I’m so glad everyone is enjoying this piece! HUGE thank you to Rachel for allowing me to write it & championing “sorry I keep crying during sex” as March book club pick. It means the world to have this support, especially in a space where all of y’all are doing such necessary work to educate, stigma-break, organize, and find joy and pleasure. Can’t wait to see everyone at book club, or Open Secrets LIVE!!! 😍❤️✨
Great article, Jesse! It especially hit home when you mention that - in the play Spring Awakening - the parent answers the child's inquiry about the source of babies, saying that they happen when "a man and a woman love each other very much." Ha, that's almost word for word what my mother told me when I asked at 10 that same age-old question. She said, with obvious squirming discomfort and zero eye contact, that they happen when "a man and a woman sleep together." I think I asked, incredulous, "you mean while they're asleep??" She couldn't answer and kept washing dishes in silence as I dried.
For years I thought sex happened when two parents kind of sleepwalked in bed. Oh it seems funny now, but it sure didn't help me learn anything in my early adolescence.
I am definitely buying your book to make up for my past deprivation. Thanks!
Thank you for writing about your sex life! When things go wrong with sex, women pay the price, not men. That makes it so important for people, women especially, to talk about their sex lives!
Thank you for this eloquent essay, Jesse and Open Secrets Magazine. I'd like to add, from my own experience, that open discussion about sex would also give children a voice to speak up when they have been hurt by sexual assault.
I’m so glad everyone is enjoying this piece! HUGE thank you to Rachel for allowing me to write it & championing “sorry I keep crying during sex” as March book club pick. It means the world to have this support, especially in a space where all of y’all are doing such necessary work to educate, stigma-break, organize, and find joy and pleasure. Can’t wait to see everyone at book club, or Open Secrets LIVE!!! 😍❤️✨
Great article, Jesse! It especially hit home when you mention that - in the play Spring Awakening - the parent answers the child's inquiry about the source of babies, saying that they happen when "a man and a woman love each other very much." Ha, that's almost word for word what my mother told me when I asked at 10 that same age-old question. She said, with obvious squirming discomfort and zero eye contact, that they happen when "a man and a woman sleep together." I think I asked, incredulous, "you mean while they're asleep??" She couldn't answer and kept washing dishes in silence as I dried.
For years I thought sex happened when two parents kind of sleepwalked in bed. Oh it seems funny now, but it sure didn't help me learn anything in my early adolescence.
I am definitely buying your book to make up for my past deprivation. Thanks!
Thank you for writing about your sex life! When things go wrong with sex, women pay the price, not men. That makes it so important for people, women especially, to talk about their sex lives!
Oh to get more of Jesse’s words!!!!!! We are so lucky to live in her timeline!
Hell yes. I loved this, Jesse. Shine that purple light.
Thank you for this eloquent essay, Jesse and Open Secrets Magazine. I'd like to add, from my own experience, that open discussion about sex would also give children a voice to speak up when they have been hurt by sexual assault.
I look forward to reading this book.