Even as a wider variety of sexual identities and practices are accepted in contemporary American society, the updating of sex education to reflect this new normal remains a controversial subject. While the American Academy of Pediatrics (2018) now advocates for transgender and intersex children to not be forced into gender and sex conformity, warning of the alarmingly high health risks associated with such practices, gender diverse people continue to be ignored in sex education. When public school sex education is recognized as insufficient and detrimentally binary, some parents turn to children’s books considered progressive as a tool to aid in sex education at home. However, even award-winning children’s books on the subject still impose a gender binary as normal. Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg (2015) is one such highly praised contemporary text (American Library Continue reading “Non-binary Isn’t a Funny Word: Success and Failure in a Contemporary Children’s Health Text”
Tag: intersex
For A Healthier Health Class
I saw an excellent TEDx talk about the nature of feminity and its use as means to safety by Hari Nef, a model, actor, and trans activist. She is a lovely person whose insight is only matched by the grace of its delivery. It made me think about what can be done to evolve our society’s thinking on such subjects. Debates over restroom use by gender non-conforming people in our public schools are especially jarring because such rights are so basic, so essential. If the general public, especially teachers and students, were better informed on basic health education there would be more support for everyone’s rights to bodily autonomy and respect. Here is an exercise in putting my money where my mouth is: a curriculum outline for a healthier health class.
Cristina Forever 