Sex Stories We Love: Shedding Inhibitions, Vacation Sex, and Darth Vader's a Sex Machine

Summer’s the sexiest time of the year, and this week’s Sex Stories We Love is packed with sexy beach reading that explains why.

Strip Away Inhibitions By Getting Naked

It’s beach weather in many parts of the world. Yet, many people feel self-conscious about exposing themselves in bathing suits, let alone going au natural. Metaphysican, ordained reverend, sexpert, and Dominatrix Sandra LaMorgese, a woman who’s very attractive and comfortable with her sexuality, was one of those people.

“A nude beach, though, just sounded uncomfortable. Getting soaked and naked with large groups of strangers was an activity I had no interest in whatsoever,” Sandra wrote in the Huffington Post. “Not only was I not willing to take the risk of exposing myself, I surely didn't want to be a witness of some naked guy bending over to grab a volleyball. I couldn't fathom why my friends wanted to have such experiences.”

After months of convincing, Sandra’s friends finally convinced her to join them. It didn’t take long for her to not only enjoy herself, but it made her wonder why she resisted for so long.

“The longer I spent on that sunny judgment-free afternoon, the more I felt light, free, and relaxed,” Sandra wrote. “I even chatted, still completely bare, with fellow sunbathers and a cute park ranger. No one else seemed interested about their bodies or mine, it was all about feeling free of the stigma of body image and enjoying the ocean, sun, and the wildlife.”

Why Vacation Sex Rocks

I’ll be one of the first to say that vacation sex rocks. It’s something I’ve never given much thought to figure out why, but researchers at the University of Illinois did. In interviews they did with 863 women, they found the Top 5 reasons were:

1. Alcohol consumption;
   
2. The party-scene at the destination;
   
3. Being detached from everyday norms;
   
4. Being in a break-loose mood;
5. Feeling more sexually confident.

The study also found that 90.3% in steady relationships had sex on vacation while 49.8% of their single counterparts found their inhibitions drop while on group tours. More vacation sex stats and information can be found at Prothema.

Survey Says...

To all those guys who thought that women were just pandering to them when they said that size doesn’t matter, it turns out they really weren’t. In two separate surveys about what women find attractive in a penis, one that was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that length came in fifth out of seven attributes. In a survey by Cosmopolitan, 89% of the respondents were not concerned with penis length.

So, what really matter to women about male members? General appearance and grooming. While every man’s willy is unique and the one they’re born with, it appears that guys can boost their appeal with some manscaping. Sex educator Reid Mihalko offers some groin grooming tips in a story about these surveys in Salon.

However, not all surveys make people feel better about their sexuality. Lisa of Sweet Woman, Dirty Mind found a few that were designed to make people feel guilty and ashamed of their sexuality enough to seek treatment or buy self-help books.

"Just about anyone could label themselves a sex addict based on these tests,” Lisa says. “I don’t deny people can have problems with their sexual behavior. But the 'sex addict' label isn’t helpful or supported by science. It gives people an excuse for their behavior, while falsely leading them to believe they are doing something to address it. In the meantime, real mental health problems such as depression or anxiety may go untreated.”

The Mystery of the Kiss

Many people perceive and feel that kisses can be beautifully romantic or even highly erotic. Yet, according to a story in bbc.com, only 46% of human cultures engage in kissing as do very few animals. The thought behind is the belief that many other mammals, primates, and humans are turned on by smells or pheromones. Since humans have a terrible sense of smell, it’s believed that people get lip-to-lip in order to get close enough to smell their partner.

That doesn’t quite explain why almost half of people on the planet don’t kiss. Many hunter-gatherer groups showed no evidence of kissing or desire to do so. Some even considered it revolting. The Mehinaku tribe in Brazil reportedly said it was "gross." At the same time, Hindu Vedic Sanskrit texts from over 3,500 years ago described kissing as “inhaling each other's soul.” Then, there’s William Jankowiak of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas who says that kissing seems to be a product of western societies that’s passed on from one generation to the next.

Darth Vader Is a Sex Machine

If you thought nothing could get geekier or nerdier than Star Wars, think again. A group of three people – two guys and one woman – used $3,000 worth of vibrators, butt plugs and other sex toys to build a seven-foot tall Darth Vader, or as they nicknamed it, Darth Vibrator. And the team did not forget the batteries! When it’s “turned on,” it buzzes and moves, even down to the fingertip bullets. The video and step-by-step pictures of how to make one yourself or pin to your Pinterest DIY/craft page can be found at Distractify.