sex ed

National Sexual Freedom Day is Thursday. Woodhull Freedom Foundation will host panels on the topic of sexual freedom as a fundamental human right and will also release the first Sexual Freedom Annual Report documenting the state of sexual freedoms in the United States today. This is an exciting moment in the movement toward greater sexual freedom for all. And yet it is also a moment characterized by conflict about what kinds of sexualities ought to be free, and what kinds of institutions ought to regulate those freedoms.

Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an opinion piece by Margaret Brooks, of Bridgewater State University, railing against the well-established Sex Week programming series that exists, in different forms, on many college campuses. Sex Weeks have been around for at least a decade. They aren’t new. They aren’t even especially controversial. Until now. Brooks is scandalized by the way that commercial interests (sex toy companies) and academic interests (sexuality education) are blended without much to distinguish the one from the other. She is indignant that Sex Week workshops and programs are not taught primarily by full time faculty members. And she is outraged that these programs don’t provide abstinence or monogamy only education.

I sympathize with Dr. Brooks on a majority of those points, a fact which may be hard for many readers to believe.

this is a smashing idea!!!

the pleasure project

because sex education is rarely sexy

and erotica is rarely safe

bringing sexy back into safer sex

I've written before about how Heather Corinna is one of my heroes of the Internetz.  Almost single-handedly, she created and has maintained Scarleteen, the single finest internet resource for teens to learn about sex, either queer or straight, without learning gobs and gobs of garbage about Virginity or Marriage is the one and only way.  Scarleteen is essential for anyone who gives a shit about sex or about teens, and it behooves all of us to make sure that it and Heather are in good shape.