Longtime readers of mine will know that I’ve written a lot on the connections between folklore and sex, sexuality, and gender, with topics including vaccines and public health, rites of passage, sexual slang, family meal practices, storytelling and sexual health, urban legends about sex, Little Red Riding Hood and sex, breasts in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, and how […]
November 2014
Of Witches, Butter, Breasts, & Sex
Okay, folks, let’s talk about witch butter. Which witch butter? I’m so glad you asked! (sorry, couldn’t resist) As a folklorist, I encounter a lot of intersections between folklore and sex. One of these intersections occurs in folk narratives, or stories, that circulate within a tradition but also display variation (unlike other types of media, […]
Asking for Sex vs. Asking about Sex
Wow. This is humbling. Just now, I created a tag called “sex ed learning moments” for precisely this kind of post, wherein I admit that learning to be a sex educator is a lifelong process, and I just caught myself doing something that I need to change. Or in this case, my husband caught me […]
Sex Positivity
As a sex educator and someone who generally spends a lot of time thinking, reading, talking, and teaching about sex, I frequently use the term “sex positivity.” However, I’m starting to use it outside sex ed circles, like when I go to folklore conferences, so I thought maybe I should provide a working definition. There’s […]