Here are two inspiring stories about sex educators using innovative and creative approaches to teaching sex ed. Both of these educators are dealing with different limitations.
First, there is Sanford Johnson, a sex educator in the state of Mississippi, where restrictive sex education laws ban teaching proper condom use. (Sadly, Mississippi is also the state with some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country.) His simple yet ingenious work-around provides important information for anyone who is going to engage in a “sock activity.”
Then, David Bergner (author of What Women Want, the wonderful book on the science of female sexual desire) writes in this week’s New York Times Magazine a fascinating look at Bat Sheva Marcus, a sex educator in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York. Marcus works with married Orthodox women experiencing sexual difficulties, some of whom do not know what or where the clitoris is, nor have ever had an orgasm.
Many of Marcus’ recommendations have to be approved by patient’s rabbi. One rabbi nixed romance novels, but said vibrators were okay, if absolutely needed. Read on for the full article: Orthodox Sex Guru.