This is what too many people fail to understand about adolescent girls when it comes to sex, rape and personal agency: The experience of being alive in their bodies makes them sometimes sexual, sometimes curious, sometimes desirous, sometimes totally innocent — and at all times vulnerable to other people’s interpretations of their behavior, of their decisions, of their very existence in bodies equipped with brand-new womanly features. And all they have to counter those interpretations are their own voices — voices that are routinely ignored, dismissed and silenced. What does a kid that age know, after all? At least until an older man says, she knew damn well what she was doing.Five minutes after we ended the interview, Kampmeier called me back to say she wanted to add one more thought: “When you rape a girl, the problem is not that you’re taking away her purity — which is what gets the religious right up in arms — it’s that you’re taking away her wholeness. And trying to keep her ‘pure,’ repressing her sexuality, silencing her voice, also takes away wholeness. It’s two sides of the same coin.”I don’t want my daughter to grow up pure,” she said. “I want her to grow up whole.”
via Polanski, “Hounddog” and 13-year-old voices – Broadsheet – Salon.com.
As the new school year heats up, so does the public debate about sex education. What do we teach teenagers about sex, and what do we leave them to figure out on their own? If we can agree that few teens learn about sexuality in an accurate, age-appropriate, and comprehensive way, then where does that leave adults who came through the same school systems they did? Many of us are still full of questions that we aren’t quite sure how to articulate. Few can claim that they’ve figured sex — and its social influence — out.If you want to graduate to the next level of sexual health, pleasure, and social awareness, now’s your chance. Get yourself schooled with a crash course in sex ed for adults. From orgasms to organs, from contraceptives to court decisions, look to the reading list below for the can’t-miss books and articles about sex.
via 40 Books About Sexuality That You Have to Read | | AlterNet.
“Active consent is about re-framing discussions on sexual consent from strictly ‘no means no’ to a model which states that anything less than active participation is not consensual,” said Rachel Tomlinson Dick, director of the Women’s Resource Center. “It’s about moving the conversation to ‘yes means yes.’”
via Safer Sex Cabaret spices up sex ed for UNO students
Nigerians need to let go of that moral crap, sex is not bad; So why do Nigerians demonize it?
Your mother cannot even give you proper sex education as a yound adolescent, rather she says ‘ if you go close to a boy or if a boy should touch you , you’ll get pregnant’ .
BULLCRAP!!!!! Hey wonderful mother, why don’t you say ‘ my girl, if you have sex without protection with a young man you will get pregnant’ .
Isn’t that real and honest compared to making your child believe she’s some reincarnation of Virgin Mary that will concieve by some holy apparition.
Why don’t you tell your child, because believe me , she already knows the whole 9 yards, I dare say at age 12 she knows half of what you knew at age 23.
via Ttlolla’s Mind: Lets Talk Sex.
Condoms may not be 100% effective, but they protect against pregnancy and STDs far better than Jesus.
via The Gaytheist Agenda » Blog Archive » WTF Mississippi?.
I, for one, from my faith perspective believe that marriage is a religious covenant for a couple, regardless of gender, who make a sacred promise to love and cherish each other. It is also a civil promise, which carries both responsibilities and protections. In Maine alone, there are more than 400 protections that accrue to a married couple that single folks (even those in domestic partnerships) don’t have.
Marriage is a sacred institution; it is an important ceremony performed within the confines of a place of worship. The new Maine law says that if a faith institution chooses not to see marriage with that same perspective, they do not have to perform that wedding. But I am proud to say that in my Maine congregation, we will be marrying same-gendered couples as soon as we are legally able to do so. Let me say that will bring me great joy.
via Congregation stands up for same-sex marriage
So what is the truth:
First – Gender Identity disorder in childhood is a well known and surprisingly common condition. Girls expressing masculinity tends to be less of a story because society accepts “tomboy” behaviour, but effeminate behaviour in boys is far less accepted and we also know that typical gender expression in both boys and girls is the single biggest cause of bullying in and out of schools. Unfortunately whilst a child may simply be expressing gender in a way that is not typical of their sex, society seems to always sexualise it. It is possible that such children will later reveal same sex attraction, most at this early age are not sexually active, just confused by a world that will not accept them as they wish to express themselves.
via The GenderShift Blog: Media stirs up Transphobic responses to children dealing with gender change.
At the age of twenty-six, I finally discovered I was “intersex” from a newspaper article. Fortunately, it was not about me specifically but about intersex in general, and I’m glad that I, unlike Semenya, had time to process the information and come out about it when I was ready to. I still had other issues I was dealing with — namely: racism and homophobia — so it took a year for me to embrace this additional minority status.
Once I did, it was a positive turning point. I’d always felt strongly masculine and feminine, and now it made sense why these two presumably “opposite” traits existed, in me, side by side. I didn’t think being intersex was a bad thing to be. I’d already learned that people can be prejudiced against things they’re unfamiliar with, or are taught to dislike, and that we shouldn’t take on their bigotry.
via Commentary: My life as a ‘Mighty Hermaphrodite’ – CNN.com.
We sex educators are few and far between, and many people are desperate for the information I dispense, which is one of the reasons why I decided to open a non-profit resource center for sexuality information. The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health will be opening in Rhode Island and is a first for its kind in New England. The CSPH’s mission is to provide people with a safe space to receive quality information on sexuality issues.
But perhaps creating our entire business model out of the closet wasn’t such a great idea. Our grand opening was set to take place on September 26th. For a three-hour event, I booked nationally known speakers, including Carol Queen, Bill Taverner, Elizabeth Wood, Barbara Carellas, Gina Ogden and Becky Chalker who are to speak on the need for quality sex education and sexual advocacy issues.
via A new sex education center is born | Sex In The Public Square.
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