From the earliest stages of life says Mark Schoen, Americans are taught “sex is something you don’t suppose to talk about.” While most body parts are called by their correct names, sexual organs are often called by other names intended to be more polite. Teaching euphemisms, says the sexual literacy expert, signals that something is wrong.

This is what makes his book, Bellybuttons are Navels, amazing. Instead of using euphemisms for the body’s sex organs, the colorful book uses the terms such as penis, vulva, and clitoris.

Schoen was just one of many presenters and participants at that Woodhull Foundation’s annual Sexual Freedom Summit who networked and shared concepts and language that advance sexual freedoms. Generally, summit attendees believe “you should be able to do what you want to do with your body and have control over how other people interact with your body,” explained Woodhull Foundation's Sexual Freedom Summit Chief Operating Officer Mandy Salley.

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In a 2-minute, hilarious Comedy Central video “The Talk” that Schoen shared, a father decides to have a talk about sex with his son, only to discover that his son is much more versed on human sexuality than he.

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Schoen’s interest in understanding sexuality began in 1973 when he was a health educator in New York City Public Schools. However, he found it disturbing that he was teaching sex education by focusing on disease prevention. Schoen soon found himself studying in Sweden and saw how openly the Nordic society approached sexuality.

“I was in a Swedish home watching TV with a family including their five-year-old child and when nudity came on the screen. They thought nothing of the nudity. However, when violence came on, the mother grabbed the child and put her hands over his eyes,” he recalled.

Schoen’s web site, SexSmartFilms, has more than 670 videos from more than 52 countries including South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya that promotes sexual literacy. A Kenyan HIV commercial, The Umbrella, for instance, shows a guy and girl eyeing each other as they walk towards each other on a busy sidewalk in the rain; eventually she loses her umbrella cover.

When they meet, he shows her the condoms in his pocket, pulls one out, and slowly covers her stiff, closed umbrella. “In American ads, you never see the condom,” he says. (The Umbrella is The Featured video for viewing until Wed, Aug 31; then SexSmartFilms will replace it with another video).

In a 2-minute, hilarious Comedy Central video “The Talk” that Schoen shared, a father decides to have a talk about sex with his son, only to discover that his son is much more versed on human sexuality than he.

While Schoen started his career in sexual literacy as an adult, his co-presenter, Susan Kaye, started hers when she was 16. She was working in a hospital delivering trays to patients who had various health conditions and she started asking herself “what is my relationship with my body?”

Kaye, who describes her body as a vehicle she uses to get through life, purposely released her book “Am I Normal, If” on July 4. “We were declaring independence from the box called normal,” she says. Her book is a reflection of her life discoveries with developing and expanding mind-body awareness that led to her to a deeper sensual, erotic, and sexual self.

While the explanations of Dr. Mark Schoen and Dr. Susan Kaye were more academic, on a table board, Summit participants wrote down their definitions of sexual freedom. The responses ranged from “If we do it and we like it, nobody can stop us from doing it again,” to “Biden wears a butt plug at state events or Kamila whips him.”

Social Media Policies Stifles Black Social Empowerment

Companies and individuals who use social media to reach people to educate and empower themselves sexually have found that Facebook often reject their education messages for “promoting sexual pleasure,” and violating their “decency” standards says social worker Veronica Urguilla.

She helped create and promote The SHE Campaign in majority Black Prince George’s County, Maryland for young women aged 18-30 to “promote sexual health and awareness.” The Facebook advertisement included a “Valentine Day Checklist.” The checklist included: conversations about sexual expectations/needs, update COVID-19 vaccination card, complete STD/STI exam, COVID 19 tests, dental dames, condoms, and lubes.

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The Summit is a welcoming environment – as one lady held her boyfriend, another her girlfriend and a third shared information about a sex worker who provides services to hospice patients.

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“The Facebook practice limited our opportunities to share sexual health messaging,” continued clinical professional counselor Ann Wisemen. Digital strategist PJ Urquillaw added that efforts to reach Facebook about the rejection was useless. “We could never reach a human,” he says.

From international differences in sex mores to working with social media, The Summit looked at sexual freedom from a variety of perspectives and attracts a variety of people. Participants ranged from social workers and sex workers to adult industry personnel and mental health therapists. Generally, anyone over 18 can attend the conference.

During the evening entertainment “Slut Jam,” participants unwound with an open bar and onstage story telling. One participant kicked off the lively evening with a story about her encounter with a mosquito while camping using erotic terms.

Another shared his first sexual encounters with transwomen and included their race identification and body sizes - - provoking the moderator to remind all that the Summit is a welcoming environment and that such descriptions generally are not necessary – as one lady held her boyfriend, another her girlfriend and a third shared information about a sex worker who provides services to hospice patients.

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More:
From the 2012 Conference: “Sexual Rights for Disabled People: Group Homes, Grassroots and Beyond”

SEX-ED + creates anatomically exact tools (based on human moldings) which represent the vast spectrum of genitalia (male, female, intersex, with voluntary or coerced surgeries, trans, etc.) that answer the needs of sexuality education and sexual health professionals.