Sex.Talk.Toolkit.
Additional Resources
The following resources expand on topics introduced in the toolkit. These are just the beginning: Use these resources as a starting place for further exploration. Hopefully, exploring one resource leads to further adventures in research.
Websites
Scarleteen: Sex Ed for the Real World
Inclusive, comprehensive, support sexuality and relationships info for teens and emerging adults.
Publishes sexuality education manuals used worldwide and dedicated to the proposition that all people have a right to education that will help them understand, appreciate, and take responsibility for their sexuality.
SisterSong's mission is to strengthen and amplify the collective voices of indigenous women and women of color to achieve reproductive justice by eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights.
The Guttmacher Institute is a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally.
Know Your IX is a survivor- and youth-led project that aims to empower students to end sexual and dating violence in their schools.
Teen Health Source: Porn Literacy
Porn literacy is asking questions to help us better understand the porn we use and how we use it. This can help us figure out what we want to get from porn, what kind of porn we’d like to support, and how we’d like porn to impact us when we’re away from it. It helps us to be more intentional and aware about how we engage with it. Porn is acting. It’s fantasy. When thinking critically about porn, it can help to think about what we see and what we don’t see.
Start Strong Porn Literacy Program
Resources and tools about media, pornography, and relationships curated by the Boston Public Health Commission for adults and young people.
Everything anyone would ever like to know about birth control. Includes comprehensive sexuality and sexual health information and interactive functions to locate health clinics, abortion providers, and birth-control delivery.
Culture of Respect builds the capacity of educational institutions to end sexual violence through ongoing, expansive organizational change.
Audio / Video Links
NPR’s “All Things Considered” Special Series: Sex in America
This seven-episode series covers a variety of topics and perspectives on sex and sexual politics.
Why Is It So Hard to Have Honest Conversations About Sex?
The first in NPR’s “Sex in America” series, host Ailsa Chang talks with two sex educators about where people learn about sex and how that affects them.
How to Talk About Sex (And Consent): 4 Lessons From The Kink Community
In kink communities, consent goes beyond ensuring that all parties involved are comfortable and agree to what's happening. It's about having good sex, feeling empowered to ask for what you want out of sex, and without being shamed for it. Consent means having the sex that you want to have with the people you want to have it with.
When the Conversation Doesn’t Include You: LGBTQ+ Sex Ed in a Small Town
Residents in a small town debate whether to include LGBTQ+ perspectives in the school district’s sex education program and anti-bullying campaign.
Aspen Institute presents Aspen Ideas to Go. The Atlantic’s Olga Khazan talks to biological anthropologist Helen Fisher about the four styles of thought and behavior that Fisher has identified through brain scans that help explain the biological underpinnings of romantic love, love addiction, adultery, and divorce. Based on data collected from 35,000 single Americans, Fisher explains modern courtship, why a trend she calls “slow love” makes her optimistic about relationships in the digital age, and how to use brain chemistry to keep love alive.
What Porn Stars Want You to Know | Iris
This seven-video series covers first-person perspectives on sex education, diversity, “damaged goods” myth, making money, online harassment, orgasm on set, and coming out as an adult performer.
Roll Red Roll is a true-crime thriller and impact campaign that goes behind the headlines of the notorious Steubenville, Ohio rape case to uncover the deep-seated and social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture at the root of high school sexual assault in America. The film unflinchingly asks, why didn’t anyone stop it? Roll Red Roll shifts the lens and burden from the victim to the perpetrators, bystanders, witnesses, and communities to understand and address the problem. Available on Netflix.
Hotlines, Warmlines, and Assistance
American Civil Liberties Union (Southern California)
The ACLU has defended the rights of people across the political spectrum. The principled stance the ACLU takes on defending the Bill of Rights is neither liberal nor conservative.
National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline
When you call 800.656.HOPE (4673), you’ll be routed to a local RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) affiliate organization based on the first six digits of your phone number. Cell phone callers have the option to enter the ZIP code of their current location to more accurately locate the nearest sexual assault service provider.
The California Peer-Run Warm Line
Call or chat. The Warm Line aims to be a highly accessible, low-threshold resource that people can use to seek support before they've reached the crisis point, in the hope that support now will prevent crisis later. The Peer-Run Warm Line (1-855-845-7415) is a non-emergency resource for anyone in California seeking emotional support.
Books
Joey L. Mogul, Andrea J. Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock (Beacon Press)
Reproductive Justice: An Introduction
Loretta J. Ross and Rickie Solinger (University of California Press)
Gender, Sex, and Politics: In the Streets and Between the Sheets in the 21st Century
Shira Tarrant, ed. (Routledge)
The Pornography Industry: What Everyone Needs to Know
Shira Tarrant (Oxford University Press)
New Views on Pornography: Sexuality, Politics, and the Law
Lynn Comella and Shira Tarrant, eds. (Praeger)
Love & War: How Militarism Shapes Sexuality and Romance
Tom Digby (Columbia University Press)
Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape
Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti, eds. (Seal Press)
Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power
Shira Tarrant, ed. (Routledge)