A New Day. A New Website.

I couldn't be more excited about getting this website back up and running. I had a really cool website up until a year ago, when the files were lost and I had to build a new one from scratch. It was my amazing tech-savvy daughter, Reagan, who came to my rescue. She helped save the domain and get things moving in the right direction. I am so happy with the final product but would love to hear your thoughts. Let me know if you have any feedback or thoughts about content and/or design.

In addition to working on this site, I spent most of 2017 teaching and working on the 6th edition of my human sexuality textbook. I'm so excited that Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity has just been published! I got my copy last week and was so excited to have a look. Some students have told me that they think textbook revisions are only done to generate money for authors and publishers. While this might be true for some, I can honestly tell you that when I commit myself to a textbook revision, I spend months combing through research searching for the newest and most relevant studies to include in each chapter. There is quite a bit of research going on in this field and as a result my new edition contains many updates and includes many new groundbreaking studies.

Since the last edition of my textbook, same-sex marriage is now legal throughout the United States (and I love that my site became active on World AIDS Day- a very special day of remembrance). The legalization of same-sex marriage was an enormous change that has affected the lives of many Americans. I discuss this at length and also include a ton of new information on other recent changes that affect our understanding of sexuality, such as: the effects of politics, privilege, education, and power on sexuality research; the practice of non-committed relationships on college campuses, romantic ambiguity and romantic exploitation; and the increased popularity of social dating apps on college campuses, such as Tinder, HER, Grindr, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel. I've also updated many sections, such as recent changes in the gender landscape and gender spectrum, including research on the use puberty delay medications in transgender children; environmental and dietary causes of decreasing sperm counts, including the roles that BPA and phthalate exposure, stress, laptop and cell phone usage play; the use of Internet and electronic technologies, including Pornhub, forums/subreddits, Tumblr, virtual reality pornography, webcamming and pornographic image sharing; Internet sexual addictions and the effects of Internet and electronic technologies on sexual functioning; the newest FDA-approved intrauterine devices (IUDs); the use of emergency contraception on college campuses and the increased practice of prescribing hormonal contraception for non-contraceptive reasons; the role that human papillomavirus (HPV) plays in cervical, anal, and throat cancers; sexual violence and sexual consent; the use of performance enhancing drugs and sexual functioning; new LGBT retirement and living communities; as well as treatments for various sexual disorders, including problems with sexual desire, sexual arousal, and sexual pain.

The publication of a new edition is a bit like birthing a new baby. It takes months of development, work, and dedication (ok, birthing an actual baby is much harder, but I'm sure you get the analogy). I am really proud of the new edition and hope that if you're using it in class you'll send me your questions, thoughts, and feedback. User feedback is very important to me. Also, don't forget to tell your professor that I'm willing to talk to your human sexuality class via Skype (or other video technologies). All they need to do is contact me to schedule a call. I'd love to have the opportunity to talk to your class and hear what's on their minds.

Thanks again for checking in. Come back soon!