Everyone pees. Everyone poops. And women have periods. The movie Period. End of Sentence. won an Oscar on Sunday night. The film was created by Oakwood High School (California) students. They also founded a nonprofit organization called The Pad Project which targets the stigma of menstruation. The movie begins in a rural village outside of […]
Understanding our sexuality is a life-long journey. “Mom, what’s sex?” “We aren’t talking about that. Ever.” And so began my halting journey into sexual education. I started asking questions when I was 8. My mother refused to talk about it. My school told me abstinence was the best option and glossed over condoms. No one […]
When adults don’t participate in rape prevention alongside children and teens we lose an important opportunity. I’m the violence prevention educator they’ll never see again. This school year began with news of former prep school athlete Owen Labrie’s conviction of a felony sex crime. As high school students prepare for graduation, the news cycle is […]
My earliest sex education didn’t even mention that sex felt good. I was reassured that it was all right to say no, but never offered a script for arriving at yes. Recently, I wrote an essay about dating older men when I was still in my teens. I was shocked, though I shouldn’t have been, […]
This originally appeared on Alternet.org. Republished here with permission. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. There is no perfect moment. Why should you take advice from me? It’s a reasonable question given that I lack any visible credentials, like initials after my name. So, here’s my calling card: I have three kids, 15, 18 and […]
The average mom is terrified that her daughter’s sexual activity will deem her a “slut,” and the average dad knows that she could be objectified by boys and men, just as he was programmed to do. The most panicked calls and emails that I receive from parents are the ones that go something like this: […]
This originally appeared on Alternet.org. Republished here with permission. According to America’s moral scolds, sex is like used chocolate, backwash, and duct tape. Despite the fact that 95% of Americans have premarital sex, and that this has been true for decades, abstinence-only education continues to be taught in classrooms across the U.S. Abstinence programs have received $1.75 billion in […]
