21 Ideas for Sex and Romance in the Age of Social Distancing

Social distancing doesn’t have to be a buzzkill in the sex and romance department. With a little creativity and flexibility, you can spend quality time together and stay sexually connected, while also staying 6+ feet apart. Or whatever the recommended distance may be at the time you’re reading this.

1. Get your bodies moving and endorphins flowing with a living room dance party of 2- you on your end of the room, and they in theirs. Really get wild and learn some choreography from YouTube videos.
2. Play the Wikipedia Game. Hit random, read the first sentence, and see if they can guess the article. Hours of fun, and can be done from opposite sides of a long table.
3. Do a sexy striptease. All eyes, no touching.
4. Sign up for my Sex: Ask Me Anything Q&A on Zoom. I’m hosting a special event, so if you’re bored with Netflix, tune in for a different kind of show!
5. Get your nerd on and take a college course online together. Yale University and other schools offer free classes online. Watch course videos, quiz each other, and review one another’s homework, all possible 6+ feet apart or via video chat.
6. Do a photo scavenger hunt. Create a list of items to find- at home, in your yard, or non-populated outdoor space, and then go your separate ways to find and photograph your list. Text each other the photos to compare and discuss.
7. Set out hula hoops, ropes, balls, ladders, or whatever else you have lying around in your home or yard that would make a good obstacle course. Take turns running through it while the other clocks the timer, 6+ feet away.
8. Write erotic stories or poems. They don’t have to be good. The fun is in being creative, and reading them out loud to each other later- which stimulates your sense of hearing at a time when sense of touch may be off limits.
9. Make and compare Yes/No/Maybe Lists, like this one. Check all the sex acts that you’re into, and not into, and might be into. Swap lists. Makes a great conversation starter.
10. Drive out to the boonies, with no other people around, and star gaze.
11. Fill out the census.
12. Each of you get your favorite sex toy, and masturbate together on video chat.
13. Color. With coloring books, or with a piece of paper and some crayons. Good old fashioned fun.
14. Make your life bucket lists. Compare notes.
15. Play Trope Bingo. Pick a film genre prone to cliché (westerns, rom-coms, action, etc), create two bingo boards of common tropes, then select a movie to watch and see who gets Bingo first. Can be played via video chat or in person.
16. Write a journal about this unprecedented time right now- what’s going on, how you’re feeling, what has been disrupted in your life, and your sexual relationships. This will be interesting for you to look back on someday, and pure gold for future sexologists and historians who will cherish first account artifacts of this time.
17. Phone Sex. People use to pay $3.99 a minute for it, so don’t discount its erotic potential!
18. Invent a holiday. Again, works on opposite sides of the room, or via phone. Work together to think of the traditions, activities, foods, decorations, and special touches a random holiday you make up just for the two of you. Pick a future date to celebrate it every year.
    
19. Write each other a good old fashioned love letter.
    
20. Clean the house. Not the sexiest of dates, but put on your favorite playlist, and tackle the house together. It keeps you in separate rooms, but sharing an experience, and will give you a clean space to hunker down in.
21. If you live together, do a non-date. Cramped quarters for extended periods can breed cabin fever, irritability, and bickering. Take an intentional “date” to do you own thing, in your own corners, for a little while, so you don’t get on each other’s nerves.