, alongside a new art installation by Donald Judd. She also just launched a new performance art tour called Orion’s Rise, which will make stops in New York City, Berkeley, California, and Washington, D.C.

These new endeavors come on the heels of Solange wiping her Twitter clean in response to the racially-charged violence that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend. “Been trying to study myself. Been trying to practice self preservation,” she wrote on Instagram Stories shortly after the attacks. “My son’s first day of school has been in the midst of seeing these bullsht images that still tell him this system was built to be against him. How mofos supposed to have a fresh start with education, seeing this sht?”

Solange Shared a Photo of Her Skin Covered in Hives With a Truly Relatable Caption

[The 10 Beauty Rules Solange Lives By](/story/solange-knowles-beauty-secrets

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Tags Dropped, Knowles, Music, Powerful, Solange

Health

This Extra Powerful Sex Toy Is Almost Too Good

Post author By news22
Post date August 24, 2017
No Comments on This Extra Powerful Sex Toy Is Almost Too Good

I’ve always wondered if multiple orgasms were kind of a myth. I know some people have them, but I personally have a long “refractory period” in which I couldn’t go again if I wanted to. But last year, when I tried the Satisfyer Pro 2, I was able to have three orgasms in one night (though not one session)—likely because it just makes climaxing so goddamn easy. The average time it takes me to finish with this toy tends to be around one to two minutes, compared to my usual five to 10. So, when I learned the Satisfyer had been updated this month, I wondered what other sorcery it could work on my parts.

The Satisfyer is known for its suction technology, which creates air waves around the clit like a little vacuum. In case that’s not enough, the head also vibrates. Its newest edition has plus and minus buttons that make its power modes simpler to control, a wider head for more comfort, and a quieter motor in case someone’s in the next room. The biggest difference I noticed, though, was that on the highest setting, it’s even more powerful than the last—which terrified and intrigued me.

I tried out the standard pink Satisfyer Pro 2: Next Generation (below) and the Satisfyer Pro 2 Penguin: Next Generation, whose handle and head are both smaller than the standard one and shaped adorably like a penguin with a bow tie. The Penguin’s head is a bit less cushioned but more concentrated, whereas the larger one is comfier with a more diffuse sensation.

I first tried out the regular pink one, and after experiencing the familiar one-minute, sneaks-up-on-you orgasm that I had with the first Satisfyer Pro 2, I decided to do an experiment. While I was fooling around with my partner, I asked him to use the Penguin on me on the highest setting. It got kind of painful when he didn’t place it precisely where I wanted—the risk of an uber-powerful sex toy—but once he got the hang of it, I went over the edge immediately. Then, after a minute of kissing, I told him, “Try it again.” To my surprise, my legs were shaking within a minute again. Another brief kissing interlude later, I was feeling bold. “Again,” I told him. It was getting uncomfortable to keep going at that point, but the Penguin quickly managed to get yet another orgasm out of me.

This was bringing out a whole new side of me. I felt greedy. I felt insatiable. I felt limitless. I felt like a sex goddess.

Despite the fact that my clit was aching by that point, I was too curious to see how far this could go to stop. So I used the toy again while we had sex. The fourth orgasm took longer, but sure enough, it arrived. Afterward, I was curious how the standard pink Satisfyer compared, so I held it up to my clit, and whoops, had another one.

Final count: Five orgasms. What the hell?! What would happen if I just lay there all day with this suction head over my clit? I didn’t even want to know.

PHOTO: Ilkay Muratoglu/Satisfyer

The Satisfyer Pro 2, which is apparently waterproof

There was a major downside to all this, though: I’d sacrificed quality for quantity. The orgasms were abundant but not that enjoyable, especially toward the end. As the session went on, they got briefer, less intense, and more uncomfortable. And they left my clit feeling sore yet numb, so it took more pressure to reach climax each time.

Even the first orgasm of the night was nowhere near as enjoyable as those I have without a toy. It felt like I was skipping over the best part. I didn’t get very wet or aroused. I wasn’t even thinking sexy thoughts when I came. And afterward, I didn’t feel refreshed or close to my partner. These on-demand climaxes felt manufactured and inauthentic—almost like eating past the point of fullness just because there’s food in front of you.

I find the Satisfyer great to use during intercourse because I can’t usually come that way without a toy. It’s also probably great for those who have trouble climaxing in general. But I plan to use it sparingly.

After all, when I think about what I want from sex, it’s not to rush to the finish line. It’s to soak up every moment, to feel connected to my partner (or myself, if I’m masturbating), and to feel super turned on before I finally reach that release. And harder-earned manual orgasms are much better for that.

This article is part of Summer of Sex, our 12-week long exploration of how women are having sex in 2017.

More Summer of Sex:

—Could You Be Demisexual?
—Inside the Mainstream Porn Industry’s Problem With Ageism
—Working in a Sex Shop Restored My Faith in Love

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Tags Extra, Good, Powerful, Sex, Toy

Health

Lena Dunham's Powerful Essay About Her Struggles With Rosacea Is Deeply Relatable

Post author By news22
Post date August 23, 2017
No Comments on Lena Dunham's Powerful Essay About Her Struggles With Rosacea Is Deeply Relatable

PHOTO: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

This probably goes without saying, but Lena Dunham has made a welcome habit of getting real. The actress and activist is refreshingly open about everything from her political opinions and feminist philosophy to the chronic endometriosis she’s struggled with for years. And in this week’s issue of her newsletter, Lenny Letter, the Girls creator and star reveals the latest health issue that has her grappling with a familiar insecurity: uneven skin.

In a powerful essay, Dunham details how, unknowingly at the time, her complexion was keeping her self-esteem together as she struggled with endometriosis in her late 20s. But when she recently contracted rosacea, that last vestige of confidence went out the window and caused her to reconsider the worth she’d placed in her skin.

“Chronic illness—endometriosis, along with an accompanying autoimmune disease that gives me chronic joint pain and fatigue—has made my body far less predictable to me, and in far more frightening ways than whether I’ll wake up able to fit into my high-waisted jeans. And a few weeks ago, a course of steroids to treat a massive flare of joint pain and instability led to rosacea’s appearing overnight, making me look like a scary Victorian doll, two perfect pink circles painted on her porcelain face,” Dunham wrote. “Then, after a long, sweaty night shoot in which I was covered in strange makeup, I washed my face to reveal that the rosacea had become hundreds of tiny pimple-blisters that covered me from forehead to neck…My face burned, but not as badly as my pride.”

She continued: “I found myself [age] 31 and hysterical, in the dermatologist’s chair as she extracted infected areas, applied an antibiotic cream, and explained that rosacea is another chronic condition: once the cat’s out of the bag, there’s no guarantee she’s headed back in. The acne on my shoulders and back was also steroid induced, she explained. (I hadn’t even noticed the bacne yet. FML.)”

This sudden hit to her health wasn’t just an annoyance, she explains, rather, it made her realize how intrinsic her appearance was to her identity. Even as she’d been vocal about her love and pride for her body, it struck her that her normally clear complexion had been the one thing buoying her self-image—its loss became a catalyst for self-doubt.

“Seven years of being treated in the public eye like a punch line about female imperfection may not have felt like it was wearing me down, but it had actually forced me to rely emotionally on my one area of fully conventional beauty: my perfect f-cking skin,” she wrote. “They could tag me in a picture of a beached whale. They could call me a bag of cottage cheese. But they couldn’t take away the fact that I was able to eat seven slices of pizza, a wine spritzer, and three quarters of a chocolate cake and still look like my face was kissed by sweet, sweet angels when I woke up. I wasn’t just mourning my easy skin-care routine or my ‘No filter? No problem’ lifestyle. I was mourning a life raft that had kept me, silly as it was, bobbing above the fray.”

Dunham went on to write that she’s still coming to terms with her return to the skin of her teenage years. “I have been forced to finally mourn the long, slow hit on my self-image. I thought my adolescent attitude, the take-no-prisoners approach to my own look and form, could carry me through the onslaught of critical attention. I thought I could intellectualize it away. But I can’t.”

There is a silver lining to her story, though, and it’s the kind of real and honest advice you can only get from someone who’s been through the same emotionally exhausting situation. “I’m starting to believe that speaking this pain aloud isn’t just good for my own healing: it allows any young woman who might be watching to understand that nobody is immune from feeling bad about hateful attention. If it took spelling my pain across my face to admit it, then so be it. I’m oddly grateful. ‘I don’t give a shit’ only translates into isolation; it prevents the people who love you from reaching out their hand to remind you of what’s real.”

You can read the essay in full here. Trust, it’s worth the click.

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Tags Deeply, Dunham039s, Essay, Lena, Powerful, Relatable, Rosacea, Struggles

Health

The Most Powerful Images From the Charlottesville Solidarity Rallies

Post author By news22
Post date August 20, 2017
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Over the past week, tens of thousands of people showed up to rallies across the world that, in solidarity with the tragic violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend, protested against racism and bigotry. On Saturday in Boston, for example, police estimate 30,000 to 40,000 counter-protesters drowned out the roughly 50 people who showed up for a “Free Speech” rally.

Free Speech Boston, the group that organized the rally, said their event had been planned before the events of Charlottesville, when Heather Heyer was killed and dozens of others were injured protesting a white supremacist rally near the University of Virginia’s campus. Though organizers of the Boston gathering publicly denounced “the politics of supremacy and violence” that were on display in Charlottesville, two of the 14 scheduled speakers held far-right views, causing many to believe that the “Free Speech” event was serving as another platform for hate speech and prompting a massive turnout from Black Lives Matter and other groups.

But it wasn’t just Boston that people were protesting against white supremacists and bigotry: from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Portland, Maine—as well as in London, Amsterdam, and beyond—participants carried signs condemning racism and offering messages of love for all races, colors, and creeds. Here are some of the most powerful images that prove love always has and always will trump hate.

Boston, Massachusetts, August 19, 2017

PHOTO: Getty Images