Greetings, MSP readers! I just returned from 3 weeks in India, and I can’t wait to go back! While I was mostly occupied with sightseeing and attending talks at a conference in my home discipline, folklore, I was also attuned to what was going on with sex education and sexuality in India. Here are some interesting facts that I learned while there. Sex education is not universally offered in Indian schools. Continue Reading →
Sex Education
Recent posts
More Than 10% Of Teens With STIs Claim Abstinence
According to this Time.com article, over 10% of teenagers diagnosed with some sort of sexually transmitted disease or infection, such as chlamydia, claim that they’ve never had sex. Obviously there’s something wrong with this statement. Continue Reading →
Talk To Your Kids About Star Wars (And Sex!)
My aunt suggested that I watch this video about how to talk to your kids about Star Wars. My reaction to this video, unsurprisingly, was to wonder if the parents in the clip would be as eager to talk to their kids about sex as they were about talking to them about Star Wars. Continue Reading →
A ‘Must-See’ Film: The Education Of Shelby Knox
Talk about a movie that will make your head spin… I recently watched the film, The Education Of Shelby Knox: Sex, Lies, and Education and if sexual education is something you fancy, I highly recommend that you check this out. The 2005 documentary (directed and produced by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt) focuses on Shelby Knox – a teenage girl who joins a campaign for implementing comprehensive sex education in the high schools of her hometown (Lubbock, Texas). Continue Reading →
Contrasting European And American Attitudes Toward Sex
I’ve written before about how attitudes toward teen sex in the Netherlands differ from those in the U.S. Here’s a link to a visual analysis of the differences between Western European and American beliefs about sex. American media tends to construct sex as threatening and dangerous, whereas European ads reveal an acceptance of sex as natural and normal. Go check out the site and decide for yourself–the ads might arouse your, er, curiosity if nothing else. Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
Dan And Bill Savage At The Chicago Humanities Festival
I was lucky enough to get to see Dan and Bill Savage’s presentation Savage Love with Dan and Bill Savage at the Chicago Humanities Festival on Friday night. Dan Savage is the author of the advice column Savage Love and has also written several books, The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family, Skipping Towards Gomorrah, The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant, and Savage Love: Straight Answers from America’s Most Popular Sex Columnist. His brother Bill Savage is an English professor at Northwestern University. They both had fantastic stage presence and discussed sex education in an entertaining though serious manner. Continue Reading →
Abstinence-Only Education Vs. Comprehensive Sex Education
A report released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) revealed a correlation between states that endorse abstinence-only sex education and high teen pregnancy rates, while states that offer comprehensive, accurate, and evidence-based sex education tend to have lower teen pregnancy rates. Quotes from representatives of Planned Parenthood and other women’s health organizations are cautiously optimistic about how these results will affect official funding and endorsement of sex education. Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
Scarleteen Blog Carnival
AAG and Scarleteen have teamed up to organize a one month long fundraising blog carnival for Scarleteen. For those not in the know, Scarleteen is a fantastic resource for teens and others who have questions about sex. If you’ve ever been to an adult site (often porn, but not always) you’ve more often than not seen a link pointing the underage kids to Scarleteen for their sex information. From their own site: Continue Reading →
The Pleasure Project: Bringing Sexy Back
Most of the sex educators I know feel frustrated about the state of sex ed for countless reasons: lack of funding, lack of support, lack of teacher training, etc. Even when sex ed happens, it’s often sex-negative and disease-focused. Rarely does sex education address why people have sex. Continue Reading →
Attitudes Towards Teen Sex In The Netherlands
This Salon article on the Dutch approach to teen sex reports on a study examining Dutch attitudes towards teenage sleepovers in their parents’ home, finding that parents generally express a desire to be involved in their teens’ lives as they grow up and become romantically and sexually involved. Additionally, access to contraceptives and other sexual healthcare is widely available, which, along with a greater acceptance of sexuality as a normal part of life rather than something to be stigmatized as dirty or shameful, have shaped a very different cultural atmosphere. The evidence is striking: Continue Reading →