We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - Sexy Qs, Farewell to Faking It & Vouching for Vibrators

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

1. If you’re like 75% of women, Amanda’s hot tips for setting yourself up for success in the bedroom. 2. Detoxing from religious purity / sex shame culture, and raising kids with a healthier relationship to sex.  3. The one sex subject that’s a hard no for Abby and Glennon. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay subscription starting at 12.99 per month. Okay, everybody, we are back. Thank you for coming back to we can do hard things, especially after that very intense, sex episode. We just did. If you haven't

listened to it yet, you really just need to go back and listen to the sex episode. Because this is a follow-up to the sex episode. We had so many hundreds of bazillions of questions that people wanted to ask about sex that were dedicating a whole episode to the cues, and I won't call them A's. I will not call them answers because I don't really have any answers about sex, but we're just going to call them responses. And also a disclaimer, all of our answers, and all of the things that we say are ours, not intended to make anybody think or feel a certain bad or good way about themselves. Right. Or they're also not based on any sort of knowledge or facts or research. Just our experience. That's it. It's our experience.

Right. Whatever we say, you're going to want to double check before enacting in your own life. Okay. So, sister Amanda's here. Abby's here. We're gonna get all of our responses to this first caller who wants to talk about something simple and not at all awkward, which is orgasms. Let's hear it. Not an orgasm, but the cue. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Hi, Glenin and Sissy. My name is Julie and I'm calling because I want to talk about a hard thing, orgasms. I want to hear your thoughts on how to optimize orgasms and what it looks like to come into a healthier relationship with your your your yummy your sacred sexuality and and I'm in my own process of exploring that too. Thank you. Love it. orgasms orgasms. I would like to hear sister your thoughts on orgasm because just go talk to us about orgasms, your relationship with orgasms. We had to pass that over. We had to just hand her a nice treat.

Yeah, I love that. You're like, for this one, I feel like it should be you just because. She's like, not it, not it. Well, I feel like you figured out some more things about orgasms in a heteronormative relationship than some of my friends have is all I'm gonna say. So, and you, and you, by the way. Well, I've ever figured it out in my other relationships. So go ahead, Sisi, go. Well, I just, I think what you're referring to is

what I told you yesterday, which is that I've never faked an orgasm which apparently is Not typical. No, it's not typical. All I did was fake orgasms for my entire life That is not to say I am like you see previous episode. I'm not hashtag sex queen That I'm not saying therefore I have always had an orgasm when having sex. All I'm saying is I have never faked having an orgasm during sex. So I think that that and I don't know I haven't talked to a lot of people. Maybe is not typical. But I think that I just, and this probably relates to what we talked

about too, is that I also can't talk during sex. I don't, so I feel like, with the not talking and the baking and orgasm, it, it's just a bridge too far for me. Like I can't do it because I feel like I can live without getting what I want, but I just can't stomach, living without what I want. Well, also forcing myself through some like elaborate performance pretending that I've gotten what I want

so that the other person can feel better about not giving it to me. It just seems very odd thing to do. It's just, it's very odd. It's so odd, but so many of us do it anyway. But how do you set upsucks with your husband so that all of this doesn't just go? Just say things. Okay. I'm sweating again. I'm really sweating too. Okay, sorry, John. Well, I so prior to my marriage didn't it didn't go great for me. I will say I think that I What I did learn is that

75% of all women never reach orgasm just based on intercourse alone So like that's a big-ass percentage and then we have this whole like typical heteronormative couple is just having intercourse, right? And that means, if this is true of you and you're listening, please know that if you're like three out of four people, then you're not having an orgasm and it's also, you are correct, not two. There's nothing wrong with you. So I just

that is not what we rely on and therefore sex for me is really good. But I think he understands that about you. He understands that about women. He understands that you have to set up sex in a way where How do we say it? You are first. Oh, yeah, I am always first. Yes, right and that leads to a very happy situation for both of us. So I think that that just I Think it's just kind of this functional thing that if you're faking orgasms, like, how can you ever get where you want to go if the other person thinks you're already there?

Yeah. You'll never get there. So it seems like it's part of the cyclical thing where it's, if you're faking an orgasm to check the box and just get through it, you're always going to be in a situation where you're checking the box just to get through it. Like it's never going to improve at all. And that's where the anger comes in. That's what the anger comes in. I mean, it's so important to have the conversations on what does make a person climax, right?

Because it's very easy to understand when a man, in a heteronormative marriage or a relationship, when a man climaxes. But in, for a woman, it's a lot more complicated and nuanced. And I think what's really important because the world is set up for women to not have orgasm. And it's not because of our physical inability to. It's just because, you know, Glen and I would ask you, why would you fake orgasm in your heteromarriage normative life before me? Why was that? Because for me, I'm like, that literally blows my mind to be in the

crazy, in the most intimate moment, and to fake this thing, because I bet if you were to have a convert, I mean, I can't speak for the men that you've been with, but like, it would hurt my feeling so much to know that you had fake this moment that I was present for, right? Because I don't want you to not have an orgasm. Like, that would make me so sad and so upset that you felt like you needed to like,

move this moment along to check about. It is that, it's the speed too. I feel like women are trained to not like be too demanding or not whenever. Because it takes longer, you mean? It takes me longer, It takes me longer. And so it's a lot of my brain being like, okay, it's fine that this is for too much. It's claiming our time. That's exactly right. And I know this about you. So I have to make sure that you feel that my energy is the same and we're good here.

Yeah, nevertheless, she persisted. Yes, that persisted. But I think it also goes back to because I just realized as I was sitting here, like I'm, I framed that whole thing of like, I'm not gonna do some elaborate performance to it, so that you feel good about what you failed to do. But I think that's a step beyond. I think most of us are in the place,

and I get it of the like, oh no, I'm pretending not to make them feel better. I'm pretending to mask that I must be broken, that my shit doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Right? Because part of it is placating the other person. Part of it is just, I don't wanna reveal that apparently if I was a normal,

sexually functioning human, the way I was supposed to work, I would have already had an orgasm. It just takes women longer. And also it takes different shit. 75% of women do not climax just from intercourse alone. I'm going to just get a shirt that says that. Because it's not you, you're not supposed to, it's not like the movies. It's not like the movies where in supposed to, it's not like the movies, it's not like the movies,

we're in five seconds, everyone's rising and down. Nobody is rising, that's all fake. I'm Jonathan M. Hevar, I'm a podcast producer and someone who likes fancy things. But I grew up working class, my parents were immigrants with factory jobs. And because of that, I think about class a lot. And I want to talk about it.

That's what we're doing on my new podcast, Classy. And what did you all eat? You know, trailer food. I was like, girl, we're not doing that anymore. You'll hear from people who told me awkward, embarrassing, and strangely intimate things about what class means to them. She said, you know, for the house cleaner, I hide the tag on the $6 bread.

And I just thought, don't you think she knows that you're wealthy? You're hiding the tags from yourself. Classy. A new podcast from Pineapple Street Studios. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. But I just want to say one thing. Is it, I think it is a good thing to assume best intentions that like if men knew this,

that they would just be willing to just, that they would be devastated to know that we were all faking, that a lot of us were faking orgasms, that they knew that not penetration wasn't the only way of it. And I'm sure some of them would, and I do feel deeply that I have had partners

who did not give a shit. So there's that too too that like they really are that everybody's complicit in the faking of the orgasms sometimes, right? That there is and can be. I think there are probably women out there who feel on their deepest level that everybody knows the game and everybody's fine with it. This is why all women need to invest in toys, sex toys, vibrators, whatever it is that you, and by the way, I bet you your partner would be super into it, right?

Like if you find that you fall in the 75% category like most of us are, then you need to figure out a different way and there are ways, and now you can order the shit online. Before back in the day, you had to go into the store. It was a little bit like A little bit scary and nerve-wracking Uh-huh, and I and I do feel like the whole vibrator thing I think let's make that right now we're gonna break and tell you that's our thing the making life easier

We're gonna have a segment of what's making life easier That's our thing, the making life easier. We're gonna have the segment of what's making life easier. Vibrators are making life easier when it comes to sex. Also, all this partner talk, like, you don't have to have a partner to have sex with the vibrator. That's right. That's right. I don't, I think that sex alone is a beautiful, amazing thing.

It's like introvert sex. Introvert sex, you don't have to deal with any other people, right? And then it's just actually sort of the perfect situation. Okay, don't say that. Your wife is like literally sitting right here. You're right. It's not the perfect situation. It's like almost perfect. You're right, you're right. Also, it's sexy for me to think about you doing that. Okay, okay. Good. And also, by the way, for lesbians, for whom sex takes so much effort. And by the way, it's actually all people. Like, men need, it does, everybody needs more effort, right? Because

we know women don't cut. But the vibrators do make even our sex very much easier sometimes. Sometimes we're too tired for the whole rigamarole. Totally. The whole rigamarole is so much rigamarole. Okay. It also goes back to what we talked about in the other episode, which is the responsive desire. Like if if the vast majority of women go responsive to desire physical to mind, the those kind of supplemental stuff that can get you from the physical space to the mind wanting it is a very helpful tool. Yeah. And let's just wrap it this orgasm, faking orgasm thing up with. We need to always stop rewarding mediocrity.

In, in, in, in, in room, in board meetings, in sex everywhere, we need to stop applauding, moaning and rewarding, just the bare freaking minimum. That's right. Just the bear freaking minimum, right and orgasms are a way that we continue to this process of Mail does the bear freaking minimum not with generosity not with service not with knowledge and we reward it It's good, right, right and also just a Your normal it's not that you should've had an orgasm based on that. B, some people, I mean, I would be fine with the occasional sex

where I didn't have an orgasm. I get it, but I'm not gonna fake it to ensure that it's more likely that I won't the next time. Yes, yes. I, we have a few writings that I wanna talk about. So one, so many people asked us, how do we talk to our kids about sex? Okay. So how do we break this cycle of not talking about this thing of passing on the silence

or awkwardness that convinced our kids in a million ways that sex is shameful, that sex is something we don't talk about, that sex is something they have to go through their whole lives alone on. How do we, and I'm asking this question, because I do not know this answer. We bring it up all the time with our kids. I think we're probably more open than most, and our kids still cringe every time we bring it up.

They run out of rooms. I was thinking about this earlier and this moment came to mind where when the kids were really little, I used to try to like talk to them about anatomy really carefully. Like the difference between a vulva and a vagina and sister, you talk about this all the time with Alice. But there was this book we had that talked about like the birth canal, the tunnel. And they just kept describing it as a tunnel, it's a birth canal. And I remember being upstairs having a new family over to the house, okay?

And their kids were downstairs in the basement playing. And we had this, you know, those little tunnels that they had, they have it like little play gyms. We had this tunnel that the kids would climb through. And from the basement, this woman I was trying to impress because that was really cool that her friends were over. Either tissue chase, I can't remember, started yelling,

he won't get out of my vagina. He won't get out of my vagina. And I ran downstairs and the kids in the tunnel. Okay, so there's been a lot of confusion in our family when we're trying so hard to talk about sex. I feel like you do a really good job, sister Amanda, talking to the kiddo. So what can you tell us about these conversations

with our little ones? Well, they're really little now. So, Alice just turned seven this month. And we just starting very, very basic. So we just mostly talk about body parts now. So she, but we, that makes me laugh because we had a similar situation where, oh, there was like 20 people over in my backyard

and Alice came running out of the house and screamed, I fell down and begged my clitoris! Like, I can't. I can't even, I'm being like clitoris and better people. And she was, everyone was like, I'm sorry. But I think it's really important. Like, that did feel like this moment of joy for me because I swear to God, I found out I had a clitoris when I was in college.

Like last Tuesday, yes. Like, what is that about? It's because it is because it's the only part of women's bodies that are, it's only function is pleasure. That's a reason we don't learn about it. They're talking about how, like, even the experts don't often don't use the term clitoris

because it's like, it's so scandalous that it's only job is to give women pleasure and parents don't have any reason to discuss it because it's direct, because it's only about pleasure. So I'm like, that's your clitoris. It is there to give you pleasure. Like we just talk about things like that and we just talk about the body parts

and then when she asks about sex, I just tell her what sex is. I don't say things like, when a mommy and daddy love each other so much. You know, I say like sperm comes from, so, regulated from a penis into, of a ginot and it fertilizes an egg. You know, like,

we just, You talk about sex as just that act or because that's not like how I would describe sex to my kids as a same gender couple. Well, she, well, in that case, she asked, she asked how babies were made to be queer. Oh, got it. So we did it.

She has not asked directly what sex is. She's asked about babies and how we get them and volvas and all of that stuff. But for me, it's not even at this age. It's less about talking about sex. It's more about talking about all the things. Like how you know when people want her to smile at them, I'm like you don't have to. When she goes with a babysitter, she's like I don't like them. I'm like okay good tell me more what was your body telling you? What was your when she wants to eat? You know, what, listen to your body.

Does your body want more food? Is your body finished with your food? It's, for me, it's just like sex is just an extension of all these other ways that we learn to disassociate from what our body's telling us and the, what our body wants and needs, and how we learn to just accept what other people require of us.

Add us to it. Interesting. So, the idea of when your kids are little, sex talks can be just a million different ways you teach your children to trust their own bodies. Right. And to not allow themselves to be objects, just some objects that have to smile and be pretty for the world and to teach them about desire instead of just being desired.

Yes. And what you like, even teaching, what do you like? Like that is a relevant, what do you like, what does it feel like? She loves for me to scratch her back. She loves for me to, and I'm like, oh, you like the way that feels. You like that. Ask me to do that. You know, it's just, it's okay.

And also I would say that what we talked about last week in terms of, or in the last episode, about each adult, each person listening, figuring out what is sex to you. Because when you think about it, we're always, the things we don't know how to talk to our kids are about are always things we haven't figured out for ourselves.

If we don't have an idea, I wanna pass on to my kids, the beautiful nuanced personal ideas I have about things. I don't want them just inhaling the cultural idea of that about that thing. I want to share with them what I believe and I want them to know that there is no definition of sex. Here's mine, you will one day have yours. That's right, that's right.

And I think that, you know, I've traveled so much around the world and it's really interesting to me how in European culture, they are talking about bodies and sexual parts and sexual interactions and experiences from the time these kids are little. So nudity, for instance, is not a thing that people in Europe care about. People are much more free with their bodies. Then the next step is much more free to talk about sex, much more free, and guess what? Fewer teenage pregnancies, fewer STDs are happening

in these countries that talk about these things with younger children. So it's weird, why is it in America? That we're so... Peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-peer-pe And it's just so many people wrote in, babe, you're exactly right about purity culture. And what we mean by that is this idea that we were talking about in the last episode about women are worth more when they don't give away the only currency they have, which is their bodies. It's so frustrating.

Like religion, the way that I was taught about sex Basically, I had to figure it out of my own because of the Catholic religion that I was born and raised in right so it was like Let's not talk about it and let this 15-year-old child figure it out herself Let this 15-year-old child figure out her own sexuality her own own relationship with her body, her own, like rather than having that be an ongoing conversation that you have with the adults in your life. And as much as, you know, as much as our kids hate it, I am fine and completely comfortable talking about sex in front of them. And I'm going to keep making them uncomfortable until they learn from themselves what they

and their relationship with sex and their bodies are going to be like. And this is huge. And I feel like not to be bringing it to this other level, but it's an incredibly relevant piece, which is that in a world where one in four women or girls has experienced sexual trauma, where interpersonal violence when children are sexually abused at the level that they are right now and girls particularly, it is both the talking about the sex,

it includes making nothing stigmatized, making nothing, talking about our bodies, making nothing uncomfortable for your child to speak to you about. Because if your child is traumatized, I mean, I still have flashes of a few shame sex experience I had when I'm having sex with my loving, wonderful husband. I can't imagine the level, the trauma that you bring inside of your body to every sexual interaction when you have been abused as a child, raped as a woman, all of that confusing that you take with you. So I think it's a service to our children to to be talking about what are our sacred parts of our body who is allowed to touch them. We are allowed to touch them. I mean,

we being you, the child are allowed to touch them whenever you want, you know, like making it a free conversation throughout both protects them from the ongoing threat of abuse to them them from the ongoing threat of abuse to them and we'll help them later on to not bring those experiences with them. And I think that the purity culture that you just brought up introduces this entire level of shame that is so traumatic. And Abby, it isn't true that they left you to figure it out yourself. They saddled you with the views that everything regular sex was shameful. Not to mention homosexual sex was deviant. So you weren't left to navigate on your own. You actually probably would have done fine if you were left on your own. You were saddled, you were poisoned, and then left to navigate and find a joyful life of freedom in your sexual

Experience, I mean I were poisoned from every avenue and then suddenly somebody's like why aren't you healthy? Well, I've been poisoned my entire life. I mean, I found a quote book that I used to keep during like late elementary school and Middle school and I was flipping back through it. I kid you not. This was a quote that I wrote down. I say somebody or other and it was, God can do anything, but he cannot raise a virgin after she has fallen. Oh sweet Jesus. I wrote that in my quote book

because I was so and then I wondered, why didn't I have more spontaneous, joyful sex? Okay, like, literally God made the earth and the stars, but he cannot raise a virgin from whatever depths of hell she has descended to. Jesus. So, yeah, maybe that does enter into your psyche and transfer throughout the whole of your life

from the inside. Of course, even wanting to even consider having sex as an adult. It's like, this shit is so fucking toxic. God. Why do we feel so inhibited? Why do we feel so shameful? Why can't we let ourselves go in bed? I mean, everybody, but especially people

who have been raised inside religious purity culture, it is very, very hard to detox from that poison. We don't want to go to hell We want to go to heaven. I just the goal with the kids is like I just want to raise kids That sex is so precious. There's nothing precious about it. Yeah That there is no rule structure that you can follow to have to have sex. I want every kid I want every person to have access to birth control. I want every person to have access to reproductive justice. I want every person to have access to preventing sexually transmitted diseases. And then I want every person to know and trust themselves

and what their bodies want and their own value enough to navigate it without these cultural ideas. Yes. Decisions about what is sex and what is it worth? That's it. That's right. That's right. That's good.

OK. Babe, I'm going to ask you to answer this last, right? And we'll do, don't worry, we're going to do a whole nother one about sex. Okay, but for this last one, so many people asked us, and I think it's because we are feminists and very progressive and in the same gender marriage. I think they think maybe we're like edgier than we are. But we got a lot of questions about how you and I feel about polyamory and how you and I feel about non-monogamy for ourselves. So babe, I want to hear real quick.

You're very open-minded thoughts about non-monogamy. Well, I think it's just the worst thing in the world. I think that it is not good for me. It doesn't sit well with me. I mean, we've had many conversations not like whether we would do this, but like, no, we're not. How can people do this? We aren't mature enough, you guys. I feel I am someone who had in order to find comfort and power in my own skin sexually. I had to go outside of what everyone told me was expected of me. Because of that, I can sexually understand that my friends who believe in non-monogamy, practice non-monogamy,

I have dear friends who practice polyamory, who I truly believe because they tell me, and I can see it in their lives, that they have found what works for them. Yeah. To that I say, hell yes. Yes. To anyone who is asking my wife and I about non-monog me, I say, hell no and get behind me Satan and no, no and additionally also no. And for good measure, one more no.

Yeah. And for good measure, one more now. Well, I think that one thing that we talk about, I believe people should be able to do whatever the hell they want with their life. Yes. This is no judgment on the way other people choose. And quite frankly, I hope that those who are living in non-monogamous relationships or living polyamorous lives, I hope they understand that we are still warriors for you also.

Yes. But I can't consider it as an option for me and my life and my wife because I have, I think, probably too many insecurity issues. Yeah, maybe. I don't know what it is. And because of jealousy issues. Yeah, yeah. I would never, I would never want to share you with anybody. No.

And it just wouldn't work for me. Like, the way that my trust and heart is set up is just, it doesn't drive with me. Like, I'm a one woman kind of person. Yes. I'm like monogamous through and through. You're the most monogamous that ever monogamined. That's right. And I do feel like this goes back to what we talked about in the last episode. This is why it's so important to define what sex is for you.

Because my non-monogamous friends have a very different definition of sex than I do. But I said it's something that is this place that I go to that I can only share with one person. That is not what their definition of sex is. And so when you figure out what it is for you, that's what's important. Not with the world. Oh, you're going to ask it. You're going to tell them what Sabrina said. Yeah, so we have this friend who's a comedian, who's this the funniest person on our name. Sabrina Julie. Yeah.

And we were doing an event with her and she was talking about how she's a queer and married to a woman and she's super progressive and she was talking about on stage about how she's, since she's progressive about everything, everything. The gay rights, the queer, so we're gonna have all the things and then somebody brings up Pauli Emery and she says, and then I turn into the Westboro Baptist Church

And that's how I feel I'm like yes, when she said that we were on stage She I was like that's exactly how I feel like I am that's right. That's right Mostly I'm just I'm just marvel at it I mean we were I didn't heard the other night, and John's sister brought up her, his fifth grade girlfriend, and I had to do like deep breathing exercises to not look like a total freak that I was like, oh, oh, really? Talking about, like I just, the level of, I would,

I don't know how people do it. I don't know how people do it. Is it a level of not being as evolved as we should? I don't know, whatever it is, it's what we are. It's too young. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. But I do wonder if it is just an evolution because it's like the sexist currency,

if you're not actually giving yourself away. Like I do wonder, just not because I'm ever gonna be able to do it, but like if sex isn't as giving yourself away, which is what we figure the whole save yourself, your exchanging goods and services through your sex all the time, then you're not really losing any part of that other person when they decide to have sex with someone. Like, it is, like, I can intellectually theoretically see how a more evolved understanding of sex might take the, sure, the currency so much out of it that I don't lose because you have exchanged this thing with someone else.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they, if we looked at a spectrum of sexual evolution and the people who are in non-monogamous relationships that are very consensual doing it all the way it's supposed to be done or whatever, that that is a more evolved. I'm just not there and I don't ever want to be there and additionally when so so the question is gee how do you feel about monogamy. I think my answer would be homicidal. I feel homicidal. Don't hit us up. Don't hit us up.

Don't hit us up. Okay. I love talking to you too about sex. Actually I've shocked about how much I love talking to you two about sex. Actually, I've shocked about how much I love it. I think it's so fun. This is fun. Also, I'm glad it's over.

And that was a good idea. Yeah, that was a good idea. And also, Nagasaki's come as you are, great book. Yes, I have to instruct that. I'm gonna read it. Good. I'm gonna read it. I'm gonna read it. I love that. I love that. You are normal. I'm gonna be normal. Good. I'm gonna read it. I'm gonna read it. I love that. I love that. I love that.

Get rid of the idea, the picture you have in your head of how it's supposed to be and just live in the what is. We love you. We can do hard things. And teach your daughters what a clitoris is. I banged my clitoris. I'm going my clitoris. I banged my clitoris! Bye! Bye! We can do hard things, is produced in partnership with Kaden's 13 Studios. Be sure to rate, review, and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey, or wherever you get your podcasts, especially be sure to rate and review the podcast if you really liked it. If you didn't, don't worry about it. It's fine.