sex ed

I became a big fan of the Midwest Teen Sex show after a link to their website was posted on Feministing. Personally I find them witty and fun to watch, a far cry from the scare tactic sex ed videos used in my sex education class. I guess not everyone likes their humor however.

Today on the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet (a day time talk show I was only watching because it was on our TV after the Today show) they had the creator and stars of the show, a sex expert and a psychologist to debate about the web casts. I was pleased that in general the show was positive about the show and about teens learning about sex. Their sex expert even talked about how parents should start talking to their kids about sex as early as possible. Awesome info. The only negitive comments seemed to be from a parent of adults who was worried about younger teens watching the episodes and the phycologist who worried about "isolated" teens who would get the wrong message from the show and take it literally. I'm not sure what she meant by that, because it's not like they are encouraging kids to have sex, just safe sex for the right reasons, if they choose to. I also like how the Midwest Teen gets that their audience is mainly either adults or teens thinking about having sex or are having sex. I know it's a pretty big assumption that most teens will want to have sex, but how else would they find an online sex education show online if they weren't looking to have sex?

Like Em, I am going to participate in the Scarleteen fundraising drive a little by blogging about my experience with sex education. I am also a Volunteer at ST (all shiny and new) and I first came to the site about a year and a half ago, seeking advice. By now, I am there every day giving advice because I enjoy passing on the knowledge I have gained.

Growing up in Germany, I'd seen naked bodies on television before I was old enough to be able to name all the parts I was seeing. The first time we had sex education in school was in fourth grade. We were taught out of a book that told the story of a married couple who were expecting their second child and explaining to their daughter how the baby was conceived. The story was told with innocent but realistic drawings and followed the couple from conception to birth.