“Pornography 101: Why College Kids Need Porn Literacy Training” by Shira Tarrant at Alternet: Media and Culture.

I like this article a lot more than the previous one on porn that I posted (and Tarrant mentions that article in this one). In general (alcohol, pot, sex, porn) I agree that “abstinence-only” education is not the way to help develop independent people who can gather information pertinent to themselves and make intelligent decisions.

Digital technology is increasingly shaping our analog relationships. Pop culture infuses our everyday lives. We must put media literacy at the top of our cultural to-do list because this provides the critical skills that enable adults (young, or otherwise) to identify sexism, misogyny and racism in all forms of pop culture, including porn. As a generation of porn-watchers comes of age, it is to society’s benefit that they are taught a kind of “porn literacy” that encourages an understanding of what constitutes mutually consensual sex in real life.

The ubiquity of porn requires a willingness to start talking out loud about the sex-tech nexus. Talking won’t solve all our problems overnight. But shifting our cultural conversation matters — particularly when these are difficult dialogues.