Recently I got called a sex nerd, I wasn’t quite sure how to take that but at the time I was reassured that it was in fact a compliment. Some people are interested in cars, trains, stamp collecting, for others the more traditional nerd/geek interests computers and gaming pc/console, rpgs, card games, boards games, war games, comics and I have been called an all round nerd/geek many times before but a sex nerd?

I guess if the shoe fits; I was always a contrary child and listened far to much to adult conversations as they were always far more intresting esp when they would talk around certain things or stop talking when they figured out I was listening. It was that and curiosity which had me at a young age reading books which quiet possibly I should not have been and the more I felt I wasn’t meant to know about sex, sexuality and my own body the more I wanted to know.

And this was the days of pre internet, but I had my library card and a willingness to order in books, research and on Saturdays go wandering in the stacks in TCD ( which you could do without a student card back then). Second hand bookshops were also great for books, I got my first copy of Emanuelle when I was 16 and also nearly got suspended from school due to one of my english essays on Hamlet as I refused to ignore all the sexual subtext and innuendo, which due to be being a young lady in convent school was shockingly inappropriate. So was bringing in a copy of the karma sutra when we had a planned lesson on religious diversity.

The diversity of human sexuality and how sexuality and identity are interlinked and how much our sexual drives still have an effect on us in so many ways still enthralls me. I found I went from wanting to know more about the physical parts of my body, to the biggest sex organ we have,not those ones, higher up, the brain and what makes people attracted and turned on, from looks to fetishes and beyond.

All of which I guess makes me the person that people will ask questions of, as I most likely will have heard of what ever it is they are asking about. I get all sorts of fun phone calls, about were to get certain things or how ‘normal’certain things are or referrals for things to read on certain topics.

So to sum up, I guess I am a sex nerd, every now and then I catch myself considering how much I do know about sti, contraception, sexuality and sexual diversity and wonder how I got here, at times I am not sure, but it’s been fun.