A Sneak Peek at The Sex Issue

We wrote a book about sex and relationships told through a series of intimate conversations with experts we trust, along with plenty of anecdotal, real-life, fun, funny goop-staffer wisdom. We couldn’t have written it without GP’s curious mind, always pushing us to ask questions (comfortable or otherwise) and reminding us that we have every right to do so. Her words kick off The Sex Issue and reverberate throughout it.

Foreword

By Gwyneth Paltrow

Most days lately, it feels like we’re living in the midst of a seismic shift in gender issues—the feminine is really (finally) on the rise. But with every step forward, there always seems to be a pushback. When women want to ask questions that are deemed uncomfortable or impolite or out of their jurisdiction (for whatever reason), they are silenced in a myriad of ways, both blatant and subtle. The message we hear too often, whether implicit or not, is: Stay in your lane.

And sex is the great hot-button issue. While this is not surprising, it has been eye-opening for all of us at goop to see how triggering conversations around women’s pleasure and sexual health can be for so many. No content we’ve published on the site has incited such a visceral reaction from readers (on all sides) as interviews with sexuality experts and first-person accounts of women’s own experiences of their sexuality. Women talking about sex—about what they like and don’t like, what they are getting and not getting in their intimate relationships, the toll of sexual trauma and how they heal—has a tendency to make people (both men and other women) extraordinarily self-conscious and uneasy.

“When women want to ask questions that are deemed uncomfortable or impolite or out of their jurisdiction (for whatever reason), they are silenced in a myriad of ways, both blatant and subtle.”

Which isn’t to say that men have it easy in the realm of intimacy. There are plenty of ways that men are silenced in relationships, and there are arguably fewer places today for men to have certain conversations around sexuality—namely those exploring vulnerability. Vulnerability is not something we as a culture do a good job of allowing boys and men to own.

The idea behind this book was to create a safe space where questions of sexuality could be explored for everyone—women, men, heterosexual, homosexual, in a relationship, single, young, experienced. It’s never too late, or too early for that matter, to get comfortable with your own desires. We’re fortunate at goop to work with a circle of thought leaders who empower us to ask questions—and who accepted our sex laundry list: everything we and readers have always wondered about seduction, attraction, dating, fantasy, orgasm, hormones, sexual power, and so on. Interspersed with the personal stories of goop staffers, this book is the culmination of those conversations we’ve had with psychotherapists, psychologists, researchers, doctors, healers, and other sex gurus. Whether Tantra or BDSM or threesomes or vanilla are your thing will never be the point; knowing yourself, all your options, and how to ask for and pursue what feels good to you, is. The perspectives of bright minds included here help us, at goop, get there. We hope they’ll support you as you look inward, too, while illuminating what’s out there.

“Whether Tantra or BDSM or threesomes or vanilla are your thing will never be the point; knowing yourself, all your options, and how to ask for and pursue what feels good to you, is.”

Our other hope is that this book will create more conversations off the page and be a part of destigmatizing pleasure for good. In this moment in time, there’s a collective opportunity to do away with the dangerous notion that women shouldn’t be completely comfortable talking about their sexuality—or that anyone should be shamed for asking questions. In the meantime, let’s keep sharing our experiences—here are ours.

Love,
GP

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