Episode 55: Sex, Pleasure, Consent, and the Intimate Lives of Teens Today

Today’s youth are facing a complicated landscape when it comes to sex. They live in a world where sex is all around and porn is more easily accessible than ever before, but they’re not being educated about it and they’re receiving a lot of mixed messages. So are young adults getting what they want out of sex and relationships? What do their intimate lives look like? And what can parents and schools do to better support them?

For insight into these questions, I spoke with Peggy Orenstein, author of The New York Times best-sellers Boys & Sex and Girls & Sex. Her TED Talk, “What Young Women Believe About Their Own Sexual Pleasure,” has been viewed over 5 million times.

Peggy conducted in-depth interviews with dozens of teens and college students about their intimate lives for her recent books, and the results were fascinating. Some of the topics we explore in this episode include:

• How do today’s youth define the terms “sex” and “virginity?”
• Young women today have been empowered in many ways compared to generations past, but that doesn’t seem to be translating into sexual empowerment. Why is that?
• Why does pleasure need to be a central focus of sex education? How does sex ed need to change more broadly?
• How are young people today navigating conversations around consent?
• How do young men feel about “hookup culture?” Is hookup culture disenfranchising everyone?
• How are LGBTQ youth faring in all of this?
• How can parents have more effective and productive conversations about sex with their kids?

To learn more about Peggy and her work, visit peggyorenstein.com

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Credits: LEGIT Audio (Podcast editing) and Shutterstock/Florian (Music). Image created with Canva; photos used with permission of guest.