Abstinence-Only: It’s Baaack

Reproductive-health experts breathed a sigh of relief in 2009 when President Barack Obama did away with over a decade of funding for abstinence-only funding under previous administrations (which had added up to more than $1.5 billion over ten years). But now, abstinence-only looks to be back on the conservative agenda. Under Bush, ab-only had become the norm [...]

A Vulva Looks Like THAT? Demystifying Female Genitalia for Teens

A few weeks ago, New York Times Magazine carried an amazing article–Teaching Good Sex—that uses a Philadelphia private school’s approach to sex ed to illustrate a simple but controversial question: What if we actually taught young people about pleasure, orgasms, healthy relationships and the wide variety of what is normal in both sexual desire and [...]

We Love the Female Orgasm! Do You?

Starting college is pretty exciting; everyone’s meeting new friends, getting the hang of their classes, and, if they’re lucky, learning about female orgasm. A few weeks ago, my college’s Sexual Health Educators brought the program “I Love the Female Orgasm” to our student body. After seeing the attention-grabbing posters around campus, my roommate and I [...]

Can I Use the Pill By Itself?

As someone who grew up with Ms., I’m incredibly humbled and delighted to be coming in as their first online sexuality advice columnist. I’ve been providing sexuality education and advice from an inclusive, feminist perspective since the ’90s, primarily working with young people in their teens and 20s. But in a media climate in which [...]

Safer Sex After 50

A new study finds women over 50 want help negotiating safer sex and need better conversations about sex with healthcare providers. This follows reports of increases in STIs amongst those over 45 over the last few years. Gasp! Women over 50 have sex! And not just inside decades-long marriages! (Figured I’d get that out of [...]

New York City Mandates Comprehensive Sex Education in Public Schools

You have to hand it to New York City for doing the right thing(s) for sexual health and rights lately. First, the city passed a law mandating that crisis pregnancy centers, which use misinformation and ideology to misdirect women trying to make a life-changing decision, disclose whether or not they have medical staff and/or offer birth [...]

Buy the Cookies!

I was an active Girl Scout through third grade, and I hated almost every minute of it. I hated being told what to do, so I hated the uniforms and the badge-earning activities, and I just wasn’t touchy-feely enough to enjoy the singing or promises of friendship forever. My mom forced me to stay enrolled [...]

Heather Corinna Goes Beyond “The Sex Talk”

Heather Corinna is the founder of Scarleteen, the highest ranked website  for sex education and sexuality advice, and author of S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-To-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide to Get You Through High School and College. Heather spoke with Ms. about the current, not-so-evolved state of sex ed in the United States and which messages about teen [...]

Sex Week Arouses Conservative Ire

President Obama’s first budget proposal in 2009 redirected millions of dollars of federal funds from abstinence-only sex education programs to comprehensive sex ed. Unfortunately, many students are still graduating high school without hearing much beyond Joe Friday “just the facts, ma’am” presentations on how to–or more likely how not to–”do it.” Into this educational breach [...]

The Weekly Pulse: Egg Recalls, DIY Abortion, Sex Education

This week, it’s not just eggs that are doing the salmonella infecting, women are having DIY abortions along the U.S.-Mexico border, and in Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty would rather shell out major cash than have comprehensive sex education. Read about it in Lindsay Beyerstein’s weekly health round-up at The Media Consortium. Women on along U.S.-Mexico border [...]

Next Page »