The 47th Carnival of Feminists, put together by Dizzy Buzzkill, is up at Ornamenting Away.
I mention this not least because she linked to my post defending Scarleteen from chastity guru Wendy Shalit’s, um, shallow analysis.
And while I’d like to thank Dizzy, and maybe beat my own drum, I’d like to take a moment to point out that whereas Scareleteen is an extremely popular, high-traffic site and whereas it’s an incredible resource for sex information for young people, strange as it might sound, ad revenue and donations have fallen off to a point where Heather Corinna’s trying to get a part-time job.
Now it sounds like a great job. And it’s really cool that her mom’s written her a glowing field-appropriate recommendation (long story, see site.) But it would be even greater, even cooler, if a few responsible, progressive advertisers interested in capturing an age-appropriate, head’s-up-enough-to-seek-information demographic were to step up and, well, advertise; if a couple of well-heeled individual were willing to step in, or if a few hundred, let alone the tens of thousands of parents and former teenagers who’ve been helped was willing to pitch in a few bucks.
Note: I do a small amount of volunteering for Scarleteen and (since it turns out we’re practically neighbors) I’ve become friends with Heather. But before any of that I was a donor to the site because I support sex education for the real world.
Submitted by 1743 (not verified) on Sun, 2007-11-11 10:51.
I did a *very* quick google search to see what is available in this field both sides of the Atlantic. From google uk I immediately came up with likeitis.org which is funded by Marie Stopes International.
It seems there isn't anything comparable in the US apart from Scarleteen. I find it, dare I say, unenlightened that a resource as important and excellent as this should have to depend on advertising and voluntary contributions. Are there no funding bodies prepared to help? Grants available? Or am I missing the point completely?
As an aside, in my search I came across a few amazing sites, for example: "Women masturbate by rubbing the surface of their vagina. Research has shown that there is a nerve running from the vaginal area to the female brain."
[Amazing how those *female* brains work! :-) I agree it's weird that there's not more support. We're trying to find out if it's lip service or what because everyone *talks* about how its important but not many people seem up for doing anything about it. The big reason, I think, is that old joke about the Unix operating system that "it's completely intuitive once you get over the learning curve." Same's true about sex: we rarely remember exactly how long or how many steps it takes us to get from "hmm, I feel something funny around that person" to "wow, here we go!" And therefore we sort of wonder a) how hard can such a site be and b) can't we tell everyone to do it exactly like I did... exactly like I *wish I had* instead? Thanks, A. --fl]