Posts Tagged: Sex Positive
WTF Ohio? A Guide to Current Legislation and Activism
Right now, there are no clinics in Ohio with active licenses to terminate pregnancies. Every single clinic is currently out of compliance with Ohio legislation. RH Reality Check just released a run-down on Ohio’s newly renewed anti-abortion budget yesterday. Over the past few months anti-choice legislators and activists have been engaging in attempts to shut down clinics one by one, without much interference from local lawmakers. Recent Ohio legislation has constructed a terrifying model for shutting down clinics — and it could get used by states across the country. Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and other states have seen their fair share of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider, also known as TRAP, laws that are designed specifically to shut down provider service facilities. Fortunately for women’s health advocates, many judges have ruled… Read more »
Nicki and Jenny: Different Approaches To Being One Of The Guys
I have a love for music videos. I remember getting ready for middle school and having VH1 on (The Top 20 Video Countdown remember?) in the background. I would stare at the women on the screen and idolize them. To me they were the epitome of fame, beauty, and femininity. As I’ve grown older my love for music and music videos has remained with me, but one thing has changed dramatically. Now I view every piece of media I consume, not just music videos, through a critical lens. I hate to admit it, but sometimes it takes the fun out of a piece of media that, had I just consumed blindly, I would’ve completely loved. But it makes me realize just how important it is that the media that is… Read more »
All I Want for Christmas is YOU…th Comprehensive Sex Ed!
While everyone is busy jotting down the latest electronics on their Christmas Wish List, there’s something even better than the newest iPhone, tablet, or clothes from Urban Outfitters that I want for Christmas this year: comprehensive sex education. Now, you may think that teaching teens medically accurate, age appropriate sex education is a given in the 21st century. I mean, why would teachers lie to teens about safe sex and withhold life-saving information on how to become healthy adults and form healthy relationships? This Is America! We live in a country where no one would tell teens that “condoms cause cancer,” “birth control pills cause abortions,” “sex is worse for girls because they are much easier to infect and easier to damage,” “condoms have holes in them and a failure… Read more »
You Have the Right to Pleasure
When I was in middle and high school, sex education was short, uncomfortable, and hardly comprehensive. I remember sitting in a classroom with about 30 other students my senior year (a little late, if you ask me…) watching my PE teacher squirm in front of us, pausing intermittently. “So, I mean, what you all really need to know is, uh, so when the, uh, when the, um, the penis…” Queue giggles.
3 Ways to Improve Sex Positive Activism
I’m a pretty big fan of Sex Positivity, mostly because I’m a fan of people being able to have all the consensual sex they want to have, if they want to have it, and not be made to feel gross about it. Because unfortunately we’re caught in a strange tug-of-war, where we see sex tossed about in the media like glitter on a Lisa Frank folder, but in action, we shame individuals constantly for their sexual identities and desires. And even when we see sex constantly, few of those images of sex are particularly healthy ones. AND even if you do see a healthy navigation of sex in mass media, it’s probably between two white, able-bodied, straight cis people.
Being a Virgin Doesn’t Make Me Pro-Life
“So you have casual sex then, right?” I cannot count how many times I have been asked this as a follow up question when I tell people I am a feminist. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with casual sex, pre-marital sex, marital sex, group sex, kinky sex, or really any sex as long as it’s consensual; I find it interesting that this seems to be a common question to jump to. My favorite part comes after that question though. The asker is at a loss for words, eyes widening, as I reveal to them the truth. I am, in fact, a virgin. Being 24, a lot of people find it surprising when I tell them I haven’t had sex. I’ve long since gotten over being surprised at… Read more »
Surprisingly Sex Positive: A Review of “For A Good Time Call”
Spoiler Alert “For a Good Time Call” follows Lauren and Katie, former college enemies whose desperate situations – Katie can barely afford her (late grandmother’s luxury) apartment, and Lauren’s boyfriend kicked her out to chase skirts in Italy – bring them together, as roommates and business partners. To give a little background, Lauren is bold, witty and unapologetic about who she is; Katie, on the other hand, is very reserved, bland, uptight and almost unlikable at first. It makes sense that they were college frenemies. A few weeks ago, my roommate returned from a RedBox with the film, “For a Good Time Call.” When she said it was a movie about two women who start a phone sex hotline out of their apartment, my initial thought was I don’t know… Read more »
No More Shame
I’m going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I. Love. Sex. (OK if you know me well, this really is no secret) I love sex with boyfriends, with lovers, and even with those who are just for a night. I love that I decide to have sex when, where, and how I want. If I don’t want to have sex, I don’t have sex. So, we stand up for birth control, access to safe abortions, and we take a stand against sexual assault. But who is standing up for our right to get laid (or perhaps make love if you prefer)? I’m standing up for myself to get laid. I am standing up for my friends to bump uglies. For my parents to do the hanky… Read more »
Thoughts On Creating Change, Part II: Let’s Map Our Desires!
In my previous post on The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual conference, I wrote about the ways large gatherings like Creating Change help sustain LGBT activism, including queer reproductive justice activism. On the second day of Creating Change, these dialogues surrounding our bodies came to a head when I attended Sex Justice: Mapping Our Desire, an institute which lasted from dawn until dusk. According to the conference program, the session was designed to “focus on our desires: How we have shaped them and how they have shaped us. In this space, we can begin to consider: ‘What is just sex? How can my personal claiming of my desire foster more just sexual communities? Where do I begin?’ I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. But… Read more »
