The sixth episode in the Mixing The Colours Podcast series.

The podcasts in the Mixing the Colours Podcast collection offer a selection of writing and performances created by some of the women who have worked with the project in workshops and events, and have shared their work with us for the purposes of highlighting the need for the inclusion and engagement of women in dialogues around sectarianism in Scotland.

The fifth episode in the Mixing The Colours Podcast series.

The podcasts in the Mixing the Colours Podcast collection offer a selection of writing and performances created by some of the women who have worked with the project in workshops and events, and have shared their work with us for the purposes of highlighting the need for the inclusion and engagement of women in dialogues around sectarianism in Scotland.

This is the sixth in a series of podcasts that share some of the discussion from a group ‘What women talk about when they talk about sex’ that took place at Glasgow Women’s Library during spring and Summer 2015 as part of our Sex in The Women’s Library Season supported by the Wellcome Trust.

I remember when I was 16 in 1976 marching along to the GPs in my school uniform and saying I wanted to go on the pill and, I kid you not, I’ve carried it to this day, the GP who was a middle-aged man looked me square in the eye and he said “Do you not understand it’s every man’s right to expect his wife to be a virgin”. And I marvel at my 16 year old self.

The group look at national sex survey findings that show the percentage of women having same sex experience is on the increase whilst there has been no shift in the ratio of men. Why is this? The widening of the sexual repertoire for women is also discussed alongside the pros and cons of porn as a way of women discovering sexual variety and the shifts in women feeling freer to experiment with and talk about sex and to masturbate. The group also explores the links between sex transcendence and spirituality.

This is the fifth in a series of podcasts that share some of the discussion from a group ‘What women talk about when they talk about sex’ that took place at Glasgow Women’s Library during spring and Summer 2015 as part of our Sex in The Women’s Library Season supported by the Wellcome Trust.

If someone won’t have sex with me because of [pubic hair] then I don’t want to see them ever again … that’s the test.

In this session that group takes the starting point ‘Hair’ and discusses how hair impacts on their views of their bodies. Hair is seen as being something that is gendered and a factor in women’s thoughts about sex, sexuality and a way they have been judged. In this session hair is seen as a feminist issue.

This is the fourth in a series of podcasts that share some of the discussion from a group ‘What women talk about when they talk about sex’ that took place at Glasgow Women’s Library during Spring and Summer 2015 as part of our Sex in The Women’s Library Season supported by the Wellcome Trust.

When I am in the Middle East I have a lot more male friends than I do female friends but I’m very open. I constantly talk about my body because they get very uncomfortable. When we were in university, I used to always tell them things about my period and I used to tell them all my sexcapades, I just told them everything and I hope, now they have girlfriends it may affect how they view and how they interact with the women in their life.

The group discusses their bodies, body dysmorphia and which body parts they have come to appreciate. The fraught territory of objectification and sexualisation is debated and how body confidence and body loathing are inculcated.

This is the third in a series of podcasts that share some of the discussion from a group ‘What women talk about when they talk about sex’ that took place at Glasgow Women’s Library during spring and Summer 2015 as part of our Sex in The Women’s Library Season supported by the Wellcome Trust.

The internet has been a way to find other people who were like me, fellow queer people. The identity of being sexual has grown up alongside the internet, it is very, so intimately connected to that and I think it’s really interesting that that is allowing new spaces for people to find new ways to identify new language.

In this discussion session the group share their differing views and experiences of sex and sexuality and the internet. How have women found communities online that have been beneficial in the formation of their sexual selves? The group discusses the negative aspects and fears they have about the web revolution, gender, sex and power. The discussion then shifts to the terrain of parental attitudes about sexuality and learning and teaching about sex as mothers.

This is the second in a series of podcasts that share some of the discussion from a group ‘What women talk about when they talk about sex’ that took place at Glasgow Women’s Library during spring and Summer 2015 as part of our Sex in The Women’s Library Season supported by the Wellcome Trust.

It’s a wee bit disappointing that no-one has said, “I am having sex three times a day and it is fucking fantastic.” You know, or, “It’s great.” Or, “My partners are all wonderful and my mother was a font of knowledge and really supportive.” You know? So it’s kind of like a wee bit kinda – am I still fucked up, but not fucked up in the right way?

In this session the group talk extensively about our shifting pleasures in sex, about the importance or otherwise of orgasms and the dynamics of discovering, negotiating around and navigating what we want and need in our sexual lives.

This is the first in a series of podcasts that share some of the discussion from a group ‘What women talk about when they talk about sex’ that took place at Glasgow Women’s Library during spring and summer 2015 as part of our Sex in The Women’s Library Season supported by the Wellcome Trust.

My Mum found some contraceptive pills that I bought under the bed. I heard her say “if she starts this then she’s not going to want to stop it”. She was panicked as they were together with the Marxist manifesto, so it was two things at once.

The topics discussed in this first session include individuals in the group talking about their memories of having an introduction to (talking about) sex, ‘becoming a woman’, discussions with mothers and siblings, conflicting ‘advice’ and materials about sexuality and early formations of concepts about the body.

The Glasgow Women’s Library Young Critics are a group of young women who are interested in creating responses to arts and cultural events at the library, across Glasgow and beyond. With the support of independent radio journalist Liz Leonard, they give their unique perspective on the March of Women. Re-live this very special day through their eyes in this podcast.

Listen to the podcast now, download it below, or subscribe to all the GWL podcasts on iTunes.

The fourth episode in the Mixing The Colours Podcast series.

The podcasts in the Mixing the Colours Podcast collection offer a selection of writing and performances created by some of the women who have worked with the project in workshops and events, and have shared their work with us for the purposes of highlighting the need for the inclusion and engagement of women in dialogues around sectarianism in Scotland.