Culture

Reproductive health nurse and former Kibera clinic director for Family Health Options, Melvine Ouyo from Kenya recently visited the American Congress to advocate against the Global Gag Rule and talked with us at Scarleteen about how this foreign policy affects Kenyans and controls and overrules women, girls and others with a uterine system.

Part two of Alice O’s exploration of mainstream porn to help increase your sexual media literacy. Includes information about sex positions, orgasm, consent and communication, boundaries, birth control, safer sex and more as they exist (or don’t!) in mainstream porn, and how this can or should all go in real-life-sex to compare and contrast.

First, let me say how awesome it is to get your letter. I recently started a whole new organization – called EducateUS – to convince more people to want to take action for sex education the way you already do, and to help people like you who are already motivated and looking for ways to get active…

A clear-eyed, in-depth exploration of mainstream porn that can: amp up your sexual media literacy so you can better suss out what’s really going on with and in porn, fill you in on how it may or may not – and sometimes just plain shouldn’t – match your expectations or experiences of sexuality offscreen, and tell you more about its politics and behind-the-scenes realities.

Who knew a discussion with an ex-boyfriend about squirting would set Pussypedia co-founder Zoe Mendelson on a quest across the internet in search of trustworthy, fact-based sexual health information about her body that led to starting a bilingual, diverse, and inclusive digital encyclopedia? (Not Zoe!) We talked to her to find out all about this new resource and Zoe’s experience making it.

There’s a short answer and a long answer to your question. The short answer is: yes, someone can enjoy “feminine” things like make-up or dresses and still be a feminist. We don’t have a dress code you have to follow to be part of the club. The long answer is that there are many reasons why you, and…

If you grew up steeped in purity culture, it can be easy to see pregnancy as an automatic punishment for any sexual behavior. Here’s how you can counteract those beliefs.

I know how important it is for brown and Black young people to see characters who look like them, and I know how much I longed for someone who looked like me and had a not-so-perfect home life to tell the rest of the world what it can actually like to be a biracial teenage girl.

Caster Semenya is a gold-medal-winning Olympic athlete from South Africa. She’s an incredibly talented runner who’s won dozens of gold medals at competitions worldwide. But instead of having her athletic performance attributed to natural talent and hard work, it has been scrutinized and coupled with assertions that she can’t possibly have accomplished what she has without cheating. Who is to blame for this, you might ask? Just the usual suspects: sexism, cissexism, and white supremacy.

Hello. I’m glad you’re here. I first just want you to know that I see you. I see you showing up here and maybe elsewhere, trying to learn, being open to new information and being willing to change and to grow. Intelligence, Stephen Hawking famously reminded us, is the ability to adapt to change. You’re smart, you’re doing your best and I believe in you. I know what it’s like to go your whole life being told one thing is true only to find out that actually, it isn’t. That’s happened to me so many times, on so many different topics, I’ve lost count. I know what it’s like to feel angry and disillusioned. I felt angry and disillusioned, too, when I began to realize that what I had been told about abortion was a lie.