Articles
Read articles and blog posts written by Betty Dodson, Carlin Ross, Bodysex Facilitators, and guest writers
My Menopause Story
I’ve been taking hormone replacement therapy for nearly 30 years. It’s improved my quality of life and physical health. I wouldn’t want to live without it. At age 37, my periods stopped abruptly. I would awaken at night, hot and drenched in sweat. These episodes...
Womanhood in a Broken System
When I was 17 I decided I was ready to have penetrative sex with my then boyfriend. I went to planned parenthood with my mom and they put me on the pill. I gave it a good try for a few months and the mood swings were not working for me. I went back in, told them and...
Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just Me?
Revisiting Menopausal Hormone Therapy When I was a new Nurse Practitioner (NP), the Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) evidence-based medicine guidelines scared the sh * t out of many prescribers. I was one of them. HRT went from being the miracle drugs for treating...
The Life Process of Menopause
Menopause is a Life Process not a medical condition. And it’s not something that’s unfortunately wrong with 51% of the human population and toothed whales. I’m still learning how to menopause in a good way. The last four years have been the hardest health years of my...
Hemorrhaging
As wild as they are, the hot flashes I’ve started having the past couple months are easier than the hemorrhaging I was experiencing the last couple years. Depending on who you talk to, hemorrhaging is a sign of perimenopause and also caused by environmental factors....
This Is How I’m Going to Do Menopause
The only information I had about menopause came from vaginal dryness commercials, sit com punchlines, and Betty’s description of her “heat orgasms”. At the stroke of 50, I started to feel like I was losing my grip on reality. I felt angry all the time. I woke up...
We Were All There to Heal, to Feel Something Other Than Fear
We thought we’d be celebrating the first Madame President but instead we packed up and headed out for Bodysex with heavy hearts. As my flight took off, I thought about how I would open the workshop. I feared that the election may create tension between the...
Abortion
We wrote about our experiences with abortion. Browse the links below to read the full post.Abortion: A Self-Reflection "Pregnancy can be a natural process until it goes horribly wrong."by Grace OasisThe Abortion Issue is a Red Herring ". . . our rightful place as...
My Abortion Experience
Amber Thurman, Carman Broedster, Candi Miller, Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, Nevaeh Crain, and Josseli Barnica bled out or succumbed to infection in hospitals since Roe v Wade was overturned. Most were carrying intended pregnancies – most were mothers who left children...
Gut-Punched by the Dobbs Decision
I was a teenager in 1973 when Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court. The 70’s was a time when women gained so many basic rights – The right to own a home The right to have a credit card The right to work while pregnant Just to name a few. I was optimistic about...
The Fullness of Motherhood and the Need for Choice
I have three amazing beautiful little kids aged 13, 10, and 6. Often times when I’m out alone with the kids or with my husband most people passing by make comments like “phew I bet you’re busy”, or “i bet your hands are full”. These people aren’t wrong, not only are...
The Abortion Issue is a Red Herring
During my fertile years I had one abortion, one miscarriage, and one foster daughter. Because of the diligent work of The Janes and the wise women in the 1960s and 70s, when I had an abortion at 21 in 1999, I had a different experience than many in the past. My mom...
Abortion: A Self-Reflection
As a child born in the early 1960’s the message was simple: abortion is a sin and so is sex outside of marriage. So, I never thought much about abortions or marriage. Then at the age of 12, I remember my teacher asking if there are any circumstances when abortion is...
I Didn’t Know I Was Good at Sex
For most of my life, I believed that I just wasn’t good at sex. I considered myself to be later bloomer with partner sex. I was 31 when I had intercourse for the first time. After about an hour of kissing and touching, we went to my bedroom. I was aroused and eager. I...
Death and Renewal to Sexual Lies I No Longer Believe
I recently heard a famous woman remark about how ugly her pussy had become now that she was older and my heart broke. She’s brilliant, hilarious, creative, and I knew the words weren’t hers. I suspect she’d been taught, like so many of us, that denigrating her pussy...
The Lie of the Prize and My Shift to Power
“How to Make Him Love You” “50 Tips to Blow His Mind in Bed”“Make Him Yours”“Man Melting Massage”“100 Hottest Women” These were the messages on Cosmo covers I read throughout my adolescence. Nobody told me it outright but the biggest take aways I got from this was how...
Oh the Lies
I was pondering what are myths? I started with google and found Joseph Campbell’s and Wikipedia’s definition of myths and their functions. I never realized there where so many definitions and functions of myths and how my culture is ladened with myth, not just sexual...
Mine and Mine Alone
Sweet 16. Butterflies.Hours of kissing.Deliciousness in his touch.Subtle hints when softly brushing past my breasts.Accidentally, yet intentionally.Opening the button of my pants, hinting. Leaving it at that.Hot breaths sparking between us.Lust. Desire.So much...
The Myth About My Sexuality
For English, right click and choose translate while in the Chrome browser Als tiener bracht ik zomers veel tijd door in het zwembad. Ik genoot ervan om in het water te duiken of onder water het hele bad over te zwemmen. We speelden vaak balspelletjes: de jongens...
I Thought Was Too Much
“You’re a gay man trapped in a woman’s body”, announced my boyfriend as he grabbed my upper arms and forcibly pushed me off of his body. I was stunned….and hurt. I thought it would be sexy to crawl up his body like a cat and lick his face. He didn’t agree. It was...
Everything Was Better with Betty
“Did you meet the hot girl with the green eyes?” “Green eyes?, I thought to myself as I ran through all the people I met during orientation. I was 14 years-old - I’d overheard this conversation while stocking shelves on the first day of my new job. I remember...
Betty
Betty, oohh Betty, sexy generous and cool Betty. That goddess introduced me to a community, to Carlin, to love and respect, to generosity and security. She taught me that time is important and it's not. She taught me how to become an abstract body that is no longer...
My Memories of Betty
“A sister needs our help,” said 87-year-old Betty as she crawled on all fours across the circle and sat next to me. It was my Bodysex certification workshop and we were practicing the breath of fire. To my horror, Betty put her hand on my stomach, my most-hated and...
Tribute to Betty Dodson
I stumbled across Betty Dodson’s life’s work while I was looking for a comprehensive sex program that included nudity. Well, I found that and more. Betty’s books and art work challenged my puritan views of sex and showed me a path to reclaim my sexuality. As I explore...