Sex
Cultural Comment
“Challengers” Is Essentially a Well-Shot Commercial
Because the film has so little to say, viewers are free to simply focus on the vibes—which happen to be the area where Luca Guadagnino, its director, has most distinguished himself.
By Tyler Foggatt
This Week in Fiction
Bryan Washington on Queer Friendship and Intimacy
The author discusses his new novella, “Server.”
By Willing Davidson
Annals of Education
The Debate Over Muslim College Students Getting Secret Marriages
Scholars, students, and campus leaders are rethinking how young Muslims should navigate the world of intimacy.
By Emma Green
Culture Desk
What Happened When I Stopped Drinking
I put down the bottle and picked up everything else.
By Simone Finch and Jason Adam Katzenstein
Daily Cartoon
Daily Cartoon: Monday, July 25th
“So . . . what was all that ‘Yes, Chef’ stuff about?”
By Emily Flake
A Reporter at Large
The Fight to Hold Pornhub Accountable
For years, nonconsensual videos flourished on the Internet. How have adult sites been reined in?
By Sheelah Kolhatkar
Books
How Everyone Got So Lonely
The recent decline in rates of sexual activity has been attributed variously to sexism, neoliberalism, and women’s increased economic independence. How fair are those claims—and will we be saved by the advent of the sex robot?
By Zoë Heller
On Television
The Splendid Uncoolness of “Sex, Love & Goop”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s new Netflix series, which follows couples who are struggling with sexual dysfunction, is unexpectedly real, and genuinely moving.
By Naomi Fry
Books
We’re Shaped by Our Sexual Desires. Can We Shape Them?
What we want may be more socially conditioned than we realize.
By Alexandra Schwartz
Q. & A.
The Meaning of California’s Bill Against Nonconsensual Condom Removal
The civil-rights attorney Alexandra Brodsky discusses how legislation banning so-called stealthing could expand understandings of sexual assault.
By Helen Rosner
Books
The Radical Women Who Paved the Way for Free Speech and Free Love
Anthony Comstock’s crusade against vice constrained the lives of ordinary Americans. His antagonists opened up history for feminists and other activists.
By Margaret Talbot
Under Review
The Politics of Bad Sex
A new book argues that current standards of affirmative consent place too much emphasis on knowing what we want.
By Jeannie Suk Gersen
Page-Turner
“Kink” Confronts the Challenge of Turning Sex Into Literature
In this ambitious anthology, short stories sit at various intersections of smolder and technical accomplishment.
By Katy Waldman
Shouts & Murmurs
Spicy Sex Tips for the Couple Spending Every Waking Second Together
Stay up all night debating whether you should splurge on a BritBox subscription or explore sadomasochism by downloading Quibi.
By JiJi Lee and Cara Michelle Smith
Novellas
“Many a Little Makes”
“Why was Bree the bad apple? The one needing to be banished? How could a girl of fourteen be the one held responsible?”
By Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Books
A Memoirist Who Mistrusts Her Own Memories
In the course of twenty books, Annie Ernaux has devoted herself to the excavation of her own life.
By Madeleine Schwartz
Under Review
Can a Novel Capture the Contradictions of Female Desire?
Miranda Popkey’s début explores the paradox of longing to assert control and longing to lose it.
By Sarah Resnick
Shouts & Murmurs
Sexual Fantasies of Everyday New Yorkers
“My greatest sexual fantasy is just to have regular sex in my own apartment. But, in my fantasy, my apartment has a washing machine and a dryer.”
By Mark Cognata
Watch
Jacqueline Novak Chews Over the Blow Job in Her One-Woman Show “Get on Your Knees”
The show goes deep on the semantics of the male member and the vulnerable male ego, and Novak hilariously breaks down the things that women do to accommodate male comfort.
By Alexandra Schwartz