I've been on the receiving end of these statements because I've chosen not to bear children. My reasons to remain childfree are plentiful (and nobody's business). Yet I'm constantly asked to justify my choice. Here's a sampling: 1. Economics: Children are expensive. As of August 2013, the average cost for a middle class family to raise one child for 18 years is $304,480. Giving birth can cost between $3,296 and $37,227. Sending a child to college costs between $8,893 to $22,203 per year, per...

When it comes to dealing with pregnant women, I'm no expert. Hell, I still don't even know how to figure out women in general. In fact, I'm the antithesis of an expert. Luckily for you, I've made just about every single stupid mistake and placed my foot so far in my mouth during my wife's pregnancies that I'm overqualified to speak to you about things you need to know to avoid getting knocked out by the knocked up. Here are the 10 most important things to remember. 1. Feed her constantly. Everyone...

Mind you, I've never actually been to a strip club. But I had imagined a dark, dingy place where men slink in and out with their eyes averted, afraid they might run into their wives' Pilates instructor (or something like that). Armed with two female friends and more than a few whiskey gingers, I walked into Headquarters Gentlemen's Club to watch Belle Knox's debut stripping performance on Tuesday night with a tote bag full of gym clothes and a grandpa sweater on. Let's just say the bouncers seemed...

Anyone who has watched even a few minutes of porn may end up with some very particular ideas about what real-world sex entails. Porn -- at least, the kind where super-toned, tanned, hairless women are penetrated in a variety of acrobatic positions by equally toned, tanned men -- is full of myths about sex. Redditor black_brotha decided to ask women on the site what they "learned" from porn that turned out to be completely untrue in the real world. Here are 11 of the most worrying un-truths women...

I have a couple of girl friends whom I really envy. They know exactly what they want — or rather, what they don’t want.  They don’t want to have children.  Two of my girl friends are childless by choice, which means that while they enjoy being involved in the lives other people’s children, they have no interest at all in becoming parents of their own. There isn’t a doubt in either of their minds that kids are not a possibility. My own feelings on the subject are much more hazy. In childhood,...

Women may be having more types of sex than ever before -- but less sex overall. So say the findings from Britain's third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), conducted from 2010 to 2012. The 8869 women polled for Natsal-3 reported higher incidences of sex before age 16, same-sex encounters and anal sex than their counterparts in the first and second Natsal surveys, conducted in 1990-1991 and 1999-2001 respectively, as well as a declining frequency in sexual encounters. Sixteen...

Talking about sex during your formative years can be incredibly awkward -- even squirm-inducing. But whether you experience formal sex ed, awkward "birds and the bees" talks, candid conversations with friends or all or none of the above, it's all theoretical until you're actually doing it -- which can make for some surprises along the way. On a Nov. 7 Reddit thread, commenters answered the question "what is something about sex that you wish someone had told you?" The thoughtful responses touched...

Facing a double mastectomy with grace takes courage. Facing one with courage and joy is extraordinary. But that’s exactly what Deborah Cohan did yesterday right before she went into surgery to have her breasts removed. Cohan, an Ob/Gyn and mom of two, held a dance party with her medical team in the operating room of Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco. This inspiring 6-minute-long video, posted on YouTube, shows Cohan busting some serious moves as she wiggles and twerks to Beyonce’s hit “Get...

Women who go braless may actually have the right idea, new research suggests. According to the results of a 15-year study in France published Wednesday, bras provide no benefits to women and may actually be harmful to breasts over time. "Medically, physiologically, anatomically, the breast does not benefit from being deprived of gravity," Jean-Denis Rouillon, a professor at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, told France Info. Conducting the study at the university's hospital, Rouillon...

It's only March and we're already seeing it: "Kate Beckinsale's Hot Bikini Body: Tips From Her Trainer"; "Snooki is 'Beach Body Ready' in New Bikini Pictures"; "'Summer isn't far away': Victoria Beckham prepares her bikini body."But what does "bikini body" even mean? We happen to believe that if you're physically able to put on a bathing suit, you're bikini-ready. This week we asked readers on Facebook to send us images of their perfectly beach-ready bodies -- unstarved and unairbrushed. We've...

Female nudity isn't hard to come by in the media, but the bodies we see usually represent a fairly limited scope of sizes and shapes. The Nu Project, a collection of nude photographs shot by Minneapolis photographer Matt Blum, seeks to add some variety to the mix. Blum started The Nu Project in 2005 but said it really took off when his wife, Katy Kessler, became the project's editor. Blum sees the photos as filling a void. "When I started shooting nudes there was no project like it," he told...

Alain de Botton's latest book How To Think More About Sex has an eye-catching title, and is an intelligent discussion of society's greatest obsession. "We don’t think too much about sex," he says. "We’re merely thinking about it in the wrong way." We interviewed the British writer and public intellectual via email about how none of us are 'normal', why sex will always be difficult, and what the ultimate point of sex is for us all. Why did you choose to write about sex? I wrote it because it's...

A year after the 1996 Olympics, I ranked twenty-third in the world in the 100-meter breaststroke and twenty-sixth in the 200-meter. My parents did their best to shelter me from the unanimous criticism of public opinion. I didn't need anyone to tell me how bad I stunk; I knew that already. The harsh numbers of my ranking told the whole story. At least that's what I thought until I got acquainted with a whole new kind of low. I had come into the living room of our house to find the newspaper because...

I was recently diagnosed with a medical condition. I've got a mild case of it, but it brings a few troublesome complications regardless, nothing serious. And as one might well do, the first thing I did when I got home upon receiving my diagnosis was Google it to learn more. The list of symptoms included what took me to treatment in the first place, a good number of troubles I don't have, and a surprising entry: poor body image. The diagnosis? Scoliosis. Now, if I'm being officially diagnosed for...

It seems that the age old question -- do women prefer chocolate or sex -- has finally been answered. At least for Jezebel readers. The publication has just concluded it's month-long face-off of sexual acts vs. types of chocolate. The winner? Good, old-fashioned sex -- missionary style. Missionary trounced it's final competitor, brownies, by a wopping 6,350 votes to 3,443 votes. However, a survey from last October concluded that women thought about food and dieting more than they thought about sex,...

"Well, with middle-aged women, it gets easier to put it on and harder to take it off." At the ripe not-so-old age of 34, Betty (Draper) Francis is sitting in her doctor's office facing two of her worst nightmares -- she's "old" and "fat." Last night's episode of "Mad Men" brought Betty back into the spotlight after she was noticeably left out of the season premiere. And though her storyline included a cancer scare and an almost-touching phone call with ex-husband Don, all anyone could talk about...

How much do single women value sex? According to a new survey, it depends where you live. Online dating site, Chemistry.com, asked over 10 million singles across the country whether they strongly believed that sex was an essential part of a relationship. The question was part of a larger personality test, overseen by the website’s chief scientific adviser, biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher and addressed both men and women. After breaking down the data, Chemistry.com looked at the 10 cities...

Facebook Timeline may be exacerbating the weight insecurity that many users already feel by making it easier to compare their weights at different points in their lives, a new survey suggests. Researchers at the The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore commissioned a public survey of 600 Facebook users age 16 to 40 and discovered that the majority of users with Timeline had used the feature to compare their weights at different points in their lives. In addition, 14 percent...

How many times today have you texted or emailed while talking to someone else? How often do you sit with someone and engage with your phone rather than the human being across from you? How frequently does a glance at your inbox inject you with a fresh dose of anxiety? At our recent panel at SXSW Interactive on women's online "performance anxiety," we talked about the pressure women feel to present their ideal selves online, but the conversation ultimately turned to the enormous amount of time the...

You may not recognize Alejandra Gaitan’s face, but her voice and especially a certain area of her body have won her millions of views (and a number of sponsorships) on YouTube. Gaitan, who calls herself “The Reply Girl,” has carved out a career making YouTube videos commenting on other videos on the site. While a major source of YouTube’s democratic appeal is that everyone from your grandmother to a preteen can upload and discuss videos, Gaitan’s unconventional methods have earned her both advertising...