Sex education lessons from Emily Nagoski
In addition to her on-air interview with MPR News, Emily Nagoski answered listeners' questions in two podcast-only segments. Find them on the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast.
Emily Nagoski spent her high school years obsessively poring over women's magazines, "trying to learn to be a woman by reading about it."
What she found on those glossy pages was lacking.
Now, Nagoski has a Ph.D. in health behavior and teaches about sexuality at Smith College. Her book, "Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life," undoes some of what she learned from those magazines.
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"Women and girls are taught to believe other people's opinions about their bodies more than they trust what their bodies themselves are telling them," Nagoski told MPR News host Kerri Miller. "The more we can help women to ... believe their bodies more than the culture, the healthier all of us will become."
Nagoski's courses, and her book, challenge the idea of what's "normal," freeing people from expectations of how they think their sex lives should be. She dismisses the words "prude" or "slut" as "words that are used as weapons."
"A perfect sexual world would be one where we don't feel like we're allowed to have opinions about other people's decisions about their bodies," Nagoski said. "Granting everyone the autonomy and the respect to make the decision that feels right for them is the ultimate in sexual freedom."
To hear the full discussion with Emily Nagoski about women's sexuality, use the audio player above.