(via becauseiamawoman)
Gayle Rubin (via adayinthelesbianlife)
“Let us strive to maintain a community that understands diversity as a gift, sees anomalies as precious, and treats all basic principles with a hefty dose of skepticism.”
(via adayinthelesbianlife)
(Source: stefinatelychen, via adayinthelesbianlife)
(via adayinthelesbianlife)
(via a-blog-called-everything)
(Source: lesbiantemptations, via downwithwarsupwithwhores)
When the Disney Channel was pressed about whether they would address gay relationships on their shows, Gary Marsh, the president of Disney Channel worldwide said, “We don’t deal with sexuality on the Disney Channel in general. That’s just sort of not where our audience’s head’s at. They’re really a pre-sexual audience, for the most part, and so sexuality is not how we look to tell any kind of stories.”
What Disney Channel doesn’t realize is that by taking no stance on what they consider sexuality, they are in fact taking a stance. Disney is largely heteronormative in its portrayal of relationships, with many shows centering on them. While relationships between boys and girls become increasingly sexualized, (without the actual sex) couples of the same sex are not afforded the same treatment.
Television often promotes certain standards of sexuality and on these kid’s shows it is not acceptable to have feelings for someone of the same sex. If there are possible gay characters, there is a denial that the relationships these characters undergo or experience are sexual in any way.
"Disney Channel Refuses to Stray from Stereotypes | SPARK a Movement (via sparkamovement)
Disney, how can you say you don’t deal with sexuality when pretty much every show you has has either someone in a relationship or someone crushing on someone? You do realize “straight” is a sexuality right?
(via fuckyeahsexeducation)
(via becauseiamawoman)
It’s an unwritten rule in America that teens don’t discuss their sex lives with their parents — except, perhaps, to obtain contraception — and that they don’t invite their boyfriends or girlfriends to sleep over in their rooms, at least when mom and dad are at home. Yet in Holland, two-thirds of Dutch teenagers ages 15 to 17 in committed relationships reported in a national survey that their parents allow their significant other to spend the night in their bedrooms, and girls were just as likely as boys to gain this permission.
“American parents may feel like it’s just wrong to have these sleepovers, that they’re condoning sex,” said Amy Schalet, an assistant professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “But there’s a benefit to creating an environment in which teens can truly feel comfortable in admitting to their parents that they’re experiencing sexuality” and for parents to provide them a safe place to engage in it.
As Schalet explained, “If it doesn’t happen at home, it will probably happen in a public place that’s unsafe.”
In her new book Not Under My Roof, Schalet calls attention to what she considers to be an antiquated American view of teen sexuality: a don’t ask, don’t tell approach that doesn’t stray too far beyond providing teens with an abstinence lecture or grudgingly a visit to the doctor to get a pill prescription.
After interviewing nearly 150 white, middle-class Dutch and American teens and their parents, Schalet, who was raised in Holland, came to the conclusion that the Dutch have a better approach towards dealing with teenage sex. “Teens there benefit from having an environment in which they can truly feel comfortable admitting to their parents that they’re beginning to experience sexuality,” she explained.
And to the Dutch, sexuality isn’t just defined as intercourse but kissing in middle school, as well as fondling and oral sex at older ages. The emphasis, she added, is on pleasure and getting teens to understand their own desires.
That’s a concept rarely explored in American sexual education classes. It’s so rare, in fact, that the New York Times magazine ran a cover story last Sunday on one sex-ed teacher’s efforts to teach teens at a private Philadelphia prep school about orgasms, masturbation, and why sex acts shouldn’t be compared to a baseball game. “If you’re playing baseball, you can’t just say, ‘I’m really happy at second base,’” said the teacher Al Vernacchio, in a quote from the piece.
Dutch parents have been educating their teens on these concepts since the sexual revolution, according to Schalet, though they emphasize that sex should only spring from committed, loving relationships — not hookups. “It’s never just pure sex, but sex within a relationship.”
And there’s no worry that young teens in passionate love will leap into early marriages before they’re ready — a notion that propels American parents to urge their teens not to have serious relationships in high school and college. “Very few Dutch parents think that teens will marry the first person they fall in love with,” she said.
They’re comfortable with the idea that their kids may be ready to have sex but not start a family. As a result, they make sure their teens adequately protect themselves from pregnancy.
The statistics speak for themselves: American teenage girls have more than four times the pregnancy rate of their Dutch counterparts: 61 per 1,000 in the US compared to 14 per 1,000 in Holland. They also have a higher rate of abortions and a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases — all tied to their lower rate of condom and oral contraceptive use.
“A lot of American girls were willing to admit that sex was a big part of their lives but that they feared being a big disappointment to their parents if they told them that,” said Schalet. “They may be quite close to their parents but this can’t be part of the closeness and that puts them at a disadvantage.”
A lecture on suicide prevention at UCLA. (via microaggressions)
What scares me is that as a queer woman I’m so familiar with the statistic (in relation to heterosexual people) that I had to look at the notes to figure out what was wrong with the sentence. Oh heteronormativity.
(Source: microaggressions)
When I search on Google for “LGBTQ” and it corrects my search as “LGBT”.
(Source: microaggressions)
One of the bullet points in my sister’s 7th grade Sex Ed packet: “Students will be taught the benefits of a monogamous, heterosexual marriage.” Arizona, 2010. Made me feel annoyed, disappointed.
(Source: microaggressions)
