Image via Unsplash

Most people have a cringe-worthy memory from health class.

Whether it was watching a 60-year-old woman unroll a condom onto a phallic object or being the one kid who asked the "inappropriate" question the teacher was too uncomfortable to answer, sixth grade Sex Ed is a subject many want to avoid revisiting.

Despite all the embarrassing moments, young people have been, and will continue to be, curious about sex. Thanks to the Internet, they know what they're learning at school isn't the full picture.

In multiple surveys about Sex Ed, young people express a desire for more education, up-to-date information on healthy relationships, LGBTQ+ content, and fun, positive ways to learn about pleasure and intimacy. In other words, they want material that goes beyond what they learn in school or what they feel comfortable discussing with their parents. Ideally, they want to learn it from confident teachers who are comfortable with the subject matter.

Keep ReadingShow less
Film Features

How China Is Controlling Hollywood

What "Red Dawn" taught us about defeating Chinese invaders–oops, we mean North Korean.

Photo by nuno alberto (Unsplash)

From Trump threatening to ban TikTok in the US to hordes of angry Americans defending their vituperative rhetoric as "free speech," America is in the midst of a "disinformation war."

Keep ReadingShow less
CULTURE

This Content Is Dangerous: Trauma in the Age of YouTube

Digital space is both the crime scene and respite.

Remember when a great concern of the zeitgeist was whether playing violent video games would encourage violent behavior?

Keep ReadingShow less
CULTURE

Why YouTube Creators Want You to Boycott YouTube

The #YoutubeWalkout movement is hoping to get YouTube to remove a controversial provision from their terms of service

Photo by: Szabo Viktor / Unsplash

There is corruption in the government, the Middle East is in turmoil, and YouTube creators are mad at YouTube.

Any day you choose to read that sentence, all of those statements will continue to be true. And in a lot of cases the anger at YouTube is unjustified or misguided. Their algorithm is way too complicated to expect an easy fix. Conservatives who shout about bias and censorship because of demonetized videos are ignoring the equal weight of demonetization across the political spectrum. And while copyright strikes are often frivolous and harmful, that is fraught legal territory that YouTube can't be expected to navigate perfectly—though hopefully they're working to improve. But the YouTube Walkout this week is different, because in the latest issue there's not a lot of room to give YouTube the benefit of the doubt. In this case, they definitely suck.

About a month ago YouTube updated their terms of service to include, among other things, a clause stipulating that if your channel was deemed "no longer commercially viable," they could "terminate your access or your Google account's access to all or part of the service." The absurdly vague terms involved have been interpreted in any number of ways, any one of which could reflect YouTube's actual intent. Are they setting things up to delete Neo-Nazi accounts and channels devoted to traumatizing children? Or the collected crust of weird pseudo-p*rn living in their loopholes? Or are they preparing to oust creators who make their money through Patreon and your 12-year-old cousin who makes Pokemon-unboxing videos?

The truth is, it doesn't really matter what their intentions are. The language is so vague that they can decide to turn it against anyone they want to down the road. Maybe next week there will be a purge of white supremacists, but the week after Youtube could use this clause to delete accounts that are critical of the government, or accounts that are critical of Youtube itself.

Considering the number of legitimate, hard-working creators whose livelihoods are tied to their YouTube accounts, it's no wonder there's been a backlash. That's why you might not see so many new videos this week, particularly from YouTubers with a political bent. Creators are participating in a Youtube walkout from December 10-13. And they're asking you to participate by staying off the site until this weekend. If enough of us can stave off our Youtube addiction by just opening a book—or, you know, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Veoh, Twitch…—we may be able to push YouTube to treat their creators better and maintain the openness that we love about their platform.

So please—just until Saturday—stay off YouTube.

CULTURE

The Ironic Politics of TikTok: China's Muslim Genocide and Eyelash Curling

Why TikTok is the language of the post-American Dream world.

TikTok

Photo by Solen Feyissa (Unsplash)

Is TikTok a threat to our national security? Are we all being secretly monitored by China? How do you get long eyelashes?!

Keep ReadingShow less

Julia Rose

JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

On Sunday, Julia Rose and Lauren Summer—which are definitely their real names—made headlines when they flashed their breasts during the live broadcast of game 5 of the World Series.

While they didn't get quite as much attention as certain other attendees, they got enough to earn themselves lifetime bans from MLB events.



As far as I'm concerned, that's all great. Nudity is wonderful, being proud of your body is wonderful, and being an agent of chaos on live TV is among the best uses of anyone's time. But as it turns out, these women had much higher ideals in mind when they showed the world their breasts. They were apparently raising awareness for breast cancer, which, in case you weren't aware, is a type of cancer that occurs in the breast tissue and predominantly affects women. You probably hadn't heard of it before, because this is pretty much the first attempt at getting the word out—and there is no reason to think that awareness campaigns are the wrong approach entirely—but now that these women pulled up their tops at the World Series, you're finally aware, and you have the tools to contribute to prevention and treatment.



Oh, and they were also protesting the double standard that treats women's chests as fundamentally sexual objects, that need to be censored, while men are free to have their torsos exposed to the world without shame or fanfare. It's a fair point and the focus of the Free the Nipple campaign, which Julia Rose connects to their efforts. You can tell that this issue is particularly dear to these women because of the consistent effort they put into desexualizing their breasts. Almost every picture on their respective social media accounts practically screams, "It's just a chest, people! Get over it!"



Oh, and I almost forgot that they are also promoting Rose's digital magazine, SHAGMAG, which promises "SEX, BOOBS, SPORTS, UPCOMING ARTISTS & ENTREPRENEURS and a bunch of other fun surprises" and which Rose promotes as "the Millennial Playboy." It certainly sounds like the sort of place where you would find thoughtful discussion of feminist theory and women's issues.

Rose's mission statement puts it succinctly: "I wanted to create a (?)place that was fun but one that still had meaning. There is nothing wrong with sex and nudity, and wanting more of it but I definitely think our generation needs more of a voice. There are all these beautiful instagram models but who are they really? Who are the upcoming innovators and creators, and what the actual f*ck is going on in the world? So many questions and now there is an answer: SHAGMAG."



So… seriously? Obviously sex sells, and it's a recognized feature of our society that attractive young women can make solid careers out of selling it. If that's what they want to do, there's nothing to stop them, and there are some serious feminist arguments to be made for finding empowerment in the embrace of sexuality. But what does this half-assed veneer of selfless motives do for anyone?

Is your audience drawn in by the promise that SHAGMAG will explain "what the actual f*ck is going on in the world?" Or do they just want to look at some naked women? The entire business model is based on teasing at the edges of Instagram's nudity policy, so they can offer "exclusive and uncensored content" behind a paywall. So why bother appropriating Free the Nipple as your purpose—or breast cancer, for that matter—unless your goal is specifically to undermine the people who take these causes seriously?



As usual, the answer is probably to get people like me to write about it, and people like you to read about it, and it's clearly working well. Rose claims that SHAGMAG has already received $10,000 in new subscriptions, and she's planning future topless stunts.

Somehow it seems doubtful that any of that money is going to breast cancer research, but wouldn't it at least be nice if the shame of exploiting a good cause outweighed the temptation to draw in that extra attention? With that said, if you really want to pay a monthly fee to see an Instagram model naked, please consider any of the thousands of others who won't pretend they're being activists.