Robin Mandell

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Robin is a sex educator and advocate based in the Washington D.C. area. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies from Queen’s University in Canada and has studied professional and technical writing with Washington State University. She has an unrelenting passion for words. Through her blog, Robin’s Toy Nest, Robin is committed to making pleasure-based sex education fun, comprehensible, and accessible. She believes that sexual pleasure and empowerment are a birthright for everyone. Sometimes, though, she just wants to discuss theoretical concepts like gender fluidity and the understanding of power dynamics. It all connects, after all. She has developed a passion for starting dialogues on sex and disability, and has come to the realization that, as much as she just wants to be like everybody else, she can use her visible reality as a blind woman to start these dialogues. Read Full Profile ...

Why Talk About Sex And Disability?

 Posted by on July 12, 2013
Jul 122013
 
Why Talk About Sex And Disability?

A woman’s friends are incredulously  disbelieving when she tells them that she and her husband, who uses a wheelchair and has several medical conditions, have an active sex life. A young blind man, who has just realized he is gay, asks his trusted resource teacher to help him learn how he can join his high […]

There Are More Important Things…

 Posted by on December 5, 2012
Dec 052012
 
There Are More Important Things…

Perhaps the most prevailing trope, the belief to trump all beliefs, about people with disabilities and sex is that we have more important things to worry about, more important things to focus on, than being sexual.  Sex permeates our culture, affecting everything from hemlines on skirts to the way cars are advertised, yet for people […]

To Have, Or Just To Hold

 Posted by on November 18, 2012
Nov 182012
 
To Have, Or Just To Hold

Often I have wondered if the way I touch someone has been physically and emotionally perceived as I intended it.  Was the touch received as gentle when I meant it to be firm?  Was the touch received as intimate when I meant it to be casual?  It’s hard, really, to practice touch. There are so […]

A Touch of Consent

 Posted by on October 26, 2012
Oct 262012
 
A Touch of Consent

Last weekend I experienced the following: My hand was kissed in a gloriously, old-fashioned way I’ve only read about in books. I touched a friend’s party dress and spike heels. I received a lovely hug from an actress in the adult film industry. Perhaps these situations seem unusual to you.  Perhaps they seem unconnected.  Perhaps […]

The Mythology of Sex

 Posted by on August 20, 2012
Aug 202012
 
The Mythology of Sex

The first unit of the literature component of my Grade 9 English class was Greek mythology.  The myths chronicled in our textbook were brief and to the point, with high drama, complex relationships, and yet a familiarly human element.  What was presented as a series of random stories coalesced into a universe with rules and […]