The Best Sex Ed Video You’ll Ever Watch: John Oliver Takes on America’s Subpar Sexual Education
Think back to that incredibly awkward class in school in which you learned about sex. Don’t remember it?
That might be because you grew up in one of the 28 states that don’t require sexual education. Remember being a little confused by the whole thing (especially now, looking back on what seems a little… wrong)? Your state probably wasn’t one of only 13 (13!) that required that sex ed to be medically accurate.
The lack of official requirements has left schools to decide for themselves how to educate their students, meaning a student in one town might learn all about the importance of birth control and sexual consent — yes, many school systems do not actually teach students the basic principle that “no” means “no” — but a student in the town over may never know where the uterus is.
While there isn’t much legislation that requires this important education, there are often limits on what schools can teach students. A Mississippi law, for example, bans condom demonstrations during a sex education classes. (Any wonder why the state ranks #2 in the country for teen pregnancy rates?) And Congress recently increased funding for programs that promote abstinence until marriage, even though that message has been shown to be ineffective and potentially damaging — especially for women.
In an effort to clear up some of the confusion, John Oliver invited a few famous friends — including Laverne Cox, Jack McBrayer, Kristen Schaal and Nick Offerman — to film a new kind of sex ed video for the latest “Last Week Tonight,” which aired Sunday evening on HBO.
“No parent wants to talk to their kids about sex, and no kid wants to talk about sex with their parents. That is why when you’re watching a movie together and there’s a sex scene, everyone becomes motionless and silently begs for the merciful release of death,” he says in the show.
The video is open, honest, and it won’t make you feel like a chewed up piece of gum if abstinence isn’t for you. Check it out, along with cringe-worthy clips and facts, in the video above.
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