Speed Dating Events

Western women tend to be more unrealistic about marriage than their sisters around the world. Films and television have made them feel that romantic excitement is not only a birthright, but it is elevated to the most important aspect of marriage. Read the rest of this entry »

Every day you will see storybook couples, infuriatingly happy with one another. Everything looks good about them - their smiles, their hair, even their fashion sense seems flawless. They look completely absorbed in love. Their sex life is great, you don’t doubt, and each and every second they spend together must be as hot as bonfire night. Read the rest of this entry »

Of all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, ‘It might have been’.

Among the annals of marriage proposal, a special chapel of remembrance hung with rosemary and rue must be set aside for those which however deeply desired, are not fated to succeed. Many couples do not manage to make the step from private love to public commitment. They do not get the marriage act together, for any number of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

A proposal is usually something of a ceremony. A man knows that he has a part to play and must play it in style. Most will look for the occasion or the setting that will enhance their chances, and lend sparkle to the start of the new relationship. They may feel the need to offer, promise, blandish or cajole. They try to sell themselves with a bit of a flourish, or at least to appear an attractive prospect at this great moment.

But others take quite the opposite attitude. They want to cut the cackle and get down to business with the absolute minimum of flummery. No long speeches, moonlight scenes or earth-shaking exchanges for them — the briefer the better is their motto. Just look in any national newspaper on St Valentine’s Day for the annual crop of simple proposals. ‘MARRY ME’ demand the current suitors. It’s impossible to tell from this if they ask in hope or despair, but they certainly ask in the shortest way possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Signed, sealed, delivered. Cecily’s dazzling adroitness at tying the knot, in the absence and without the knowledge of her intended, can only evoke the purest admiration. Sheer professionalism, that’s what it is. Wilde more than once makes the observation that men often propose for practice. Judging from Cecily’s expertise, they must all propose to the same girls!

That is certainly the experience of the heroine of Judith Krantz’ Scruples, the fabulously sexy Billy Winthrop, who learns from her best friend Jessica to rate her men out of ten, and keeps score in quite the literalest sense of the word: Read the rest of this entry »

Self-stimulation can help survivors through impasses with insertion. Stimulate the clitoris before and during the dilator exercises. Sexual arousal increases natural lubrication and causes vaginal expansion, often making insertion easier. This variation is also useful in helping a survivor associate pleasurable sensations with vaginal fullness. Feeling comfortable with these sensations can eventually facilitate the ability to have orgasms during intercourse. Read the rest of this entry »

Women survivors may have difficulty with vaginal penetration because of two sexual problems.

Vaginismus is a reflexive tightening of the muscles in the outer third of the vagina when penetration is attempted. Women with this condition may have difficulty with intercourse as well as with insertion of a finger, dildo, or medical instrument.

Dyspareunia, or painful intercourse, is another dysfunction that can make intercourse difficult. In this condition, a woman experiences pain as burning, cramping, or sharpness that begins sometime during intercourse itself. Both vaginismus and dyspareunia can result from associating fear and pain of past sexual abuse with present intercourse. In some cases painful intercourse may be directly related to actual physical damage to vaginal tissues, nerves, and internal organs done during brutal sexual assault. Read the rest of this entry »

A marriage proposal is a special, sacred moment. But like all beautiful things it has an intricacy which is not immediately apparent. It is, in fact, not so much one moment as a series of moments, one inside another like Chinese boxes, each one giving on to all the others until the very last.

For inside the simple question, ‘Will you be mine?’ there are a thousand other questions for the man and the woman alike. Will you, can you, they ask silently, be to me all that this most special relationship implies? Can we love, comfort, honour and keep one another, forsaking all other, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part? However much you might be in love, this is still a daunting list of requirements. Read the rest of this entry »