Painful sex? Broken vaginas? This underground zine normalizes the taboo
LOS ANGELES -- One night as she was lying in bed, Becky Feldman wondered, "Do I remember how to have sex?"
It had been at least a decade since the L.A.-based writer and performer tried to have intercourse. She had avoided it throughout her 20s for a few reasons: 1) She thought dating or being in a heterosexual relationship meant that she had to have penetrative sex, which wasn't an option for her because it was too painful. 2) Several doctors had brushed off her pain, telling her that she just needed to relax. (After years of being misdiagnosed, she learned that she had a condition known as vulvodynia (a general term for chronic pain around the vulva). 3) All of the above weighed heavily on her self-esteem and confidence.
When Feldman turned 30, she realized that she didn't want to spend the rest of her life closing herself off from intimacy and pleasure. That's when she decided to take the advice of her sex therapist and connect
