Blood banks in the US will not accept blood from men who’ve had sex with men in order to try to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS (despite the fact that the blood is tested before it officially can be used). Not only does this practice prevent potential donors from giving blood, it also allows for arbitrary and idiotic discrimination, as in this case of an Indiana man who was rejected because he “seemed” to be gay. This discriminatory policy costs hospitals healthy blood, and individuals their dignity: regardless of one’s sexuality, to have one’s appearance used against you is wrong. Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
stigma
Recent posts
Professor Writes Romance Novels… And Keeps Job
Perhaps reports of a high-school teacher receiving criticism for writing erotic novels and of a transgender professor denied tenure have made me cynical, but I was surprised to read about this professor who is “out” as a romance novelist and seems to be doing fine. Her colleagues all agree that the caliber of her scholarship speaks for itself. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who was somehow involved in thinking/writing about sex were treated with the same regard? Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
Transgender Professor Denied Tenure
After completing her transition, a transgender professor was denied tenure and terminated. The professor also experienced harassment specific to her situation: she was told that she could only use one bathroom on the campus, a restriction that was placed on no other faculty member. After her tenure review, the professor was told that the dean and vice president of academic affairs found her “lifestyle” inappropriate, so she was going to be made to leave. There are no transgender anti-discrimination laws in the state of Oklahoma, nor are there specific laws about hate crimes based on gender or sexuality. Thus, there may not be any recourse for the professor, even though the president of academic affairs has openly stated that the professor’s lifestyle “offends his Baptist beliefs.” Continue Reading →
Can Educators Write Erotica?
A high school English teacher has been outed as a romance novelist, leading parents to question whether she’s fit to teach their children. The teacher writes under a pen name, and had not received complaints about the appropriateness of her teaching before someone recognized her from her writing publicity photos. This raises the question: is it appropriate for an educator to also be involved in a profession that involves thinking and writing about sex? One parent complained: “Now my son knows so how is he thinking when he’s sitting in her class knowing what she does on the side.” This isn’t the first situation of its kind: in an earlier MSP post on sex work and academia, I discussed standards of appropriateness specific to the educational workplace. Continue Reading →
Legalized Sex Work in Victoria, Australia
When I first arrived in Melbourne last January, one of the first things I did was take a tram to the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. The MSHC is affiliated with the University of Melbourne and I knew I’d be taking many of my public health classes there. On my way there from the city center, very excited about exploring my new turf, I saw a maroon-colored, neon-lit building right down the street from the MSHC. “Is that a brothel?” I asked. Continue Reading →
What Happens When Sex Work And Academia Collide?
I recently read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a “professor-dominatrix scandal”. In brief, various faculty members and grad students in the creative writing department at the University of New Mexico were involved with phone sex work, and the whole thing blew up with accusations, resignations, and so on. Notably, many of the people at the university involved in this thing were women, and they suffered terrible consequences at the hands of their colleagues. One of the smarter, more nuanced analyses of the situation is titled “The Scarlet SW for Sex Worker”. The author correctly points out that of the faculty members involved, one woman apologized, quit the phone sex job immediately, and was not found at fault by the university’s administration–however, the other faculty continued to persecute her. Continue Reading →
HIV/AIDS And Stigma: What You Can Do
When my introductory MSP post went live, I unsurprisingly shared it on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, wanting my friends to see the great work I was helping to produce. And many of my online friends contacted me to let me know how much they liked that I was contributing to such a fun, sex-positive website. However, one good friend and colleague was disappointed: “Craig,” he said, “there’s one very important thing that is missing when you talk about your experience with sex, and I think the fact that you left it off shows how important it is to talk about.” As I scanned back through my introduction, I realized what I had done. Despite having spent the entirety of 2009 providing services to people living with HIV, I had neglected to mention this in my intro. I could give all sorts of reasons – I didn’t feel like it was sex-positive enough, I didn’t think it went with the feeling of the site, etc. But the bottom line is that this site exists to talk about sex, relationships, and pleasure for EVERYONE, and that includes people who are living with HIV. The fact that I missed an opportunity to talk about a group that is very important to me demonstrates how often stigma, fear, and misunderstanding can lead to discrimination and invisibility, whether it is from something as simple as a blog post or as complex as the institution of marriage. This can happen either unintentionally, as I hope was my case, or simply because this group is feared and stigmatized, and is therefore left out of the conversation. I think stigma regarding people living with HIV can be reduced in two ways: knowledge about the disease and familiarizing yourself with those living with HIV in your community. Continue Reading →
It’s not all physical: Better sex and relationships through communication and less shame about sex
Contrary to stereotype about sex-crazed adolescents, this article that describes a study of 4,000 teenagers and young adults suggests that they want more information about aspects of sex that have to do with handling emotions, communicating needs and otherwise being successful at relationships. They also asked for smaller classes, separate by gender (at least some of the time), both of which would seemingly contribute to being able to talk and learn about sex with “less embarrassment”. Stigma and shame around sex have been described by former US Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher as contributing factors to cultures, like in the US, that have unusually high rates of sexually transmissible infections (STI) and unintended pregnancy. Parents who want to learn more about raising sexually healthy teenagers might like this book. Adults who pretty much never got decent education about how to make their relationships work might check out this one. Continue Reading →