I love the satirical website The Onion. They made this amazing video about the effects of pornography on consumers and today we’re going to use that as a teachable moment. “Children exposed to pornography may expect sex to be enjoyable” runs the biting headline. Burn! Many people are concerned about the effects of pornography on… Continue reading Pornography’s effects on consumers
An important part of sex education is helping people become comfortable with their sexual identities. And some of us are big flaming queens. Good on Neil Patrick Harrison for helping us discuss this with the young people in our lives, with his Tony-awards opening number “Broadway: it’s not just for gays any more”. What kinds… Continue reading Representations of gay men in the media
Orange is the New Black: Netflix dramedy, or important breakthrough for sex education? Some of the topics I’ve addressed in other blog posts might be controversial (see, “Pegging”, “Sex Within Marriage”). But surely nobody could object to this most basic of sex education topics: biological information about how many holes we have in our bodies?… Continue reading Human biology 101
Sex education often focuses on the messy, interesting business of having sex for the first few times. But let’s not forget about “lifelong learning” – it’s possible that you might end up having sex with the same person for several years. Several decades, even. Goodness me, that brings its own full set of challenges, doesn’t… Continue reading Sex within marriage
This website presents entertainment material that’s perfect for promoting conversations leading to “teachable moments” about the kinds of sexual topics you might want to raise with the young people in your life. It has generally avoided discussions of specific sex acts. But we should make an exception for pegging (or “heterosexual male receptive dildonic intromission”… Continue reading Anal penetration (heterosexual male, receptive)
Can Amber Rose inspire useful conversations with the young people in your life about what exactly is “respectful” in a “respectful relationship?”. You bet! You may have heard concerns about young women becoming too “sexualised” these days. This is code for “slutty”. A lot of current “respectful relationships” education teaches young people that it’s not… Continue reading Respectful relationships
Let’s use a hilarious song from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to discuss binary gender roles. It’s important. Trust me. Trans people have become more visible in public debates recently; this raises some issues you might want to discuss with the young people in your life. More trans voices are talking openly about their own experiences, and this has… Continue reading Binary gender roles
As part of sex education you want to talk to the young people in your life about pornography, right? Pornography. Many people enjoy it. Many people masturbate to it. Is it addictive? What is the difference between really enjoying something and being addicted to it? Is there someone in your life who masturbates a lot,… Continue reading Pornography addiction
Let’s listen to Salt-N-Pepa, and then talk about whether women should be allowed to engage in sex work. Formal sex education doesn’t typically talk about sex work. Which is odd, because it’s an important aspect of sex for a lot of people. It’s also a topic of heated public debate. Increasing numbers of sex workers… Continue reading A woman’s right to choose (what kind of work she wants to do?)
A key part of healthy sexual development is becoming comfortable with our own bodies and making peace with the fact that we’re sexual beings. For each of us this happens in a cultural context where we are told by a variety of voices what we should look like in order to be considered sexy. Women… Continue reading Media representations of women’s sexuality
Entertainment Sex-Ed 