Cross Post: "Sex Really" Really Misses the Mark

The following post is crossposted from our friend and colleague Shelby Knox, who attended the SexTech conference this past weekend. The original can be found over at This Is Misogyny. Thanks for tipping us off, Shelby!



There are some organizations in the progressive community that regularly use casual misogyny for gain without caring what values it undermines. See: PETA.

But when Sex Really, a project of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, showed this video, meant to engage 20 somethings, to the sex education community at Sex:Tech this weekend, many of us were open mouthed with shock. If you teach sex education on the ground for any amount of time you know one of the biggest challenges is getting young people to unlearn gender stereotypes around sex.

If you don’t know the ones I’m talking about, Sex Really has done a pretty good job of laying them out as fact: men are pigs with raging hormones that can only process sex on a Neanderthal level. They sit around and demean women because they lack the emotional capacity to have substantive relationships. And women are too stupid, or so focused on “catching a man,” that they don’t even notice their dude’s a d-bag.

What’s the point of this triggering, heteronormative train wreck? It seems to be that you better use protection because the person you’re sleeping with is such a jerk you wouldn’t wanna have their babies.

It’s worth mentioning that Sex Really is headed by Laura Sessions Stepp, rape apologist and virginity crusader extraordinaire. Her work has riled up the feminist community before over her hysteria-inducing case study passed off as research on the “hookup culture” and the ridiculous idea of “gray rape.” Therefore this video isn’t a total shock — and her hiring might be yet another sign it’s time for the sex education community to take a big step away from the increasingly conservative National Campaign — but it’s still unacceptable.

This is video 1 in a 12 part series. Young people really can’t deal with 11 more slaps in the face like this one. Go to the video and comment - tell Sex Really to ask actual youth what they need and want. You can also shoot Ms. Stepp an email: laura.stepp@sexreally.com