Caitlain's Corner

Hello, and welcome to my little corner of the Internet.

Caitlain's Corner is a sex education web site. A "real" sex education web site, designed to counter the influences of the silly "abstinence-only" sex education that is foistered upon many of this country's teenagers every year. I decided to build this site after discovering that there are huge numbers of teens out there that have little or no clue about sex, how to do it safely, and what it means to be a sexual being. I was sexually active throughout most of my high school career. Safely sexually active in fact. I was fortunate enough to have been enrolled in a school system that at least taught us how to use condoms and what safe sex was all about. Sadly, that is not the case in a growing number of school systems these days. I blame the Puritanical conservative movement and their insistence on ignoring basic adolescent biology and psychology, and forcing the abstinence only sex education curriculum down everyone's throats. The result, predictably, is that the U.S. continues to grow as the nation with the highest teen pregnancy and STD transmission rates IN THE WORLD! You can read more of my thoughts on A/O Education HERE . If you just want to know more about me in general, you can find that HERE .

So, my solution was to build a web site that would educate pre-teens, adolescents, and young adults on everything they need to know about sex, and can't find out from their parents, churches, or school systems. The result is before you as Caitlain's Corner - An Owner's Manual For Your Sexuality.

Why am I teaching adolescents how to have sex? You really don't know? By the time your child graduates from high school, almost two thirds of the kids in his/her class will have had sexual intercourse. Whether you like that or not, it is a fact - one that has been well documented in almost every study ever done on the subject. I have a thing about people learning to do things correctly and safely, and sex is certainly no exception. If your child is going to engage in sex, don't you want them to at least learn how to do it safely and correctly? Even if you don't want them doing it, I have to hope that you'd want them to learn how to do it the right way, so that they don't go into a marriage or other relationship with an unhealthy approach to sex. Why do I want to teach your 11-year old how to masturbate? Guess what, s/he probably already is. I want him/her to know how to do it correctly, so they don't spend the rest of his/her life feeling like it is something dirty or harmful.

It is more than that, however. I also deal with the issues about the emotional effects of having sex. And, perhaps just as importantly, helping them decide when and if they should have sex. So it is not just a "how to" manual for teens - it is a full fledged sex education site (though I am not naive enough to believe that everyone that reads the information is going to read all of it and use it as it is intended). There is an expansive section on issues surrounding sexual orientation. It is during the adolescent years when most people go through a stressful period of trying to figure out their sexual identity, and my intent is to help them figure it out without all of the judgmental, hypocritical bullshit that a lot of adults place on the issue these days.

Finally, I also have a section set aside for parents and adults. I firmly believe that the primary responsibility for educating a child about sex generally rests with the parents of that child. I know that many parents cannot bring themselves to even discuss the issue intelligently with their kids, though, for a number of reasons - embarrassment, lack of knowledge on the parents' part, feeling that their child is not old enough, etc. I aim to help parents deal with this issue to the extent that I can. I encourage you to use this site as a resource, and allow your child the opportunity to peruse the wide array of information that can be found here.

I will also be developing a section for sex education professionals. It will include links to relevant bodies of knowledge on the subject, example sex education curricula, and other resources to help you address the issues that you deal with in trying to educate people on the subject of sex.

Throughout this site, I will provide links to other excellent resources for information about sex and sexuality. This includes books, news, journal articles, blogs, and other off-site information that I believe may be beneficial to the subject at hand. I do no pretend to know everything about sex and sexuality - I, too, am always thirsting for that tidbit of knowledge and experience. If you find something here that is inaccurate or needs to be modified, or can think of something that needs to be added, please feel free to contact me and let me know. I am not shy about admitting I was wrong on something, and will correct anything brought to my attention as erroneous immediately.

What you will not find at this site is preaching, moral judgments, or anything else that suggests anything along the lines of when it is the right time to have sex, is it okay to have pre-martial sex, etc. Only the two people involved in a relationship can make that determination - not me, not you. Only them. My intent is to arm them with the information they need to make safe, rational choices about what they're doing. I do not encourage sex, but I also do not (generally) discourage sex. So please don't contact me and criticize me for "encouraging teens to have sex."

I hope you find the site of value to you, regardless of whether you are a teenager, parent, or just a curious user. I have a wealth of ideas for features that I will be adding to the site over time, so please check us out occasionally to see what is new. If you return to the home page, you can subscribe to the RSS Feed for my site and be notified when we make changes to it.

Thanks!

~Caitlain