Which Disney Prince Is Your Boyfriend?

Does he bail in a crisis? Total Simba.

Prince, Snow White


Your boyfriend, unlike others, is unthreatened by the large amount of dudes you hang out with. He is attracted to your optimism, even when it borders on naiveté, but you sometimes think he puts you on a pedestal. Does he know girls poop? He might be one of those guys who doesn’t know.

Prince Charming, Cinderella


Homeboy is old-fashioned and romantic at heart. He’s a one-woman man, and not the kind you’d necessarily find on Tinder or OK Cupid. He’s very into fate — maybe too much — wherever it may take him. This means he can be a little bit passive occasionally.

Prince Phillip, Sleeping Beauty


Before he was your boyfriend, he was a little bit of a douche nugget. He grew up privileged, and it shows. In his younger days, he tended to subtly manipulate people — his parents, girls, teachers — to get his way, and played the Cute Heterosexual Male card whenever it could possibly make his life easier. (Um, quite often.) He occasionally reverts back to his old ways under duress.

Prince Eric, The Little Mermaid


He's all about camping and eating healthy flax cereal and going for “brisk morning jogs” (what are these words? I do not understand) and sleeping on the pavement overnight just to score the first tickets to the latest blockbuster franchise movie on opening day. If you weren’t with him, you’d be lying on your couch with an IV of rocky road ice cream straight into your mouth.

The Beast, Beauty & The Beast


While he’s sweet, goofy, and attentive when you are one-on-one, he rubs your friends the wrong way. He’s not good at parties. He mostly just stands there looking awkward, which other people interpret as aloof, superior, or otherwise dickish. He is somewhat antisocial and has kind of a temper, but he’s also one of the sharpest and most insightful guys you’ve ever met.

Aladdin, Aladdin


A modern-day Jay Gatsby, this guy came up from a shitty childhood and works harder than anyone you’ve ever met. (Whether this means “14-hour days at the hedge fund,” “overnight shifts at the pharmacy” or “sells hot DVD players off the back of a truck.”) Family values are important to him, and he prioritizes supporting his loved ones above all else.

Flynn Rider, Tangled


Your boyfriend is the one who holds court at parties, beer in hand, telling hilarious stories and making new friends. He’s a comedian, an actor, a musician, or some other artistic type who is somehow self-hating and narcissistic at once. He is very, very proud of his Twitter. One time he made a joke about how one of your boobs is bigger than the other, in public, and you pretended to laugh but on the inside you were steamed as hell.

Li Shang, Mulan


He’s serious, determined, and somewhat obsessive about his goals — a total Type A personality. It’s hard to convince him to get up from the computer for five minutes, sleep in on a Sunday afternoon, or take a long weekend somewhere nice for once. He doesn’t let people in very quickly, and it took him a while to learn to trust you. And once he does, he's also not the most articulate dude in the world. ("Um... you fight good.")

John Smith, Pocahontas


He’s an adrenaline junkie — kayacking, white-water rafting, spelunking, bungee jumping, you name it. He probably has that “Live every week like it’s shark week” quote in his Facebook profile. He totally does. Sometimes you are afraid that he only likes you because you’re so different from all of the other girls he’s dated, and eventually he’ll get as bored of you as he did with that new skateboard you got him for Christmas last year.

Prince Naveen, The Princess and The Frog


While he means well at heart, he’s a little bit of a hedonist. Your twenty-something salaries don’t seem to faze him when he drops $150 on a bar tab or $200 on a dinner for four at a fancy restaurant. His budget skills could use some improvement. So could his overall work ethic. (He might be a 27-year-old intern.) Ideally, you teach him to be a little more responsible, and he reminds you it’s nice to cut loose occasionally.

Simba, The Lion King


Your boyfriend gets easily overwhelmed and tends to bail in the face of stress or conflict. This might be his worst trait. He also has those semi-obnoxious doofus friends (who are, and will always be, doofuses, but you've since gotten used to them). You hope that as he becomes more mature, he'll be able to stay and face problems instead of running away from them.

Hercules, Hercules


He may not be as book-smart as you are, but your boyfriend is loyal, reliable, and calm in a crisis. It doesn't hurt that he's good-looking as shit. He might actually be the hottest guy you've ever dated, unless you count that one dream where you went to tapas with Ryan Gosling as a date.

12 Things Only Fashion Girls Understand

1. What happens in the bathroom when you’re wearing a jumpsuit.

2. Wearing sunglasses when it’s cloudy. And rainy. And snowy. And oh yeah, there was that time with the wintery mix.

3. You own shoes that are literally just for show. They hurt like hell, they’re made of some weather-inappropriate fabric, but they look perfect and that’s all you’re willing to say on the subject.

4. The feeling of pure joy when your favorite shopping website updates with new arrivals. A schedule with which you are very familiar.

5. The extreme form of emotional turmoil that comes from having to clean out your closet. It takes days, not hours.

6. Giving away clothes is like giving away puppies. As in, you’ve already named each one and you treat them like your children.

7. You’ve stalked eBay for two years to repurchase your favorite pair of shoes that have since fallen apart. And when you found them you let out a scream reminiscent of your mother during childbirth.

8. Black Friday is your Super Bowl. Small Business Saturday is your Oscars, and Cyber Monday is your own personal Olympics.

9. You have mastered all the tricks to sneaking new shopping bags into the house. No more judgemental looks from your roommate or significant other re: damage you’ve done to your bank statement.

10. Massive distain for everything that has to be dry cleaned. This just means you don't get to wear it as much. Or wash it as much...

11. Your white dress only looks good with a spray tan, but your spray tan gets all over your white dress. These problems really exist.

12. Normcore. Comfortable sneakers, mom jeans… you’ve realized these terms are no longer insulting, but rather on trend.

Via Marie Claire.com

Why So Many People Just Can't Say No by Hank Davis

One little syllable. Two tiny letters. Yet there are some people who would rather cross burning sand than utter that sound. Even for people who can say “no,” it doesn’t always come easily.

Our culture has given us memes and rituals that help us avoid having to utter that dreaded word. We have invented ways of suggesting that we might want to decline without having to look anyone in the eye and say “No.” If you stand back and watch it happen, you’ll be amazed at the number of socially acceptable, watered-down alternatives there are for that simple, one-syllable word. A friend of mine calls it “no-o-phobia.” It’s as if we think speaking those two letters is going to kill.

I’m in a Men’s Group. About a year ago we had some difficulty keeping our membership numbers at a satisfactory level so I asked a friend who works at a Social Service Agency whether she could recommend somebody. She had a colleague who she thought would be a good addition, so we invited him. He came to a sample meeting and the guys liked him. We invited him to join us but after two weeks there was no reply. So we asked him a second time, this time via phone message. Again, no response. The third invitation was sent by email. Again, nothing.

 I asked my friend if she would talk to him at work and see what was going on. To her credit, she said “No.” She told me, “He’s already answered you. It’s a passive no. Don’t you remember what you taught me several years ago?”

Suddenly I remembered: She had come to me in a state of confusion. She had asked a friend for a favor but the woman didn’t say yes and wouldn’t say no. Despite repeated overtures, this woman just left my friend hanging. “Why is that?” she asked me in frustration. “Why won’t she give me an answer?”
At the time, I assumed the explanation was geographical. I suggested to my friend, “She already has given you a reply. It’s called a Canadian No.”

My friend looked puzzled. “What’s a Canadian No?,” she asked. And so I explained that Canadians don’t like to say “no.” That doesn’t make them more likely than Americans to say “yes.” It just means they are far less likely to look you in the eye and say “no.” It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re face to face, talking to them on the phone, texting or emailing them—they are far more comfortable having your request die of old age than actually refusing it. They’ll leave it for you to figure out that whatever it was you wanted just ain’t gonna happen.

I’ve since learned I was wrong, in the sense that many Americans share this timidity as well. I have taken to calling it a “passive no” rather than limiting it to Canadians.
But the question remains why this passivity is so widespread. One benefit it provides is that everybody gets to save face and, most of all, everyone is saved from the dreaded “C word”—Conflict.
Some people–and I hope you’re one of them–find this whole business a bit puzzling, maybe even humorous. Why didn’t this woman just say “no” to my friend? Why didn’t this guy just say “no” to my group? What would it have taken for these people just to utter that dreaded syllable? What could have happened that would be so terrible? As Nancy Reagan and others have suggested (in an entirely different context), “Just Say No.”

But this is where you need to remind yourself that what’s terrifying for one person can be a walk in the park for somebody else. Admittedly, I have not quantified the effect. I have not examined, for example, whether this kind of passivity is more extreme in Canada vs. the States, or in my part of Ontario than in other regions. One of you can get some federal grant money and approach the topic systematically. But if you ask me to help you write the proposal, it’s a pretty safe bet I will smile, look you in the eyes, and give you a most un-passive, un-Canadian “No.”

Humor aside, the point is not to cast aspersions at an entire nation, but to cast aspersions at anyone from anywhere who chooses to remain passive when a bit of social honesty is called for – even if the expression of that honesty may lead to a few awkward moments. The easy way out is rarely the best way, and it is rarely something to be proud of. I’d go even further: When it becomes habitual, it is something to be ashamed of. And really, the problem transcends national or ethnic borders.

Few of us seek conflict, but it is hard to imagine a life without it. I disrespect the man who chose not to say “no” to our group. He avoided ruffling feathers, but at what cost? Personal integrity? Cowardice? Disrespect? Do those sound like admirable qualities? Sometimes “no” is the most honorable and respectful thing you can say to someone.

8 Essential Rules for Online Dating by Gregory L. Jantz, Ph.D. in Hope for Relationships

Do you know what you're really looking for?

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Not everyone is married, nor does everyone want to be. But many people would like to be, or at least they'd like to be in a long-term committed relationship. So how do you go about finding that someone special? It used to be that you went to singles events or bars, or you might have been paired up by family, friends, or coworkers. It was a crapshoot with lousy odds, considering the amount of time, energy, and effort expended compared with the number of people with whom you came into contact.
Enter the internet. There are now dating sites for Christians, Catholics, Jews, seniors, single parents, even the "casual" dater, and certainly more to come. If you are single and just entering the world of internet dating, here are a few suggestions:

1. Jettison any Cinderella or Prince Charming Visions. Internet profiles are most often designed to present someone in a favorable, airbrushed light. Isn’t that what you tried to do when you created yours? Keep a tight grip on reality as you read through profiles, remembering the time-tested advice that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Honesty is the Best Policy. Don't try to hide who you are. Deception is a terrible foundation upon which to build a relationship. Be honest and open. Use current, up-to-date pictures, not the snapshot that wedding five years ago that miraculously made you look 3 inches taller and 10 pounds thinner.
3. Do Your Homework. Thoroughly check out the sites you're considering. Look at the overall presentation, the graphics, images and general tone. If you already feel uncomfortable just viewing the homepage, it's not for you; try another site.
4. Don't Compromise Your Principles. Choose a dating site that reflects your values and then stick to them throughout the process, from signing up to creating your profile to evaluating the profiles of others and entering relationships.
5. Don't Panic. Relax. You're not buying a used car. Relationships take time to recognize, initiate, and cultivate. Take your time.
6. Follow Your Intuition. Be aware of your gut reactions and feelings as you go through the process. It's incredible how much communication is subliminal. Call it wisdom, intuition, a sixth sense, or your conscience—but pay attention to your feelings and senses.
7. Do Your Own Work First. If you're not comfortable with yourself, how can you expect anyone else to be? Relationships with other people should not be used merely as a distraction from your relationship with yourself. Learn to love, appreciate, live with, and value yourself first, and you’ll be better equipped to extend those blessings to someone else.
8. Check Yourself for Ulterior Motives. What are you honestly looking for? Is it all about putting yourself out there to find that special someone, or is this an internally-focused voyeuristic excuse to mine the photos, intimate details, and lives of other people? The ultimate point of a dating site should be to meet real people, not spend all your free time scanning online profiles.

Finally, dating sites are not panaceas; they are just another way to connect with other people. Go online, sure, but remember to bring your honesty, integrity, values, and principles with you. Connecting a search for love, romance, and intimacy with the internet needs to be done alertly, maturely, and cautiously.

What Guys Really Think About Your Body During Sex by Frank Kobola

It's easy for anyone to get self-conscious during sex. You're naked, it's crazy intimate, and you're seeing each other's bodies from angles that aren't common in most day-to-day activities. But you'd be surprised that the things you get self-conscious about aren't even a thought in a guy's mind. If you're not self-conscious about your body in the first place, that's amazing. But if any of these thoughts has ever popped into your head during sex, brush them aside because here's what we're really thinking.

1. Butt
Girls think: "Omigod, I hope he doesn't notice my cellulite or expect me to have shaved inside my butt. I'm not ever going to bother with that."
Guys think: "That ass is perfect. Would it be weird if I just held it for an hour? Should I ask permission or just go for it?"

2. Thighs
Girls think: "Why are the lights on? I look like the sausage counter at Whole Foods!"
Guys think: "I can't believe we're leaving the lights on this time. I can actually see everything, which is sexy as hell."

3. Stomach
Girls think: "Why did I get on top? I bet all he's thinking about is how I look pregnant with my dinner."
Guys think: "There are two things I love about being on top: I don't have to do any work, and I get to watch her boobs bounce up and down. This is the best."

4. Hips
Girls think: "Wow, is there that much of me to hold on to when I'm on top? Refrain from making a joke about hips that don't lie. REFRAIN." 
Guys think: "Thank god she actually has hips. I love having something to hold on to. Shakira, Shakira."

5. Breasts
Girls think: "I wonder if he's noticing my nipple hairs!"
Guys think: "I wonder if she noticed I can't stop staring at her breasts."

6. Back
Girls think: "Why are we doing it from behind? I should have gotten that bacne facial thing that costs a million dollars at that spa."
Guys think: "WE'RE DOING IT FROM BEHIND! I wonder if it's inappropriate to go for a high-five right now, because this is awesome."

Photo Credit: Getty

A New Photo of the Royal Family, Complete With Prince George and Lupo the Dog

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge JUST THIS VERY SECOND released a family photograph with their son, Prince George, and their celebrity dog, Lupo (HI LUPO!! GOOD BOY!!!), ahead of their forthcoming tour to New Zealand and Australia. Taken at Kensington Palace in mid-March 2014, it's pretty much the sweetest thing of all time. A boy and his dog, y'all. Tale as old as time.

Photo via Jason Bell/Camera Press/Redux

The Mystery of Kissing It's not clear why we do it, but we know it works. By Michael Castleman

A  recent visitor to my website complained that her husband’s aversion to kissing was stressing their marriage. This is not the first time I’ve heard people complain about a lover’s poor kissing or unwillingness to kiss. Kissing is a frequently overlooked element of sexuality. Also known as smooching, necking, snogging, making out, lip locking, bussing, and osculation, kissing is rarely mentioned in sexology resources, which is odd, because for many lovers, kissing is one of the most important, most erotic elements of sex.

One reason the sex literature largely ignores kissing is that it often occurs in nonsexual contexts with non-erotic meanings, among them: kissing another’s cheek to signal greeting or farewell; kissing children’s minor injuries to heal them; kissing the Pope’s ring or kings’ hands to signal reverence and fealty; or kissing dice for good luck. There's also kissing that signals betrayal, condemnation, or contempt, as in Judas’ kiss, the Mafia’s kiss of death, or the phrase “kiss my ass.”


Percy Bysshe Shelley defined kissing as “soul meeting soul on lovers’ lips.” It’s certainly possible for lips-only kissing to express deep love, but for soul to meet soul, most lovers engage in open-mouth kissing with tongue contact, known in the English-speaking world as French kissing. Most—but not all—people consider kissing with tongue contact to be extremely intimate. Some consider it as intimate as intercourse. This intimacy is also reflected in a term used to describe fellatio and cunnilingus—“genital kissing.” Meanwhile, many sex workers who routinely provide fellatio and vaginal and anal intercourse refuse to kiss customers on the lips because, they say, it’s “too intimate.”

Ancient Sanskrit texts (c. 1000 B.C.) provide the earliest documented evidence of human kissing. Ancient Europeans kissed, but the paucity of references in ancient Greek literature suggests that the practice was less frequent 2,000 years ago than it is among Europeans today. Most world cultures kiss, but not all. Europeans introduced the practice to the indigenous peoples of Australia, Tahiti, and several locales in Africa. In some Asian cultures, lovers kiss only in private. Doing so in public is considered indecent.

Kissing is a mystery. Only two other species are known to kiss as humans do, chimpanzees and bonobos. They kiss to communicate attachment and to reduce group social tensions. But only humans and bonobos kiss deeply during sex.

Nor is it clear why kissing evolved. Some scientists speculate that it originated with mammalian infant suckling. Human lips contain a wealth of touch-sensitive nerves, and lip stimulation activates a surprisingly large area of the brain. But all mammals suckle their young while only a tiny minority of mammals kiss. Other researchers suggest that kissing originated in mammalian pre-chewing of food before feeding it to young mouth to mouth. Again, many more mammalian species pre-chew food than kiss. Some scientists theorize that kissing evolved to bring noses close enough to sense others’ pheromones, chemicals that play a subtle but well-documented role in attraction and attachment. Again, many species respond to pheromones but only a few kiss.

Kissing boosts levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and the endorphins. Dopamine regulates sexual desire while serotonin and endorphins elevate mood. Kissing also increases blood levels of the hormone oxytocin, which mediates interpersonal attachment, and decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol. As a result, kissing reduces anxiety and blood pressure.

Many people use kissing as a test of compatibility. In one survey, 59 percent of men and 66 percent of women said they’d ended budding relationships because the other person kissed “badly.”
Studies show that men are more likely than women to initiate kissing with tongue contact. The reason is unclear, but saliva contains trace amounts of testosterone, the hormone responsible for sexual desire in both men and women. Researchers speculate that unconsciously men may open their mouths to deliver this hormone and perhaps increase women’s sexual receptivity. But on the other hand, plenty of lovers’ kissing doesn’t lead to sex.

Among English speakers, open-mouth kissing was not called French kissing until World War I, when large numbers of English and American soldiers fought in France, and discovered that it’s common among the French. However, the French do not call it French kissing. It’s baiser amoureux (the kiss of love) or baiser avec la langue (kissing with the tongue).

Studies show that kissing is erotically more important to women than to men. Women are more likely to insist on kissing before, during, and after sex. Not surprisingly, when I’ve received complaints about kissing, they’ve almost always been voiced by women about men.

Kissing often makes people feel self-conscious, especially about the freshness of their breath. This concern accounts for significant sales of lifesavers, breath mints, toothpaste, and dental floss.

One study asked 1,041 young adults how best to kiss. The vast majority said that fresh breath, clean teeth, and good grooming were essential prerequisites. A large majority also valued soft, moist lips, deep breathing, mutual caressing, and assertiveness—leaning in and putting emotion into kissing rather than remaining passive. Finally, most said the best kissing begins with mouths closed, and proceeds to mouths opening only if things heat up.

References: Kirshenbaum. Sheril. The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Tell Us. Grand Central Publishing, 2011.
Ryan, Christopher and Cacilda Jetha. Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. Harper-Collins, 2010.
Teifer, Lenore. “The Kiss: The Kinsey Institute 50th Anniversary Lecture,” Oct. 24, 1998.

Things Men Like About you

There are plenty of other things that men find attractive in a woman though, and some of these things have nothing to do with your physical appearance.
 
Here are 10 things men like more than good looks…
 
#1 A Wicked Sense of Humour
Men love a woman who they can have a good laugh with, and the dirtier your sense of humour is, the better. Men enjoy a bit of sexy banter, but they also like a woman they can be them self around.

#2 Men Love your Flaws
All those little things you hate about yourself are probably all the things that turn your guy on! They are what make you unique.

#3 A Woman Who Likes a Pint
What I’m trying to say here is that men like women who don’t have airs or graces. A girl who is comfortable to be herself and hang out, feeling relaxed with his friends.

#4 A Kind and Caring Girlfriend
You might not have the perfect figure, or be the best cook; but if you are genuine and compassionate, your boyfriend will love that about you. You will make him feel loved and proud, and that is all any man can ask for.

#5 A Girl Who Gives Him His Space
You might be the hottest thing on the planet but if you can’t recognize when a guy needs his space, you will still be annoying. Respect a man’s right to privacy, and respect when he needs to assert himself as a man (i.e. hang out with the lads and do ‘men’ things).

#6 An Independent Woman
Men love to feel needed; they also get turned-on by women who don’t necessarily need them! It may sound like a contradiction but if you can demonstrate that you have your own life and that you love it, any man you are after will show their interest. Why? Because men love the ‘challenge’.

#7 Men Are Attracted to Confidence
You don’t have to be particularly good-looking to attract the attention of men; You just have to ooze confidence. A woman, who knows her worth, is interesting and sexy. Men want to get to know that woman better!

#8 A Woman Who Can Cook
It might seem a bit old fashioned to suggest that men like a woman who knows what she is doing in the kitchen, but the fact is that men want to feel good. They want to feel comfortable and looked-after. A woman who knows how to produce a satisfying meal with minimal effort is a woman who knows how to make her man happy. She is a homemaker, and that is essentially a very attractive trait to have!

#9 A Woman Who Is Intelligent
You don’t have to have several degrees and a high-flying career to tick this box. If you can form an opinion and back it up, you’re good to go. Show a man that you have a brains in that pretty head of your and suddenly you become a challenge.

#10 A Woman Who Is Open Minded
Whenever you see a woman who you may not think is very attractive, yet she is in a relationship with a man who dotes on her – don’t be too confused – she is probably a lot of fun behind closed doors. The good news is that you don’t have to be amazing in bed, or know what all about the Karma Sutra to keep a man happy in the bedroom. You don’t have to be gorgeous or have the perfect body either. What you do need to have is an open mind. Girls who are open to experimentation and enthusiastic to try new things in bed are like God’s gift to all men.

Via Bay Network