The first time.

We peel off clothes.

We slide toward naked, entering sex as if it were just us, just two people’s bodies. Simple and uncomplicated. But we are rarely bare and unburdened. These bodies of ours—magnificent, strong, ripe—are often so deeply buried under outside and inside judgments that it can be hard to hear ourselves. It’s easy to disconnect from the body and push its wants and needs below the surface.

For Kate, it took many years to unbraid her body from a complicated tangle of shame and silence.