What Young Women Believe About Their Own Sexual Pleasure (Video)

“I spent three years talking to girls ages 15 to 20 about their attitudes and experience of sex. And what I found was that while young women may feel entitled to engage in sexual behavior, they don’t necessarily feel entitled to enjoy it.” – Peggy Orenstein

American sex education courses are seriously lacking when it comes to the subject of women’s sexual anatomy and pleasure. Not only are terms like “vulva” and “clitoris” rarely uttered, but students typically learn nothing at all about the female orgasm, which (sadly) explains why so many college students set foot in my human sexuality course asking whether it’s even a thing. I kid you not.

In the TED talk below, Peggy Orenstein, author of the recent (and awesome) book Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, explains how this knowledge gap is contributing to the “orgasm gap“–and what we can do about it. Orenstein argues that we need to change the way we teach our kids about sex. And that includes having open and honest discussions with young girls about their own desires and pleasure.

To learn more, check out the full video. If you want to get a copy of her book, you can find it through both Amazon and iBooks.

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Image Source: 123RF/Agata Gładykowska

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