Day: May 29, 2019

May 29, 2019 at 12:47PM by CWC It’s great to have friends at work—really, research proves it!—but when friendship means your coworker’s personal life takes up more of your mental space than that report due next week, that’s an issue. In this week’s Good@Work column, career expert Amy Odell—whom you may know as the former editor (AKA HBIC) of Cosmopolitan.com and founding blogger of New York magazine’s The Cut—tells a woman how to handle her work wife’s draining demands for her time and energy. Question: One of my coworkers (with whom I’m also friends) is having a hard time right now personally and at work. I want to support her, but she also messages me (or pulls me aside) constantly to complain and vent. It’s getting to the point where taking care of her at work feels like almost a full-time job, and interferes with my ability to do my own job. How can I set boundaries with her without causing offense or making her feel like I don’t care about her (because I do!) Answer: It sounds like this coworker is a two-hour friend. A two-hour friend is a person you love and want to spend time with but can only do so for a maximum of two hours. A two-hour friend requires too much emotional labor for the interaction to be enjoyable for any longer. We all have two-hour friends, and admitting you have two-hour friends doesn’t make you a bad person or a bad friend. In fact, it makes you a better

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May 29, 2019 at 12:20PM by CWC Around middle school or high school, my peers started telling me that they shaved their entire bikini area. Like…all of it. The complete opposite of a full bush. What they refer to as the “Brazilian” in the waxing studio. And so, since then, I’ve been shaving it…all of it. (Sorry, TMI.) Not that this is still the trend—now we are experiencing a resurgence of the full bush—but I can confidently tell you that I know people who still prefer to rock a hairless vagina. So if you’re looking to say buh-bye to the full bush, it’s important to know how to get rid of the hair without all manner of ingrown hairs, irritation, and red bumps arising in their place. “Hair removal of any kind is an investment—time, money, and sometimes, pain—so you owe it to yourself to take the time to find out what makes the most sense to you,” says Allie Melnick, general manager of grooming brand Flamingo. And that may very well just mean, doing nothing but give it a trim now and then, and that’s cool, too. “However you choose to groom your pubic hair and skin is up to you,” says Laura Schubert, CEO and co-founder of Fur, who notes that it really doesn’t matter how you choose to rock your bikini area—it’s just about proper care for whichever route you take. With that said, if you want to removed some (or all!) of the hair down there, here

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May 29, 2019 at 12:20PM by CWC Around middle school or high school, my peers started telling me that they shaved their entire bikini area. Like…all of it. The complete opposite of a full bush. What they refer to as the “Brazilian” in the waxing studio. And so, since then, I’ve been shaving it…all of it. (Sorry, TMI.) Not that this is still the trend—now we are experiencing a resurgence of the full bush—but I can confidently tell you that I know people who still prefer to rock a hairless vagina. So if you’re looking to say buh-bye to the full bush, it’s important to know how to get rid of the hair without all manner of ingrown hairs, irritation, and red bumps arising in their place. “Hair removal of any kind is an investment—time, money, and sometimes, pain—so you owe it to yourself to take the time to find out what makes the most sense to you,” says Allie Melnick, general manager of grooming brand Flamingo. And that may very well just mean, doing nothing but give it a trim now and then, and that’s cool, too. “However you choose to groom your pubic hair and skin is up to you,” says Laura Schubert, CEO and co-founder of Fur, who notes that it really doesn’t matter how you choose to rock your bikini area—it’s just about proper care for whichever route you take. With that said, if you want to removed some (or all!) of the hair down there, here

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May 29, 2019 at 09:00AM by CWC When it comes to Things You Never Want to Hear Your Doctor Say, “Your STI test came back positive” is right up there with “I’ve never seen something like this before!” Sexually transmitted infections are popularly cast as boogeymen of the bedroom—and considering all the damage having one can (supposedly) do to your sex life, receiving a diagnosis might as well come with a free chastity belt. On a Reddit thread titled, “Redditors with STDs, how have they affected your life?,” one woman describes the emotional tailspin in which she found herself: “When I was diagnosed with genital warts [HPV], my self-esteem plummeted to nothing. I thought that was it. I remember feeling disgusting, and like no one would ever want to be with me again.” At least one pro contends this woman’s experience and feelings are an unfortunate result of unnecessary negative socialization. “In our culture, STIs are often presented as a dark side of sex and punishment for having sex,” says therapist and sexuality expert Kathryn Stamoulis, PhD. Just think back to sex ed: “Instead of giving people the facts about HPV­ (human papillomavirus)—an incredibly common STI—we blow up slides of untreated genital warts and project them on massive screens during sex ed. Most outbreaks are very mild, but they’re made to look scary and disgusting,” she says. “It’s time to start accepting STIs as a normal part of human sexuality and not an aberration,” —Oluwatosin Goje, OB/GYN While reactions and

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