When I close my eyes and tickle my lady parts, I try to envision my last sexual encounter:
As his hands are on my waist, and he thrusts into me with vigor, and then.. Oh, wait, he came right after that. Well, then I try and think of that one guy who did that thing with his tongue and… Whoops, it actually kind of hurt when he did that. Well, there was that dude from five years ago who gave me an orgasm like I've never had before, but he turned out to be a jerk, so...
And just like that, I no longer feel like masturbating and end up turning on some spicy and unrealistic porn to get the job done. My orgasm was achieved only through my viewing of raunchy paid sex between people that I have never and will never meet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking my Pornhub lovers, but damn. When did masturabation get so impersonal?
Was it the fact that our smartphones can easily go incognito and uncover our kinkiest desires in private via the World Wide Web at the click of a button? Or was it the patriarchal ideology that a woman has to rush to orgasm? Somewhere along the line, self-pleasure went very, very wrong and it's time for a change.
My orgasms usually last a total of about three seconds and afterward, I'm left thinking about the man that I envisioned between my legs and the shell of a woman he left between the sheets. It wasn't until recently, when I started implementing masturbation into my self-care routine, that I reclaimed power of my orgasms and found that I am the master of my clitoris.
I began to use the intimate time I have alone as a healing process, where I give myself the right to demand optimum pleasure at no expense of time.
I take these moments to discover and understand the movements and gestures that make me crawl and moan, and own the fact that all of that pleasure came from myself. Not Kyle, who had so much potential but always came up short and rushed me to my finish line. Or Fred, who was one hell of a lover but a f-ckboy at heart.
The intense pleasure and euphoria that I experience is no longer predicated on men who had the opportunity to love me and failed, but by my ability to listen to my body and give her what she's asking for.
By definition, self-care refers to the actions or attitudes that contribute to the maintenance and development of your spiritual and mental health. Orgasms have reportedly improved health conditions like migraines, menstrual cramps, and even cardiovascular disease.
Masturbation can be especially beneficial for women in relationships. Even if you have a healthy sex life, it's been proven that multiple orgasms can improve your satisfaction, tone your pelvic wall, and improve your sex life. It's important that YOU know to please you before you expect anyone else to.
It seems that we have a cure to our stress, anxiety, and frustration at the tip of our fingertips, and what better way to show our gratitude than to use them with vigor?
What better way to practice self-care than to take care of myself?
Maybe I didn't have a real connection with Fred or Kyle. But I know for damn sure that I have a real connection with me. And that connection is one that is valuable and should be nurtured.
Though it's easier and sometimes more time efficient to envision a lover when you give yourself pleasure, keep in mind that it is you who has the key to your every whim and desire. Tonight, or even during the day if you're feeling frisky, I challenge you to explore yourself. Take the time to assess, acknowledge, and address your own needs.
Develop a connection with yourself, and you'll never regret it.
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While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Fortunately, five simple words have simplified my dating process and ushered in clarity faster: “Would my husband do this?”
A couple of years ago, I met an entertainment lawyer who was tonguing down a twenty-something-year-old woman for breakfast while I slurped my green smoothie and chomped on a flatbread sandwich. Okay, Black love, I grinned and thought as I sauntered out of the Joe & The Juice. As soon as I stepped down from the front door, a torrential downpour of Miami summer rain cascaded and throttled me back inside to wait out the storm.
I grabbed a hot green tea and vacillated between peering out the wet door and anxiously checking my watch. My lengthy agenda started with attending the Tabitha Brown and Chance Brown’s “Black Love” panel, and I was already late. That’s when the lawyer introduced himself to me, after he made a joke about neither one of us wanting to get soaked by the rain. His female companion had braved the storm, leaving us to find our commonalities.
We both lived in L.A. and had traveled to the American Black Film Festival to expand our network. He represented various artists, including entertainment writers, while I was working as a writer/creative producer in Hollywood.
While there is no shortage of internet advice on how to strategically meet a prominent man at conferences, if I spend my hard-earned funds on career growth, I have tunnel vision, and that doesn’t include finding Mr. Right. So, I stowed his contact details away as strictly professional.
Keep It Cute Love And Hip Hop GIFGiphyAs the humidity and mosquitoes were rising around L.A., two months later, another suitor-turned-terrible match cooled off after three unimpressive dates and a bevy of red flags. I posted what some of my friends called a thirst trap, but it was really me wearing a black freakum jumpsuit with a plunging neckline to my friend’s 35th birthday soiree despite feeling oh, so unsexy and bloated on my cycle.
I’d been waiting to post a sassy caption and finally had the perfect picture to match: “You not asking for too much, you just asking the wrong MF.”
That’s when the entertainment lawyer swooped into my DMs and asked me to dinner. I was quite confused. Is he asking me on a date? Or is this professional? Common sense would’ve picked the former. Once it clicked that this would in fact be a date, I told my mentor, who’s been happily married for over twenty years and has often been a guiding light and has steered me away from the wrong men.
Upon telling him about how we met, he emphatically stated, “He ain’t it.” He followed up with a simple question, "You have to ask yourself: Would my husband do this? Would you tell others that you met your husband, tonguing down another woman, and later married him?"
Aint It No Way GIF by UFCGiphyOuch. The thought-provoking question cleared any haze. Prior to going out with the lawyer, the first thing I inquired about was the woman.
“You saw that?” He said, taken aback that I’d witnessed his steamy PDA. Surely, anyone with two open eyes peeped him caressing her backside as he kissed her in the middle of the coffee shop.
He brushed her off as a casual someone he’d gone on a couple of dates with but had since stopped talking to. He said he hadn’t been in a serious relationship in over three years. Though I was still doubtful, dating in L.A. is treacherous and ephemeral. Making it past three months is considered a rarity.
With my antennae alert, I dined with him at a cozy beachside steakhouse restaurant where we were serenaded by a live jazz band. I’d emphasized forming a platonic friendship first.
Break Up Friendship GIF by TLCGiphy“I’ll come to you,” he obliged. I liked that he had made me a priority by driving over 50 miles to see me. I also liked the effort he made to check in with me daily. But I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he initiated on a professional pretense and then alley hooped through the back door on a romantic venture, which bombarded me with confusion.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my dating life, God is not the author of confusion; any man who brings confusion, rather than clarity, is simply not The One. It doesn’t matter how many boxes he checks–eventually, that confusion will manifest itself into bigger problems, in time.
After diving into deeper conversations on the phone, post our first dinner date, I quickly realized this man was indeed not The One for me. But I’m grateful for the valuable lesson I learned.
I don’t expect some unattainable fairytale of a husband; we all have our own flaws and conflict is inevitable, but after dating for two decades, through failure and success, I’ve realized that the person I ultimately marry must mirror the values I exert into the world. He must reciprocate kindness, patience, and respect. He must be quick to listen and slow to respond. He needs to be forgiving and trustworthy, practice healthy communication, and be a man of his word at the bare minimum.
If I’d had “Would my husband do this?” in my toolbox when I was dating and floundering in stagnant relationships, in my twenties, it would’ve saved me a lot of precious time. But now that I’m equipped with the reminder, it’s allowed me to ground myself in my non-negotiables and set/maintain the standard for the special person, I’ll one day say, “I do,” to.
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