Get Your Soft-on With a Week’s Worth of Juicy Adult Sex Ed
Free online event, November 11th to the 17th
Release performance anxiety with a “penetration vacation” and consider the seldom-lauded and often-neglected erotic delights of the soft penis at this week’s third annual Soft Cock Appreciation Week (SCW). The program includes a bevy of sex and pleasure advocates, educators, and therapists who invite you to transform “the “D” in ‘ED’ from Dysfunction and Disappointment to Discovery and Delight!”
According to the event’s website, “This annual FREE on-line event celebrates that a hard penis is not the sole measure of desire, virility, or the capacity for intimacy. We’re expanding the perspective of “what to do?” from pills, pumps, and injections to connection, pleasure, and self-advocacy.” Attend via the event’s YouTube channel.
Soft Cock Appreciation Week was founded by Michelle Renee, a professional cuddler and surrogate partner.
This year’s program
Erica Leroye, the organizer and hostess, promises fourteen “authentic enjoyable conversations about male sexuality” from a number of speakers including health and sexuality professionals, ethical erotica creators, and men who create community to “conquer the feelings of isolation that so often accompany sexual changes.”
The program will demonstrate how “everyday folk…are flipping the proverbial sheets and modeling how to engage in sexual conversations, while also offering practical and do-able suggestions.”
Every day, two new presentations will be dropped into the SCW YouTube channel.
Additionally, the event will feature “A Soft Place to Land,” daily live sessions consisting of 60-90 minutes of Q&As, conversations, embodiment exercises, and shared stories.
On Saturday, November. 16th at 5:00 PM PST, attendees can watch or even participate in a fun and informative “Soft and Sexy” Open Mic. Sign up for free tickets here.
While centering the perspective of cis-straight, bi, and queer men and the people who work with and love them, SCW welcomes everyone, as not all people with a penis identify as male and not all males have penises.
The significance of soft
For many people with penises, the societal and relational emphasis on sexual performance based on a reliable erection can provoke worry, anxiety, and a lack of self-confidence.
According to a recent study from Creighton University School of Medicine and the University of Birmingham, “The psychological and emotional ramifications of ED can be profound, impacting not only the afflicted individuals but also their partners. Unaddressed, it may precipitate anxiety, depression, diminished self-esteem, and strained interpersonal relationships.”
The researchers also say ED is a complex condition which may involve “organic, psychogenic, and mixed factors, often interwoven with comorbidities such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurologic disorders.”
Recent research based on a survey of 1,822 cisgender men aged 18-87, found the national prevalence of what is usually called erectile dysfunction (ED) is 24.2% but “the results indicate that ED prevalence and severity remain highest in older age groups and that most individuals who meet criteria for ED have not sought medical care related to this concern.”
Though medically diagnosed ED may have one or more causes, the fear and shame experienced by many who have or suspect this condition creates unnecessary suffering.
Sex therapists, counselors, sexologists and medical professionals seek ways to assist their clients as a result, using a variety of therapies, medications, surgeries, hormones, and sex tech devices. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but new perspectives are also necessary.
What if a fluctuating penis is not always a medical or mental health concern, or a sexual disaster, but simply the usual way this organ functions? And what if there are distinct pleasures to be had when the emphasis on erections is diminished? That’s where Soft Cock Appreciation Week comes in.
Choose joy: cooperators are standing by
Back in 1999, sex therapist Bernie Zilbergeld wrote powerfully about the “myths of male sexuality” and their destructive impact. He had a vision of “a sexuality in which people interact and relate, not just genitals…The goals of this intimate model of sex are pleasure, closeness, and self and partner enhancement, not performance or conquest.”
Today, many of us are still seeking ways to disconnect from the old, restrictive myths and to connect with each other in a more authentic way. And though it’s true that a growing number of high-tech sex toys, such as the Hot Octopuss Pulse Solo Essentials, deliver pleasure to soft penises as well as hard ones, there is so much more that we can do, including creating societal and relational changes.
I’m honored to be on the program for SCW and to have the opportunity to learn from others. As a sexologist, I firmly believe in expansions of our concepts and experiences of sexuality and where we each are in the mix.
Images: SCW
