How chronic fatigue syndrome affects a woman's sex life

I'm very proud of my new Elle.com interview on sex and chronic fatigue syndrome. I did one on sex and depression and have been wanting to explore physical health in addition to mental health. I hope you'll check it out, especially if your life is affected by CFS, and if you're a woman interested in being profiled in this series or know someone who is, contact me at ellesexstories at gmail.com and tell me a little about yourself and what you'd want to focus on in the interview, which can cover any aspect of sex and dating (although I have a fair amount of polyamory and open relationship interviews at the moment). Thank you!

After divorcing at 55, she's having multiple orgasms and the best sex of her life

I was thrilled to get to conduct this interview about multiple orgasms at age 77, among other topics, for my Elle.com series Love, Actually, which so far has covered subjects like a swingers cruise, coming out to your husband as a submissive into BDSM, a spouse's gender transition, sexual desire after childbirth and dating while disabled.



I found my subject this week an inspiration and hope you will too. And no, it's not because she's having multiple orgasms (though I'm happy for her), but because I think her story exemplifies how your life can be going in one downward direction for a long time and then you can make positive changes and steer it in a better direction. Did this happen for her overnight? Of course not, but it did happen, and that's something I think we can all relate to and strive for, whether in the sexual arena or not. (That was my personal takeaway; the goal of these interviews isn't to be "inspiration" but simply to be honest, I just wanted to share why this week's resonated so much with me.)

I actually asked senior sex expert Joan Price if she could put out feelers to her network for women over 50 who'd talk to me and that's how this came about, and I'd love to profile more women over 50 (see below for other women I'd like to speak to for the series, which features anonymous women sharing what their sex and dating lives are really like).

Check out all the rest of these sex interviews and if you are a woman who wants to be profiled and has an interesting sex and/or dating life, please email me at ellesexstories at gmail dot com - I'm deliberately keeping that vague because if you think it's interesting, if there's a burning secret you have or something you frantically rush to discuss with your friends, I'd love to hear about it. Specifically, I'm looking to interview a single woman who's actively dating (whether sex is involved or not), a woman to talk about what sex is like after an abortion (and dating, if applicable), a woman with a specific fetish, a woman in a long distance relationship or one who travels frequently for work, a woman in a relationship with another woman, and a transgender woman. Those are a few of the types of women I want to interview, but by no means an exclusive list. And for anyone who's asking, why women? Well, Elle is a magazine geared toward women and this is for their website.

I want to interview you about your sex life if...

I want to interview women (you can be anonymous) about your sex life if:

You've kept (or are keeping) a sex secret from a partner. This could be anything from your porn viewing habits or a particular fetish or sexual interest to sexting or flirting with someone, etc. Anything that would fall under "sex secret" is fair game.

And then for a new series of interviews I'm conducting for Elle.com, the first of which, about polyamory, is up now ("I'm in a Relationship With Five People. Just One Is My Husband."), I'd like to talk women who fit any of the following:

You've exclusively dated/slept with people of one gender and after 10 or more years decided to date people of another gender.

You're a single college student.

You've only slept with one partner (and are still sleeping with them).

You're having an affair.

You engage in a specific fetish.

You're in a relationship and you and/or your partner deal with mental health issues.

You're in a long distance relationship.

You're pregnant or recently gave birth.

You have a highly unique aspect of your sex (and/or dating) life that you'd like to open up about. I will leave it up to you as to what's "highly unique" but if you know any women with such a story who might be interested in being profiled, have them get in touch.

Email me at rachelkb at gmail.com with "Interview" in the subject line and a little about your story and I can give you more information.

Feminism, BDSM and submission at Elle.com

I profiled a woman who is nothing like Anastasia Steele for "What It's Really Like to Be a Submissive and a Feminist" at Elle.com. Please check it out and if you like it, feel free to share it on your social media accounts. I like that they asked me to do an as told to because so many pieces about submission in the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey have drawn giant, sweeping, problematic conclusions about submissive women. This is one woman's story (and of course, she said a lot of other amazing stuff but I couldn't include it all, but still, I thought what she had to say was fascinating).

All the naked ladies reading literature

and wrote about it for Elle.com. What was it like to hear naked women read from work by Woody Allen, Lorrie Moore, Lolita and more? Check out my piece. Fun fact: the last place I saw naked women in public was at the strip club where I saw Belle Knox strip, and I also interviewed her for Elle.com. The two environments couldn't have been more different.

Duke porn star Belle Knox talks breaking into XXX, sex workers rights, Catholic school sex education and more

I interviewed Duke University freshman and porn star Belle Knox at Elle.com - we discussed how she got into porn, sex workers rights, her Catholic school education, her porn role models, her relationship status and more. If you like it, I'd love it if you'd pass the link on in some way. I had a tight word count so didn't get to include every interesting thing she said, but she was very articulate, passionate and, in my opinion, fascinating. I know I certainly was not as eloquent at 18.