sex ed article

Just last month, I hopped onto a meeting of the Sex Education Alliance (SEA) to talk about the most recent onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping across the U.S. The Alliance is a membership organization for sex educators who are focused on family and child education and we spend a lot of time supporting each other in various ways. But we also look for ways to push the … [Read more...] about How the Anti-LGBTQ+ Movement Co-opts the Language of Anti-Violence Advocates

You’ve likely seen the headlines: Adolescents Receiving Less Sex Ed Than 25 Years Ago. Teens Not Receiving Enough Sex Education. Adolescents Doomed Because Sex Ed Is So Darn Underwhelming. (That last one is mine. It represents the thoughts screaming through my head.) Just this past November, researchers published a paper in the Journal of Adolescent Health that compared … [Read more...] about Why It’s Never Too Early to Start Sex Ed With Your Kids

I don’t remember much about my first menstruation, beyond the fact that I wasn’t sure if I was menstruating or dying. I was 13 by that point, so I already knew that periods were a thing. School had prepared us for that much, at least. But I suspected that vaginas could bleed for other reasons, too. Terrifying reasons. How was I to know whether the blood staining my … [Read more...] about How to Normalize Talking to Your Kids About Periods

In 2019, a pair of laws were passed: the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA). They were passed with the intention of making it easier to fight sex trafficking online. Under these laws, websites are responsible if third-party accounts post ads for prostitution on their platforms. Sites have responded to this new … [Read more...] about Kick-Ass Sex Educators Who Are Way More Than Just Their Instagram Feeds

The fight for comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education gathered unprecedented momentum in the past decade. As campus sexual assault gained greater visibility, colleges and universities began implementing consent education programs to teach incoming freshmen about the importance of affirmative consent. At the K-12 level, Texas’ board of education agreed to revamp … [Read more...] about How Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Reinforces Rape Culture

I was 22 when I discovered sex-positive feminism. Nerve.com was getting into its groove. The sex shop Grand Opening! had just opened its doors in Brookline. Writers like Susie Bright and Tristan Taormino were pumping out erotica collections and Crunch Gym was promoting its cardio striptease classes. Meanwhile, I had just fallen into a college internship writing for an adult … [Read more...] about Sex-Positive Books for Readers of All Ages

"So what's going on with your vagina?" is a question my 6-year-old daughter casually asked recently as she strolled into my home office. I did a double-take, but it was quick. After all, I write about sex for a living and, well, sometimes, vaginas just … come up. "Oh, nothing. My vagina is fine," I said, just as casually. "OK," she said and wandered off. I am … [Read more...] about Most Sex Ed Stresses Abstinence. Here’s How Parents Can Fill in the Gaps.

A billion years ago (8 years? more?), I began to write my reported memoir on female sexuality and rape culture. At the time, the book focused on how I had become a sex writer in order to fix what I saw as my own brokenness and sexual dysfunction. A few years after that, however, I became pregnant with my daughter. Suddenly, I was no longer writing about this private pain of … [Read more...] about Why Comprehensive Sex Ed Is the Hill This Mom Will Die On