Sex-Positive Sharing, Reporting Matters

Our experiences count

“Even if the stories are true — and how do you know they are?— sharing them isn’t reporting,” a friend said. “You’re missing the point of Medium and citizen journalism.”

Interviewing women about their positive sexual experiences, is reporting. I intend to include research and data when appropriate, but my focus is on what women desire… and do.

Most stories about sex in the popular media are negative. Lately, these have been stories of alleged rape, abuse, discrimination, possible lies, false memories, trauma, and on and on. Bill Cosby. The University of Virginia. Lena Dunham.

My friend asked what separates collecting experiences here and in my ebooks from the “true stories” of men’s magazines. There are plenty of places to read porn, true or not. Isn’t that all I’m delivering to readers? Porn?

Any argument I make is self-serving, but I believe in what I am doing here an in the ebook collections. It’s a mission to remind women that we should not be ashamed of our sexuality. We are in charge of our minds and bodies. We get to define ourselves.

Women do have different experiences than men. We subject each other to superficial judgments. We are objectified, and we objectify ourselves.

How can writing about sex do anything except reduce us to objects? Because this is about owning ourselves and demanding that our experiences be validated.

Suggest questions to explore. Maybe there are news stories and research about which I should write, between the sharing. The sharing, however, will be what connects the posts on this blog.