5 Safe Sex Practices for a Sexy Summer

Whether you’re traveling for vacations or internships, partying til you drop, or experiencing your first single summer, one thing remains true for anyone planning to have sex this summer: safe sex practices are a must. 

Summer has a reputation for being spontaneous. Things you might have said ‘no’ to before suddenly turn into ‘for the plot?’ But while spontaneity can make for a great summer (and make great stories in the future), your sexual health shouldn’t be left to whatever happens.

A few simple safe sex practices can help you enjoy everything this summer has to offer without bringing home a sexually transmitted disease (STI) or stressing about an unintended pregnancy.

1. Buy your own condoms

This may seem like a given, but it's so important that it literally needs to be drilled into. your. brain.

Whether they're external condoms or internal condoms, never assume that whoever you’re having sex with will have them. It may even be a good idea to buy different sizes and different materials (latex and non-latex for any allergies) and keep a few handy in your bag, pocket, or room in case things go down there.

This also eliminates any excuses of “I don’t have any protection on me. Can we just not use it?” because you won’t have to rely on anyone else to bring it. You also never truly know if someone else’s condoms are safe, especially if this is a one-night stand situation.

They could be expired, damaged, or tampered with. You never know, and in this case, it's better to be extra cautious than sorry by bringing your own. 

Note: When pairing lubricant with condoms, make sure the lubricant is water-based to reduce the risk of condoms breaking down.

2. Get tested regularly for any sexually transmitted infections

If you are sexually active, especially with multiple or different partners, it would be wise to consider getting tested regularly. Getting tested allows you to stay informed about what’s going on in your body and also helps prevent the spread of STIs from partner to partner. It can also give you peace of mind if you’re able to show your sexual partners up-to-date test results while also asking if they have any recent results of their own.

Mount Sinai offers free, confidential services, and can answer any questions about how often you should get tested, other resources available to you, and information on medications.

Many colleges and universities also offer free testing, and Planned Parenthood provides free or low-cost testing as well. 

Tip: Follow organizations on Instagram to keep up with any free testing events or informational posts. 

3. Consider getting on PrEP

According to Mount Sinai, PrEP, or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, is a medication taken before exposure to HIV that can significantly reduce your chances of getting HIV.

Some potential options are a once-a-day pill, an on-demand pill taken when you know you’re going to have sex, or an injection taken every two to six months. You can make an appointment with Mount Sinai to find out if you’re a good fit for PrEP and learn which option would be the best fit for you.

If you have already been exposed to HIV or think you may have been, you should look into PEP, or Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, which should be started within 72 hours after exposure. New York City also has a PEP hotline that you can access online, or you can access your local emergency room.

4. Always keep people in the loop

Some of us love filling our friends in on our sexual adventures, while others prefer to keep things private.

Whichever one you resonate the most with, it’s important to let at least one or two trusted people know if you’re leaving a party with someone or meeting up with someone, either for sex (if you’re more open), or to just hang out (if you want to keep it on the down low).

This helps in case anything goes south, whether you were feeling this person at first and now the vibes are off, or the situation becomes unsafe, potentially resulting in sexual harassment, assault, or rape.

Sharing locations with someone you trust or letting them know where you’ll be gives someone the ability to check in on you if needed, and gives you some extra peace of mind that someone knows where you are.

5. Talk to your sexual partner(s) about sex, kinks, and consent

We get it, sometimes sex can be awkward to talk about, or you may worry that discussing what you are and aren’t comfortable with will ruin the mood. However, having these conversations beforehand or even in the moment can help you gauge whether someone may be a good fit for you as a sexual partner.

Not everyone likes being tossed around in the bedroom, praised, or even talked to at all during sex. Letting your partners know what you’re into and what you’re comfortable doing can save everyone from any uncomfortable or unpleasant situations. It is also important to talk about consent.

Hearing what your partners think about consent can tell you a lot about whether they take it as seriously as you do. You may also want to establish a safe word to use during your sexual interaction if you think it's necessary.

Also, remember that consent is an ongoing process that can be withdrawn at any time. Agreeing to something once does not mean you are obligated to continue if you change your mind!

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There are plenty of safe sex tips to keep in mind as you dive into your sexual endeavors this summer (and all of the time!).

The most important thing to remember is that safe sex is self-care. It’s better to be overly cautious than to end up in a situation that puts your body or anyone else's at risk or under unnecessary stress. 

Step out of your comfort zone. Try new things this summer. Be spontaneous. Have fun whenever, wherever, and with whoever.

Just don’t compromise your sexual health, because safe sex is sexy.

Everything is Getting Hotter (Except Us)

Being in your twenties right now can feel disappointing.

This decade of our lives is supposed to be about meeting new people and making memories so we can discover who we are. Every decision and action is supposed to be about maximizing our time while minimizing any damage to our lives, while we don’t have knee pain and our livers are functioning at full capacity.

When we were younger, we were sold a picture of adulthood that looked like life-changing lively parties, last-minute flights, and spontaneous hangouts galore.

But for a generation entering adulthood amid rising living costs, and a time when warm summer nights have turned into boiling hot evenings, having a good summer as a young adult looks much different now than the picture sold to us when we were younger.

You’ve probably seen the meme online of how you can’t step outside without spending $40, which for some, may amount to half a bag of groceries. When having to choose between a fun activity and needing to eat, the choice is obvious. 

So how do we actually enjoy our city without just consuming it?

Before you even step outside your single square foot apartment, you’ll need an outfit first.

Influencer culture and social media have convinced people that new outfits for every occasion—brunch, a rooftop party, vacation, or dinner—is the move. And dressing while looking like the same algorithmic feed becomes a sore sight quickly.

But being an outfit repeater is so chic, especially when no one thinks about others enough to be an outfit rememberer.

Instead of dropping another $100 dollars on “going out tops” from Amazon, hosting a clothing swap with friends, shopping secondhand, or even borrowing outfits from roommates can expand your options a whole lot more than you think.

Learning how to tailor clothes can also breathe new life into older pieces and give you a chance to flourish creatively, especially when having a revitalized appreciation for fashion after rewatching The Devil Wears Prada.

Instead of buying the same trend everyone else will donate in six months, maybe your next statement piece that will last you years is sitting in a thrift store in the Lower East Side. You don’t need to own more stuff; you just have to love what you own already.

It’s a blessing to live in a city where public transportation is so deeply integrated as much as it is.

Even though we’ll have to wait a bit for the Brooklyn-Queens Interborough Express, you can already include the subway into your plans. Instead of everyone calling separate Ubers after a dinner or a night out, organize a carpool.

Four people sharing one ride can cut costs and emissions while also giving everyone more time to catch up and send the digicam pictures before tomorrow begins.

You can ride the ferry to watch the sunset, and then later meet your friends downtown and hop between neighborhoods and boroughs. Walking between bars or restaurants instead of hopping on and off the subway also lets you discover places you'd never have glanced at twice on a moving train.

Before I began blowing some $20 sum on cocktails to feel like I had a social life, some of my most memorable summer evenings have been free.

Having a picnic in the park with a cooler and games instead of brunch. Watching an outdoor movie instead of bootlegging the same one online again. Taking a fling to every pier I can find at dusk instead of rotting inside.

Even just walking around in circles with a cup of gelato and exploring neighborhoods I would otherwise not have a reason to step into was a blast.

Where you spend your money also matters, and instead of defaulting to yet another Blank Street, look for neighborhood cafés, bookstores, immigrant-owned restaurants, and more local music venues.

Supporting small businesses keeps money circulating within the community while making your corner of the city feel a little more unique. Besides, the day a café knows your order is the day you can finally feel like a part of the city.

Sometimes, if you want to genuinely spend no money at all, the healthiest places might be spaces where nobody is trying to sell you anything. There are tons of volunteer opportunities to find in the city, like joining a neighborhood cleanup or working at a community garden.

You could consider spending a Saturday with organizations like New York Cares and Lower East Side Ecology Center and meeting people from different industries and neighborhoods while contributing to the city you love so much.

Community is best built through sharing something.

Start borrowing and lending within your circle of friends instead of everyone buying the same items they’ll rarely use.

Someone might have a projector; another might have power tools. One person has the space for a backyard; another has the extra chairs to host there.

It’s cheaper and less wasteful, plus it gives you another excuse to see your friends.

Especially in this economy, the biggest flex has never been spending. Constantly buying into new trends is a money pit that ends up feeling so unrewarding. But being able to find pockets of life amid all the price tags can make your summers feel richer.

To be environmentally conscious isn’t about being perfect, but you have to be willing to pay attention.

Paying attention to your community and your consumption can leave you with stories years and years into the future instead of just another pile of stuff.

The Drama and the Limits of Movie Marketing

Spoiler alert for "The Drama"

TW: School shootings, gun violence

When A24 released the trailers for The Drama, audiences thought they knew what they were getting; at least I did. 

The marketing promised a tense romantic drama starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.

Social media immediately began theorizing about the central mystery: what had happened between the couple, and what secret was threatening their marriage?

Like many film fans, I was hooked.

As a film student and longtime A24 viewer, I was excited. The trailers were effective. They created intrigue without revealing too much, which is exactly what good marketing is supposed to do.

Then I got spoiled.

A TikTok video revealed the film's major twist before I had a chance to see it myself. Suddenly, the conversation around The Drama shifted from romance and relationships to something much heavier. The film's central revelation (spoiler alert) that Zendaya's character had planned a school shooting as a teenager.

This sparked immediate backlash and reopened an ongoing debate about audience responsibility, content warnings, and the role of marketing.

The criticism wasn't necessarily about the film itself. It was about the surprise. For many viewers, school shootings aren't simply a plot device. They're lived experiences.

I know this because I was on a college campus during a shooting.

In October 2022, while I was a freshman at the University of Arizona, Professor Thomas Meixner was shot and killed in a building next to where I was attending class at that same time.

Authorities would later determine that the attack was targeted and carried out by a former student. But in the hours immediately following the shooting, nobody knew that.

What I remember most is uncertainty.

I remember being on the phone with my mother asking whether I should go to my next class, stay where I was, or return to my dorm.

I remember emergency alerts appearing across campus. I remember the fear in my classmates' faces. Most vividly, I remember not knowing whether the person responsible was still somewhere nearby.

People often reserve the label "survivor" for those directly involved in a shooting, and I understand why. I wasn't in the room. I wasn't physically harmed. 

Yet trauma doesn't always follow neat definitions. I still remember exactly where I was sitting when I got the alert. I remember the clothes I was wearing. I remember texting my family that I loved them.

Four years later, I still think about it.

That's why The Drama's marketing controversy interested me, not because I was offended by the film, but because it raised a question that filmmakers increasingly have to confront: How do you market a twist built around a collective trauma? There are no easy answers.

Film marketing exists to generate curiosity. Revealing major plot points can weaken a film's impact before audiences ever buy a ticket. At the same time, subjects like school shootings occupy a unique place in American culture. They are not rare tragedies. They are recurring realities.

According to Sandy Hook Promise, more than 390,000 students in the United States have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine, and lockdown drills are now a routine experience for most American students (Sandy Hook Promise; Brady United).  For many viewers, school shootings aren't hypothetical fears; they're memories.

So where does that leave filmmakers?

Should marketing campaigns explicitly warn audiences when a film contains school-shooting or trigger worthy content? If they do, does that effectively spoil the narrative? If they don't, are viewers being denied information that could help them make informed decisions about what they're about to watch? The debate surrounding The Drama suggests there may never be a universally accepted answer.

What the controversy does reveal, however, is how normalized these conversations have become. The fact that audiences immediately questioned whether a school-shooting twist required a warning says something unsettling about contemporary America. An entire generation has grown up measuring films against experiences that previous generations never imagined would become routine.

That reality extends far beyond movie theaters.

Following the University of Arizona shooting, counseling resources became overwhelmed as students attempted to process what had happened. The incident was eventually classified as targeted, but that distinction offered little comfort in the moment.

My fear didn't wait for official reports.

Perhaps that's why the discussion around The Drama resonates with so many people. It isn't really about a single movie. It's about the challenge of telling stories about violence in a country where violence increasingly shapes real lives.

I still haven't seen The Drama… Maybe I eventually will.

But the marketing controversy surrounding it forced me to think about something larger than a plot twist. It made me reflect on how trauma travels beyond the moment it occurs; into classrooms, conversations, films, and marketing campaigns.

The stories we tell are shaped by the world we live in.

For some viewers, a plot twist is just a plot twist. For others, it's a memory.

Read more about the drama, shootings and UofA below:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/04/03/drama-movie-controversy-gun-violence-school-shooting/89388141007/\ 

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-drama-movie-twist-spoilers-backlash-columbine-zendaya-robert-pattinson-2026-4 

https://news.arizona.edu/news/what-youre-feeling-after-campus-shooting-normal 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thomas-meixner-university-of-arizona-professor-killed-by-former-student-identified/ 

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/