Adult Sex Ed: Oprah Gets It, So Should You

You know a movement has arrived when Oprah Magazine picks up on it.

In the July issue of Oprah, there is an article called "Adventures in Adult Sex Education" written by Amanda Robb, gorgeously/hilariously illustrated by Zohar Lazar.

To summarize, there is an emerging movement in this country, on the part of adults, to "go back to school" so to speak when it comes to learning about sex in an adult, non-trivialized way. 

The article describes the phenomenal Our Whole Lives (OWL) curriculum of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)-which aims to educate youth through older adults about sexuality as a lifelong human experience.

As Janet Hayes, the public relations director for the UUA says in the article, "Your sexuality doesn't end after you stop having babies or get divorced or after you turn 60. It is who we are in our core."

Our core indeed. And this is what we have been advocating and doing from NSRC since 2002.

Michael Tino, the Unitarian Universalist minister who co-wrote the OWL curriculum perhaps hits the nail in the head best, "You can have the best high school sex ed in the world, but critical issues aren't going to be addressed-because teenagers don't have them yet."

I've been a loyal subscriber to Oprah Magazine for years- she has already been doing fantastic, often cutting edge work in educating adults in this country about sex, sexuality, sexual diversity, relationships and so forth. What I love so much about her, is that she sees that people are whole, spiritual beings and everything that makes us human, she seeks to understand and share with people....

Sure there are the Oprah sexuality coverage naysayers who say that her work is not intellectual enough...well, DUH! It's not supposed to be. It's about putting her finger on the pulse of America to see where we stand on these issues....and noone does it better.

This article does a fantastic job of showing that adults in this country are increasingly sick and tired of sex not being taken seriously.

The only thing this article leaves out is incredible organizations like ours and many of our partners around the nation who ARE and have also been committed to lifelong sexuality education. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher M.D. wrote back in 2001 what might be thought of as the first true adult sex ed call to action in this country, intended to get all people activated around diversity, sexuality and education across the lifespan. An absolute must read for all of us. As Dr. Satcher-as well as Dr. Joycelyn Elders argue-- the U.S. is in a sexual-health and rights crisis and doing nothing about that is not an option.

The article only cites the federal government as promoting adult sex education...which is not sexuality education at all but marriage promotion. There's a HUGE difference.

Despite that massive oversight, I was thrilled with this article. It underscores the significance of our emerging sexual literacy movement in this country....coming from the bottom up and not top down...and having just presented at AARP last week on the topic of sexuality, I can say, it is absolutely spot on. 

The illustrations were unusually amazing too....

Go Oprah!

If you have not yet read this article, you should. And share it, with as many people as you can....it is the beginning of something critical and needed bubbling to the surface-a new movement that we like to call sexual literacy- and we all need to pay very close attention to it. 

____________________

Added Monday June 22:

Over the weekend, a colleague made me aware of a fantastic piece about Oprah written by Dr. Marty Klein earlier this month.

It is pretty much the opposite of what I argue for above...and that is exactly why it is so important to put it here....Marty has some very good points indeed...but there is also another side to the story as I share above...we'd love to know what you think about this!

You can read much more of Marty's great work on his electronic newsletter/blog, Sexual Intelligence.