One of the best orgasms I’ve had from a vibrator ever.

Rating: 9 deep exhales out of 10.

Soraya is a beautiful dual vibrator by Lelo. Firstly, by ‘dual vibrator’ I mean, it can be used both for penetration and clitoral stimulation at the same time – it has both a shaft and a tickler (some of you may know this form of vibrator as ‘The Rabbit’).

Secondly, it is waterproof. Yep, Soraya is part of the Insignia range by Lelo and all of the products in this range are waterproof, yes, fully submergible – hello, glass of red, bubble bath and orgasms. Note: It has been a little while coming on the Lelo front because it is actually really hard to design a high quality vibrator, that is rechargeable and fully waterproof.

Thirdly, she is powerful. Soraya has 8 unique vibration modes and full control of vibration intensity with each different mode.

Initially I used Soraya just clitorally, which was quite different to my favourite, Gigi (for the clit) – so initially I wasn’t blown away. But after having played around with the different modes, my partner and I worked out that you can turn off the shaft and just have the clit tickler vibrating, to the point where you can actually use it hands free! Yep, just insert, turn it on (if you want) and away you go.

The shaft is a good size so it feels satisfying and intense. For extra intensity, work your pelvic muscles at the same time. For me, the tickler sat perfectly on my clit and stimulated it right from the get go. With other vibrators this is something I’d have to play around a lot with because for different reasons the clit tickler just never sat right, to the point where it would become a distraction. However, not with the Soraya, it was a perfect and wonderful fit.

The build up to orgasm was amazing – often this is just as good as the actual orgasm/release for me – I put this down to the dual action being able to penetrate while clitorally stimulate. For me, I generally prefer a dildo or a vibrator that isn’t vibrating during penetration as it feels more natural and this is why I love the Soraya and particularly this setting.

The only issue I had with Soraya is that it takes a little while to get use to the modes. So it may be worth laying around with it and just testing out the settings and the buttons and seeing what will tickle your fancy.

I would recommend this toy for single ladies who want both clitoral and vaginal penetration. It can be a fun couple toy, if your partner is completely comfortable with just enjoying watching you orgasm or playing with your breasts or booty while you get down with Soraya.

Soraya is a high price point but completely worth it for the quality, versatility and efficiency.

Oh yes and the orgasm was hard, intense and fast and the build up was delicious!

Find Soraya here. x

So, while we’re talking alignment of the external powers of the world, yesterday was quite the colourful day. I was sitting at the beautiful café Mitte, in North Fitzroy, and underneath their cake cabinet was a quote written on a blackboard…

“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.” (Paul Klee).

The quote resonated with me.

Then last night, I stumbled across a blog post by the Female Entrepreneurs Association, which gave a shout-out to a practice called Colorstrology. Yep, if my dad were reading this he’d probably say something like “eh, drop the new-age bullshit and do some work”. However, I of course was intrigued. Colorstrology is matching a colour with your birthday and providing you with personality traits that align with this colour.

If you’ve got a few minutes for some self-insight/fun this afternoon I’d recommend checking out the Colorstrology site. Oh and I’d love to know what you got and if it sounds like you, because mine were spot on! And if you’re interested they’re below.

FEBRUARY 8

The colour for February is Sheer Lilac: inspiring and imaginative, this colour invokes the qualities of humanity and kindness. Sheer Lilac helps us comprehend the spirit of mankind and allows us to experience our friends and the people in our community as family. Use this colour when emotionally entangled, as it can help you practice and understand detachment. Wear, meditate or surround yourself with Sheer Lilac to enhance your spirituality and compassion.

BOOM TISH! I have been so attracted to the colour purple lately, actually my whole life that my friends who hate (and there are a few of them) the colour have been steering clear of me. Reading about this last night just affirmed my attraction to it and simply reminded me of the importance of connecting with the world around me.

The colour for the 8^th of February is Crocus: people born on this day tend to be chamring and good-looking (oh yeah!). Although warm-hearted, your emotions are not easy for you to handle (raw emotion). You have a tough exterior but a sensitive feeling nature. You may use more energy keeping people away than you do connecting with them on an intimate level. Work and financial success usually come easily to you. Your personal colour embodies the qualities of light and joy. Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with Crocus motivates you to connect with others on a heart level and keeps you from becoming too serious or intense.

Anyway, that’s me. Feel free to talk to me about you. I love it and I hope you get something out of it too.
And remember, when it all becomes a little bit too much in your own head, take some time to just connect with the beauty of the world around you. Occasionally it works for me.

Oh and I’m pretty much off to buy a Sheer Lilac top, or maybe some pants.

x

Study: Exercise can lead to female orgasm, sexual pleasure.

In findings from a first-of-its-kind study by Indiana University researchers have confirmed anecdotal evidence that exercise, absent of sex and fantasies can lead women to orgasm.

While the findings are new, reports of this phenomenon, sometimes called “coregasm” because of its association with exercises for core abdominal muscles have circulated in the media for years, said Debby Herbenick PhD, co-director of the Centre for Sexual Health Promotion in IU’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

“The most common exercises associated with exercise-induced orgasm were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, biking/spinning and weight lifting,” Herbenick said. “These data are interesting because they suggest that orgasm is not necessarily a sexual event, and they may also teach us more about the bodily processes underlying women’s experiences of orgasm.”

The results are based on an online survey of 124 women who reported experiencing exercise-induced orgasms (EIO) and 246 women who experienced exercise-induced orgasms (EISP). The women ranged in age from 18-63 and most were in a relationship or married, and about 69% identified themselves as heterosexual.

Here are some key findings:

• About 40 percent of women who had experienced EIO and EISP had done so on more than 10 occasions.
• Most of the women in the EIO group reported feeling some degree of self-consciousness when exercising in public places, with about 20 percent reporting they could not control their experience.
• Most women reporting EIO said they were not fantasizing sexually or thinking about anyone they were attracted to during their experiences.
• Diverse types of physical exercise were associated with EIO and EISP. Of the EIO group, 51.4 percent reported experiencing an orgasm in connection with abdominal exercises within the previous 90 days. Others reported experiencing orgasm in connection to such exercises as weight lifting (26.5 percent), yoga (20 percent), bicycling (15.8), running (13.2 percent) and walking/hiking (9.6 percent).
• In open-ended responses, ab exercises were particularly associated with the “captain’s chair,” which consists of a rack with padded arm rests and back support that allows the legs to hang free. The goal is to repeatedly lift the knees toward the chest or toward a 90-degree angle with the body.

Herbenick said that the mechanisms behind exercise-induced orgasm and exercise-induced sexual pleasure remain unclear and, in future research, they hope to learn more about triggers for both. She also said that study findings may help women who experience EIO/EISP feel more normal about their experiences or put them into context. Herbenick cautioned that it is not yet known whether such exercises can improve women’s sexual experiences. “It may be that exercise — which is already known to have significant benefits to health and well-being — has the potential to enhance women’s sexual lives as well.”

The study did not determine how common it is for women to experience exercise-induced orgasm or exercise-induced sexual pleasure. But the authors note that it took only five weeks to recruit the 370 women who experienced the phenomenon, suggesting it is not rare.

“Magazines and blogs have long highlighted cases of what they sometimes call ‘coregasms,’” Herbenick said. “But aside from early reports by Kinsey and colleagues, this is an area of women’s sexual health research that has been largely ignored over the past six decades.”

There are some theories that may provide an explanation. Dr. Victoria Zdrok, a sex therapist and author of “The Anatomy of Pleasure,” told Men’s Health in 2007 that a lot of women build tension in their legs before they orgasm. “So, when a woman exercises, the release of endorphins and dopamine, which are necessary for orgasm, combined with the tension in the lower extremities, can cause the” stimulation, she explained.

But another expert, author of “Fearless Sex” Dr. Joy Davidson, told the magazine it had to do with strong pelvic muscles. “When they’re doing certain exercises that are tapping into the deep core or into the quads and inner thighs, what they wind up doing is almost automatically squeezing pelvic muscles in addition,” she said.

We’ve got a theory too…

After a little bit of contemplation… maybe it has something to do with the anatomy of the internal clitoris? Our internal clitoris extends about 9cm in length internally and when at rest certain parts of clitoris point toward the thigh or the hamstring and when stimulated point up toward the spine. Perhaps when the muscles that surround this part of the clitoris are being ‘worked’ like in exercise they too stimulate these parts of the internal clitoris.

Of course, we too agree that the stronger your core, pelvic floor and surrounding muscles are, the more accessible orgasms could be for you.

We thank her for confidence and strength in standing up for the rights of those in our community who face prejudice based on their sexuality or sexual identity.

Here’s to marriage equality in Australia!

In The Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler colourfully said, “Why do you need a hand-gun if you’ve got a semi-automatic?” in reference, of course, to the wonderful clitoris – the only organ in the human body with a sole purpose of pleasure. There are many reasons why we have sex and a great deal of literature about how we obtain pleasure and more often than not, the clitoris is a main contributor to female fun. But do we truly understand the anatomy of the clitoris? The answer is, no! Hence I’m writing this blog (information for which was originally posted, here).

In 1998 findings were published regarding the microscopic nerve supply to the clitoris. Research had been undertaken by urologist Helen O’Connell of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, that’s right, our home-city home-girl set out to understand the clitoris using MRI (this had been done for men with regards to their sexual function in the ‘70s). And only in 2005 was her work published by the The American Urological Association – 7 YEARS AGO!?!

Still today, all we know about the clitoris is that it’s the glans (not glands) that sit above our labia minora, it’s ‘the little man in the boat’, it’s the bean we flick (oh, I cringe a little at the thought of these names and sayings), we are using it and seeing it EVERYDAY (some of us) yet, we just assume that it sits there, as a little button, with a whole lot of power. Right?

In 2009, not long after O’Connell’s work was published, French researchers Dr. Odile Buisson and Dr. Pierre Foldes gave the medical world (and now, all of us) its first complete 3-D sonography of the stimulated clitoris. Refer to the image gallery above. The two of them did this work for three years without proper funding. With great thanks to them, we now understand how erectile tissue of the clitoris engorges and surrounds the vagina.

A little about how it works…

So the glans (which is visible to us, externally) are connected to the body or the shaft of the internal clitoris, which is made up of two corpora cavernosa. When erect the corpora cavernosa encompass the vagina on either side, wrapping around it essentially giving it a big ol’ old loved up excited hug. Two parts of the corpora cavernosa split off and extend further, this extension is called the crura (there are two, one on each cavernosa). When at rest they point toward the thigh, and stretch back toward the spine when erect.

Near this crura (or crus) on either side of the vaginal opening are the clitoral vestibules (or clitoral bulbs), internally these lie under the labia majora. When they become stimulated they become engorged with blood and cuff the vaginal opening causing the vulva to expand outward. Quoted from the original article, “Get these puppies excited, and you’ve got a hungrier, tighter-feeling vaginal opening in which to explore!”

In knowing this, we understand where the VAGINAL ORGASM actually comes from. Essentially your vaginal orgasm is an internal clitoral orgasm. WHOA, WHOA, MIND BLOWN, YES?!?

Now, surely how you go about achieving an orgasm and the exploration within your sex life – will be affected positively. Exciting, huh? Yep!

It is of course important to acknowledge, that our likes, dislikes and physicality’s are all slightly varying and nobody is the same.  However, knowledge is power and exploration with those we trust with our bodies can be one of life’s most intimate and rewarding pleasures.

Knowing the anatomy of the clitoris provides significant information for individuals, and paves the way for further research of female sexuality – which is sadly underrepresented and misinformed in several textbooks, professional medical guides and on the Internet.

Understanding the internal clitoris also provides hope of recovery for women who have experienced clitoral mutilation. Dr. Pierre Foldes does some amazing restorative work for women who have experienced this barbaric custom – and I can’t help but have a feeling that such productive research into women’s sexuality has only just begun. And of course, greater knowledge can only mean greater access and greater pleasure for all involved.

Thank you to the Doctors involved in this research, Dr. Buisson, Dr. Foldes and Dr. O’Connell and thank you to Ms. M for her wonderful post – where a lot of this information came from.

Let the good times roll.

Oh and if you’d like to see an amazing clip of the wonderful Betty Dodson drawing the Internal Clitoris, please go here – it’s well worth it.

iPhone4S versus SIRI vibrator

]]> http://www.miamuse.com.au/blog/iphone4s-versus-siri-vibrator-one-of-them-will-leave-you-completely-satisfied/feed/ 0 http://www.miamuse.com.au/blog/response-to-miranda-devines-column-on-penny-wong-and-london-riots-this-is-not-the-missing-chapter-of-the-crucible/ http://www.miamuse.com.au/blog/response-to-miranda-devines-column-on-penny-wong-and-london-riots-this-is-not-the-missing-chapter-of-the-crucible/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:40:30 +0000 Mia http://www.miamuse.com.au/blog/?p=174 On Sunday, Miranda Devine wrote a column about Penny Wong’s partner announcing her pregnancy and linked it to the London riots. She suggested that a fatherless society is to blame for London burning, because a home without a father means there is no-one around to exert control over wayward children.

OH NO, what will happen to all the children of lesbian mothers? What city will they burn next?

As a gay woman I’m offended. Primarily by the argument that suggests that two women will not be able to raise a child as successfully as that of the nuclear family.

It can be a lengthy process for a gay couple to have a child and by the time they do, they’ve presumably got nothing but love and commitment to the cause, and surely, this is what family is about?
Unique situations, upbringings, and hard knocks, create dynamic, beautiful people who, ideally, enrich the lives of those around them.

And as for the riots, well aside from the thugs, there are some political and parenting lessons to be learned from London.

When a child has no hope, lives in a dire situation where there is no chance for them to succeed, in any sense of the word, when the parents let them down, the school and/or the system lets them down, then London burns.

London doesn’t (and didn’t) burn because their mother’s are lesbians.

It’s also a broad and ignorant statement to suggest that fatherless means the woman is to blame or that lesbian mothers are to blame. In actual fact, Miranda, fatherless is when the father isn’t committed physically, emotionally or financially to the child. When the father isn’t there for them. So why bother writing it, Devine? Yes, your bigotry creates controversy, it gets you more readers, it generates more traffic to your website which for you, is just a job, but for me; equality is something I fight for daily and these are important semantics.

Amongst a lot of other mess, you managed to ask what the big deal about a lesbian politician and her partner getting pregnant is, which too offends me. It also highlights your lack of understanding toward the issues gay people face. No wonder Penny Wong doesn’t publicly push for gay rights when people with power speak such diatribe as you.

Miranda, essentially your column speaks to bigots and nurtures hate in our society.

But you write what you will and I’ll write what I will. I’d just like you to know that for me, being gay means essentially I’m still considered a second-class citizen in this country. A country I was born in, that is my home. This same homeland denies me the same rights as my younger sister, as my best friends from high-school, as my work colleagues. Apparently when I crushed on a chick who took me horse-riding when I was eleven, I signed up to the fight for equality.

Miranda Devine I am offended by your lack of compassion and basic understanding for the human condition –the condition of one of your friends and maybe in the future, one of your children.

Anyway, I’ve heard that it’s better to ignore columns like yours.

It’s like fighting with a brick wall, no matter how valid your points are, the wall will never hear you’ll perpetually be fighting for a lost cause.

This is probably how the majority of the youth in London felt recently, when no-one heard their argument – especially their absent fathers… oh, and Penny Wong!?!

Mia Muse wrote a an article for the mX newspaper about being lead astray when you’re falling for someone. Enjoy.