Ask Me Anything: Dr. Debby Herbenick

Good luck trying to get Dr. Debby to blush. She once taught Tyra Banks about the vulva with an anatomically correct puppet and didn’t even break a sweat. The IU prof’s new book, The Coregasm Workout, released this month, explains exercise-induced orgasm. We sat down with the sexpert for a quickie Q&A.

You must get cornered a lot at cocktail parties.
Yes! Most questions boil down to “Am I normal?”

Are coregasms normal?
Yes. It is a real, legitimate orgasm, produced by exercise rather than sex, though it tends to be more mild. Men’s Health coined the term in 2007, but Kinsey and his team wrote about them briefly in 1953, and they  happened to both males and females.

Who do you think is doing a good job of portraying sex in the media authentically?
Girls has made important contributions to how young women’s sexuality is portrayed on television. [Director] Nicholas Stoller is doing some excellent work. I thought the sex scenes in Five-Year Engagement had a lovely honesty to them.

Can we talk about that vulva puppet?
So, a funny thing—The Tyra Banks Show tapes a few shows per day, and [President] Obama was taping an interview while I was there. He was running for president at the time. Producers came in and said,“Barack Obama is down the hall in another green room. Please do not leave this room with the vulva puppet.”