|
Since 2009, I’ve been praising Cindy Gallop in my lectures for her brilliant website makelovenotporn.com and this witty TED talk. She tells ABC news she noticed when she would have sex with younger men, they would have “porn sex” instead of “real sex” and that porn seemed to be the new default sex-ed for millennials. So, she created a website which compared sex acts seen in porn with how they might be received in real life. This site became wildly popular among sex educators such as myself, for its ability to highlight the differences between porn sex and real sex. However, Cindy’s next endeavor seems to have deviated from that a bit, in my opinion. She launched makelovenotporn.tv in January. It is a site that will only showcase real people having real sex. This is an extremely refreshing concept. However, it is still porn. It is just regulated amateur porn. Which is much better than most mainstream porn in terms of depictions of sexuality. However, frequently seeking out any sex on the internet will still be extremely problematic for some and potentially problematic for teens or anyone who frequently does so (due to the way one’s brain reacts to porn vs. sex). Unfortunately, I don’t think makelovenotporn.tv is the perfect antidote to internet porn. We still have to learn how to have intimate sex with people (if we want successful relationships), and we don’t learn how to do that from masturbating while watching others get it on. We can really only develop those skills from experiencing vulnerable sex with another human being.
I am so excited to learn about the SPARK movement. SPARK began as a response to the The Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, which made a clear distinction between healthy sexuality (a developmental task we all have to integrate into our lives; allows for intimacy and is linked to positive feelings) and sexualization (uses girls’ and women’s bodies as a marketing tool; is linked to depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders). This movement was designed to engage girls (ages 13-22) to be part of the solution by working directly with them through events and blogging as well as collaborating with other national partner organizations. I’m frequently asked what can be done to combat sexualization of girls in the media, and this is an excellent place to go to for ideas on how to do just that. I highly recommend this organization!
|
About this Blog:I'm here to help us discuss sexuality, gender, and media by integrating information from academic and mainstream sources. I hope this resource produces more sexually competent people who raise sexually competent kids. 
Categories
All
|