I’m very excited to announce a new initiative that I’ve begun working on in collaboration with Emma, co-unorganizer of KinkForAll Providence and my co-host on Kink On Tap. The new project, called SexEdEverywhere, is going to be our biggest and most challenging project to date. It also has enormous potential.
The core of the project is a sexual health education and empowerment video campaign highlighting the reality that we learn about sex from disparate sources in many locations. I believe that the time has come for people to realize that “sex education” is not, has never been, and never should be confined to health class. I believe that young people, sexuality minorities, and certain other disenfranchised groups (still including, sadly, women) have an enormously important role to play in reforming the empty-vessel, top-down model of education and turning it into a peer-to-peer meritocracy where accurate information wins out over misinformation because it saves lives rather than being politically expedient.
And I believe that this change is only possible when it comes from the very people who need such change most: young men, women, and other people like you and me.
That’s why Emma and I have put together a proposal for the project and submitted it to the International Women’s Health Coalition Young Visionaries contest, a contest that, if we win, would seed our project with $1000 USD of necessary funding to get it off the ground. Part of the criteria for winning the contest is based on popular vote, which means I need your votes to win.
If this sounds like a project worth supporting, please go to the Sex Ed Everywhere IWHC voting page and click on “Vote” right next to our picture. And then come back and vote again the next day, and every dayI’ve been informed that the contest rules have changed after I posted this entry; you can only vote once per IP address. What that means is that you should go vote, and then you should encourage your friends to vote from their homes or offices. Helping to spread the word until voting ends on March 25, which I understand is totally fair for the competition!
Here is an excerpt of our proposal for the IWHC Young Visionaries contest:
With the $1000 grant from the IWHC Young Visionaries contest we will fund a sexual health education and empowerment video campaign that highlights the reality that we learn about sex from disparate sources in many locations. The heart of this campaign, which we call SexEdEverywhere (“SEEâ€), will begin with a competition calling for submissions of 30 to 90 second videos that will be reviewed and featured on a network of 5 (or more) microsites over time. The campaign will be based at SexEdEverywhere.com, a website that will actively engage the people to whom it will speak: women and youth across the globe.
[…]
Our vision of lasting change is to create a world in which accurate information about sexual health and freedoms reaches more students and young people than suffer from misinformation or a knowledge deficit. By engaging young people in the creation and distribution of knowledge, we hope to help them recognize their power to enact social justice in their local communities. This would be a world in which women and young people are aware of their sexual and reproductive rights from an early age, and are empowered to make informed decisions for themselves and educate those around them.
Please vote for SexEdEverywhere and help every person on Earth SEE a world where we are all aware of our sexual and reproductive rights! Thank you for your daily voting support!
by Trophy53
20 Feb 2010 at 09:45
You have my vote. And that of all my friends.
by Kage
20 Feb 2010 at 16:35
You’ve got a lot of votes already! I kinda felt sorry for the other people, almost; I voted for yours and for the one about war and sexual violence.
I do think your project would be terrific, though, and I hope you get the grant. I know you could do a lot with the money because you are so net savvy and also so articulate.
by maymay
20 Feb 2010 at 16:42
Kage,
I don’t feel bad for any nominees. Regardless of the outcome of the contest, everyone’s ideas were featured on the IWHC blog, Akimbo, and that helps get the message out. This means that merely submitting a proposal helps to accomplish our goal, so I say congrats to everyone who has a proposal up because, fuck yeah, we all got proposals up, y’know? :D
I contemplated including this data point in the proposal, and yes, we would be subdividing the grant money and using less than half to fund the project itself because I know how to do exactly this sort of thing very inexpensively. I think that makes our proposal more compelling, because we can provide a huge amount of bang-for-your-buck, so to speak. That said, $1000 USD can go a lot longer in countries like Nigeria, where competing proposals have come from, so we don’t really know.
Either way, like we said in the proposal, we’re already moving on the project so win or lose, we will find some way to get funding.
Thanks for your vote! Please come back and vote once per day for all your favorite proposals, not just ours!
by Froth
20 Feb 2010 at 19:04
I voted for you. Decent sex ed is something I never got and it’s very close to my heart.
Connected, and prompted by getting round to watching the KinkForAll videos and realising just how much I was screwed over, my latest blog post.
I normally wouldn’t plug myself but right now I am extremely angry about this and linking is a way to make my voice louder.
by Dae
21 Feb 2010 at 08:30
I’ll be voting as often as I can for you guys. I’ve been railing at the lack of useful and thorough sex education for years – I got more than most as a kid, but fantasy novels and wikipedia were still larger contributors than the “responsible adults” in my life at the time.
I’d also be interested in seeing/hearing how others of us can help out if you do launch the project, as if I can contribute, I’d like to.
Best of luck.
by maymay
21 Feb 2010 at 12:54
Thanks so much for the vote, Froth! :) I hope you come back to vote every day. And don’t worry so much about plugging yourself. Self-promotion is not a bad thing to do.
And also thanks, Dae, for voting as well.
We are currently drafting just such guides. When we’re ready, they’ll be posted to SexEdEverywhere.com. Currently that site is only a “splash” page directing people to vote for the project, but that’s going to be the hub of our hub-and-spoke-like campaign. :) It’s awesome to hear that you’d like to help!
by Clarisse Thorn
21 Feb 2010 at 13:22
Nice. When I get back to the States can I be your intern? :grin:
But seriously, folks. Are you familiar with Midwest Teen Sex Show? Site is, I believe, [ midwestteensexshow.com ]. I’m sure you’re not short on inspiration, but I thought that might be a good one for you.
by maymay
21 Feb 2010 at 13:33
My intern? :) I don’t really want interns, I want collaborators. You are welcome to work with me, if you want. I love your writing, Clarisse! And yes, I’m very familiar with the Midwest Teen Sex Show. I often recommend it and share the link around. We’re not doing the same thing, but it is an excellent source of inspiration.