I've said it once, and I'll say it again: I really enjoy bad television.  Granted bad is a subjective term, there's something to be said about realizing how bad the show you're watching is and still being unable to tear your attention away from it.  The program in question today is the Maury Povich Show and in particular his exposes on teen girls who want to have a baby.  This one is perhaps my favorite:

The general pattern of these shows is that the 'deviant' teen in question is usually booed by the audience and gently berated by Maury into recognizing the irresponsibility of their decisions or possible future choices.  What does it look like if we however maybe take a step into Victoria's shoes?  I proceed by presenting a possibly feminist re-reading of her character.  Here we go...

Clearly, Victoria is a modern girl-on-the go who knows what she wants. She is gonna have her baby.  Clearly Victoria has thought out her decision and planned accordingly.  She's been preparing herself by building up an array of baby care paraphernalia.  That's right, if her baby loses its pacifier, that's okay, she's got three more.  She also has a vivid financial plan for how to take on the monetary burden of a...

In our graduate seminars, we talk a lot about race and color, including how whiteness is cherished and celebrated in and outside the United States.

These class discussions and other conversations with my fellow students and friends made me think about the various fairness products that are marketed and sold back home. (In no way am I trying to be the voice of my nation. These are just MY views on such 'beauty' products.)

Here's a fine example of what I'm talking about:

So clearly, once you're beautiful (i.e. fair, white) you can achieve anything! Name, fame, money and power! You can realize your inner dreams and talents 'cos opportunities are endless!

So what happens if you're not fair? Well, basically then you're nobody! You're boring, unwanted and invisible. Your life sucks! (and not in a pleasurable way!)

...

A pharmacy in London launched a calculator that uses the six degrees of separation concept to determine your number of indirect sex partners. The idea is that every time you sleep with one person you sleep with all of their previous sex partners. I get the idea but the execution is a low-grade scare tactic rooted in false assumptions about sexual risk.

Risk of contraction is not about a number pinned to your slutty lapel. Risk of contraction is about specific behaviors. Did you use a condom every time? Was lube involved? Were there visible sores? Were you having oral, vaginal or anal sex? Did your partners use protection? These are questions that can help determine your risk, not the number of sexual partners.

I know, we like nominal figures to figure out where we lay on the sexual totem pole. A number is comforting, easy to understand but ultimately misleading. Think about BMIs or simply weight. The numbers say something but they don’t paint the whole picture.

The heart of the calculator is in the right place but the underlying assumption is that fear will motivate people to use condoms and get tested. The fear of slut shaming is an easily accessible tool. I looked around at comments from people who calculated their indirect sexual partners and one concept popped up repeatedly: EEEWW! DIRTY!!

We make the immediate mental leap from indirect sex partners...

(Originally posted on wiqaable.com)

One of the few things I can't handle is people's injury stories. People talk about their injuries and scars as if they would make them more brave or honorable or whatever, but frankly, I think it's disrespectful to talk about painful stories in front of a person who just can't handle it. Is it about masculinity? Do you need to talk about your scars to prove how "dangerous" or "strong" you are? Well, I don't care. So next time you see me, please don't talk about breaking your bones.

This is because I've never had any big injury since I was born. I've never broken my bones, I've never gotten into car accidents, and I've never fallen down the stairs. I've been so fortunate that I don't know how painful it would be to get your bones broken, and I would imagine the most extreme pain possible right before I pass out. That's a painful imagination.

I've never been really sick either, except for occasional skin problems I always had growing up. I've never gotten a flu, I've never had food poisoning, and I've never been hospitalized. I'm not saying that I've always been healthy, but if health is determined, simplistically, by the absence of disease or injury, I've always enjoyed my health.

Perhaps this is part of the reason why I don't like going to a hospital. I'm so unfamiliar with that super clean and slightly sorrowful atmosphere inside the...

The Centers for Disease Control is considering promoting routine circumcision for baby boys in the US as a means of decreasing the spread of HIV, says the NYTimes.

Not only is this ignorant; it is dangerous. To women, and to people of color.

Public health policy makers have been talking up circumcision as a way to reduce HIV transmission ever since data first showed that it could reduce infection rates by up to 50-60% among African men. PEPFAR, UNAIDS and others jumped on the surgical bandwagon, ramping up efforts to promote circumcision in Africa. Family Health International even created a Male Circumcision Clearinghouse with the latest information on research and intervention.

And no wonder the joy. 50% reduction of transmission is fabulous. Unless of course, you knew that there was another way to reduce transmission by close to 100%, called... condoms. The fact is, promoting condom use in Africa has not been super-effective, and often because the public health officials...

Although I frequently attend professional and academic conferences focused on sexuality, it is the conferences not focused on sexuality that end up teaching me the most about how we are going to empower a nation to more effectively talk about its sexual health, education and rights.

This past week, at the 2009 AARP Diversity and Aging in the 21st Century: Power of Inclusion Conference I was reminded just how imperative it is to include the new framework of lifelong sexual literacy within the emerging dialogue between the fields of diversity and aging where it has previously not existed.

The current youth-centric and “one size fits all” approach to “comprehensive sexuality education” does not mean a thing for the older adults it does nothing to serve. It also does very little to address other nation-wide gender, racial, class…diversities and we are all responsible and accountable for the sexual inequalities that erupt from...

This is a response to an article posted on Washington Post.com.

Pope Benedict XVI, during today's visit to Africa, announced that condoms are not the answer for containing the global HIV/AIDS crisis, particularly in Africa, and they actually make the situation worse.  It is assumed that his suggestion is similar to that of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II; to avoid risk of HIV/AIDS transmission, abstinence is offered as the best solution: “the pope said a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.”

This position is not new – it is simply a reiteration of the abstinence stance and now an explicit opposition to condoms as a strategy to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.  I must say, I am not surprised by this position, but I’m aggravated that religious dogma that has devastating effects is still being pushed around the world, particularly in areas where few alternative messages are pushed.  Beyond the rigidity of the Church’s position on condom use, I see a number of very problematic flaws with its stance.

Condoms make the situation worse:  The rationale for this statement is the assumption that condoms give a false sense of security and that they are ineffective against the transmission of...

Ok, confession time.  Not only do I love young adult fiction, but I also love vampires.  So when the YA series, Twilight, came across my radar, I am not too proud to admit my heart went both pitter and patter.  I ordered the entire series, sight unseen.

Like many a young adult and old adult reader alike, I devoured these books - plowed right through them without shame.  So I'm also not going to get on my moral high horse without admitting that I lolled about in the mud and muck for a good long while before I saddled up.

That said? The Twilight series made me deeply, profoundly concerned for the young women out there who may mistake the relationships at the center of this tale for bonafide "true love".

For those of you who may not know, Twilight follows the star-crossed relationship between Edward, a broody Victorian-born vampire who chooses to abstain from his bloodlusty desires, and Bella, an accident prone, scowly non-vampiric teen girl.  The crux of their intimate dilemma is this: Bella would love to give up her human existence and live in tortured damnation as a vampire so as to never get older than her eternally 19-year-old boyfriend, whom she worries will no longer desire her once she sprouts crow’s feet.  Edward is staunchly opposed to this plan, lest it bespoil her fragile, virginal, and cringing femininity, which is, as far as I can tell, her sole endearing feature...

Dear Mr. President,

 We all congratulate you on this amazing achievement; it is our victory, as much as yours, as you have often reminded us. Moving into the White House and getting the US house in order after years of bad leadership, corruption, failed opportunities, and pure dumb ignorance is going to be a challenge you will thrive on. Today, as you spoke to the country and took your oath of office, you highlighted the importance of science in decision making. What science shows in relation to sex is unequivocal, and it is time to usher in a new era of healthy sexuality that is grounded in science, truly comprehensive in scope and that speaks to all Americans—inclusive of, not regardless of, our differences in age, faith, race, culture, gender and physical ability.

Please remember sex education as you get into the work of making America “stronger.” To quote your own words, our policies on abstinence only –or “ignorance only,” as I have referred to them for years—must be changed; “there is a better way.” We have the solutions for progress and we can work together to improve life for all.

As a father, too, you will understand the need for truly comprehensive sexual literacy can make a huge difference in the lives of your daughters and all of society—now and for the rest of their lives. You will want them to grow up with healthy sexuality; that is what our...

The CDC released a new report yesterday detailing the rising rates of STDs-especially among women, minorities and young people aged 18-24. The report discusses how much of the recent progress being made to eliminate syphilis has been reversed. Furthermore, the report highlights how STDs cost the U.S. health care system as much as $15.3 billion dollars annually.

Years of abstinence only education have no doubt led to this record breaking rise in STD rates by promoting ignorance as a national policy.

Dr. John Douglas, Director of the CDC's Division on STD Prevention hits the nail in the head of this problem-namely, that society itself is not being responsible enough when it comes to discussing sexual health....doctors often choose not to discuss STDs and sexual health with their patients, clergy fail to address sexual health, teachers are gagged from speaking about it due to dangerous abstinence policies....and parents often think everyone else is handling it so they don't have to or want to.

America needs to talk about sex. All of us, not some of us because we are each responsible for ourselves and others. 

One fantastic way to talk about sex and learn realistic strategies for decreasing STD and HIV rates among youth is to attend...