Hello and welcome back to The Overthinker’s Guide To Sex, a sex and relationships newsletter by journalist Franki Cookney.
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Welome to Links and Overthinks! This is your monthly round-up of things I’ve seen, heard, read, or talked about in the last few weeks. Got a suggestion for something you think I should check out? Let me know!
Also just to say, I will be taking a break for the next two weeks. I hope you all enjoy the holidays. The Overthinker’s Guide To Sex will be back in your inboxes in January 2024.
What I’m Overthinking in December…
The Sexual Freedom Awards
Nominations are open for the 2024 Sexual Freedom Awards and I would obviously love it if you would consider nominating me. I have actually been nominated once before, but it was in the slightly dubious “Publicist of the Year” category which doesn’t quite describe what I do. I lost out that year to the marvellous Gigi Engle and you can’t say fairer than that, really. However, the judges have introduced a few new categories this year, ones I think my work fits a bit better into, including Writer of the Year and Podcast of the Year. So if you have a moment and would like to say nice things about me, that would be very much appreciated. AND of course, if you have anyone else you’d like to nominate (I know some of you do work in this area as well so maybe you want to put yourself forward!) then now’s your chance to do that. Nominations close December 30th so get on it!
Consent and neurodivergence
After I wrote about How To Have Sex, I started thinking about the statement that “we are all capable” of understanding non-verbal communication, and I realised it was a very neurotypical point of view. It is true that a lot of us are capable of reading body language, of detecting a shift in mood, of knowing when someone’s expression belied their words. But not all of us. So I posted on Instagram to see if any neurodivergent followers wanted to feed back to me on that, or share stories of how consent works for them.