When I'm teaching a course for students interested in careers in sexuality or facilitating a workshop at conferences like the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, I usually ask them to tell me what brought them to sexuality studies. While I have met one or two folks whose parents were sexuality educators and they knew from a young age that they would follow the family business, it is fairly rare that many of us showed up on "Career Day" in school dressed as a sexuality educator or researcher. (Could you imagine the look on the teachers and career counselors faces?) I often hear about experiences, such as classes or volunteer opportunities, where someone realized that it was their calling to study and teach about sex and sexuality.
I had a similar experience when I was an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin studying biology. Since I was a young boy, I dreamt of being a scientist working in a lab and performing all sorts of cool experiments (it was either that or become a chef - I dressed as each for career days in 5th and 6th grades, respectively) until I began studying to be a biologist and discovered how monotonous and tedious most of the work was - not to mention how horribly isolating it was to work in a lab. During my junior year, I enrolled in a human sexuality course - one of those huge survey courses - and felt a spark that ignited a desire to learn more. During that semester, I saw a flyer calling for applications for sexual health peer instructors at the Student Health Center. I applied, was accepted, and spent the next summer trainng to teach sex. I was nervous when I first began to speak in the dorms or for various student groups - I'm not a particularly shy person, but I'd never enjoyed speaking in front of groups. Something about this was different. Something about it felt right.
It sounds impossible I know, but I remember the exact moment that I realized that I had found my calling and that I would be talking and teaching about sex for as long as I could. I was tabling for the Sexual Health Peer group in the West Mall, the designated student gathering/speaking space on the UT campus, when one of my gay male friends approached me and asked if I could step to the side and answer a question. I could tell that he was nervous and slightly embarassed, and he told me that he had never felt comfortable asking anyone questions about sexuality until now. I assured him that whatever he asked me would be in confidence and that I would try to answer his question to the best of my ability. He then asked me to explain female anatomy to him. At this exact moment, standing outside on a beautiful sunny day, holding one of those horrible plastic female anatomy models explaining to a gay man what a vulva and clitoris were and that the vagina and urethra where not the same thing, I understood that I had found my purpose in life; it was as if a switch had been flipped and a strong, warm light illuminated the path in front of me. I was going to be a sex educator for life!
Anyone who knows me, understands that this is something that I must do. No one was surprised when I moved to NYC to study in one of the few Sexuality Education Master of Arts programs in the country at New York University. I don't think that anyone blinked an eye when I was accepted to the PhD program at the University of Texas in health education where I took every course I found related to sexuality. My parents and my boyfriend (now, my husband) did not hesitate to support (emotionally and financially) my spending a month in Amsterdam to attend a summer institute at the University of Amsterdam in sexuality studies. And my mentor and advisor was not surprised when I refused to take a position in which I would have had to focus on health promotion more generally rather than focusing on sexual health and sex education. And not a single person was surprised when I announced that I was moving to San Francisco to work for the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University (where we have one of the only Master of Arts in Sexuality Studies programs in the country) as the Director of Education and Training.
So when we talk about sexuality studies courses having an impact on people's lives, I live as an example of how that first course in human sexuality set into motion life changing decisions that led me to where I am today. I now spend my weekdays (and often nights and weekends) training others to become sexuality educators and researchers - and I can't really imagine doing anything else. I do it because I believe that we have the ability to change people's lives and to make the world a better, happier, and safer place for all.
Please, support sexuality studies by signing our petition that would tell legislators and university administrators that these courses are valued and needed. Take a stance on keeping legislators out of the business of deciding what subjects are taught or studied at colleges and universities across the nation.
oh yeah.
How did you get interested in sexuality studies?
