Good Vibrations, the San Francisco-based sex toy retailer (in business for well over 30 years now), has an online magazine they use to promote sex education and positive sexuality. One their senior educators, Dr. Charlie Glickman, has been an occasional commenter here on RPD (usually when he’s debating me about my position on something. 
).
They’ve been running a series where they interview sex educators to find out why they do what they do and so forth. As you know, my eventual goal is to become a sex educator. Well, I say become, but I’ve been teaching people about sex for almost nine years now in one form or another. I’ve just always had a drive to learn as much as I could about sexuality, and I very much enjoy imparting that knowledge unto others to help them understand and appreciate their own sexuality to the maximum extent possible. That includes even young people, which just disturbs the shit out of some people (in particular the social conservative types I usually refer to as fuckwits here on RPD).
Anyway, the good doctor asked to interview me for the magazine series, and I’m proud to announce that the interview is up for your reading pleasure HERE.
Charlie, I appreciate you offering me the opportunity to be featured on the magazine. And even though we occasionally disagree about some small details here and there, I very much admire and appreciate the work you and everyone else at GV does. 
And by they way, Megan Andelloux, a sex educator from Rhode Island (and an incredible woman), for whom I also have a great deal of admiration, mentions me and the RPD site in her weekly podcast this week (about seven and a half minutes in). You can hear it HERE.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations on a great interview! I’ve always been impressed with your smarts and your appetite to learn!
Thank you. I do enjoy learning, especially when it comes to the subject of sexuality
How sweet! I always enjoy chatting with you, too. And honestly, I prefer that we disagree sometimes- it gives me a chance to try out new ideas. Plus, your ability to articulate the nuances of sexuality is quite rare and it’s a pleasure to read.
I don’t mind us disagreeing, as long as you admit that you’re wrong each time.
I find it funny that your goal is to be a sex educator when like you say you quite clearly already are. Your knowledge/experience should already earn you an honorary phd! You’ve taught me so much already, and I always look forward to your posts.
Just don’t ditch us loyal rpd readers when you go mainstream!
lol Thanks, Steve. Unfortunately, to obtain the street cred when politicians and fuckwits start hollering, you have to have some paper showing you’ve been edumahcated. But I appreciate the kind words.
Congratulations, on your interview. Excellent as always, your are already an incredible sex educator. I said it before and I’ll say it again finding this blog has a immeasurably times better sex education experience then the abstinence only crap I had to endure growing up. On that note may I just say how much I agree with this line:
If you “educate” children about sex with the veil of religious ideology, you’re intentionally harming them in my book, and that is not what education is about.
As a victim of this I’m not sure my vocabulary is robust enough to express just how much I agree with this statement.
Keep up the good work, I’m sure you’ll end up helping more people then you’ll ever even realize.
I said it before and I’ll say it again finding this blog has a immeasurably times better sex education experience then the abstinence only crap I had to endure growing up.
You can imagine what my sex ed curriculum for teens would look like!
I do get quite a bit of e-mail from readers who tell me I’ve helped them explore new aspects of their sexuality – I’ve even published a few of their stories. And as I said in the interview, that is very gratifying to me.
Thanks for the ind words, sir.
I totally expect you to be the “Julia Childs” of sex education on mainstream HBO. You’d be an instant hit. Sue Johannson in Canada and Dr. Drew have nothing on you. Perhaps you could have live people demonstrate instead of wire figures (Pokey and Gumby ha) and the like. Or market a series as such mainstream.
I hope you’re ready to be a star. Don’t let up.
The “Julia Child”? Haha.
I like Sue, but I don’t much care for Dr. Drew. He’s not too far removed from Dr. Phil in my eyes.
Thanks for the kind words.
Alexa
Love your blog. My wife and I have recent taken in a 14 year old girl into our house. She is our niece and will be living with us for the next few years as she is going to high school in the city. We do not have any kids of our known either. So my question is this. Sex Ed, we are very frank about everything and tell her the truth. But when and how much should we tell her. We have told her all about STD, HIV. I still want her to be a kid for a while too. Any thought or ideal would be great.
Thanks for your blog Alexa
Murt
In some cases, it’s hard to pin down specifics about what any given age/age group should be taught. A lot of it has to do with the emotional maturity of the individual.
I still want her to be a kid for a while too.
I don’t think providing kids with information, in and of itself, deprives them in any way of their childhood. I had sex for the first time when I was 14, and it’s not uncommon at all for that to happen these days. Having good, reliable information could easily prevent a pregnancy, rape, or other type of bad experience, thereby actually preserving some aspects of childhood.
I don’t think 14 year olds need instruction in technique, really, though some discussion of oral sex is certainly warranted, since a sizable percentage will likely engage in oral sex at some point for the first time at that age.
They also need instruction on negotiation if they haven’t gotten it already.
A great interview and yet another example of your dedication and open-minded approach to sex education.
Thank you, Steph.
Excellent interview. You continue to impress me.
Thank you. Very nice of you to stop by and post.
Well, good for you teaching a lot of people who are not really aware how to deal with it. I think you can be my sex teacher also..;-)
I’d teach you if I could.
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