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Let’s Talk About Sexuality

Scope: Creative Direction, Book Design

2020 Senior Capstone

Let's Talk About Sexuality is a book that equips parents with age-appropriate advice for talking to their kids about sexuality, personal autonomy, boundaries, decision-making, and self-esteem.

How can we instill sex-positive values in future generations post #metoo?

I bound the book two ways. One was a version of Japanese stab binding and the other was done with a gold spiral bind. Both were practical but unique ways to bind a book. The book wasprinted and spiral bound by a local risograph printer, Cereal BoxStudios, on neon paper. The final result wasa 107-page, handmade, family keepsake. 

Designing “The Talk”

 

Family communication about sexual issues can be a vehicle for shaping positive, affirming attitudes around sexuality, and it can help to reduce the consequences of sexual ignorance: embarrassment and discomfort, early sexual activity, unintended teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, sexual abuse, and exploitation. These problems cost us dearly—both in human and economic terms.

 

Talking can be scary! That's why this book was designed to be personal and approachable, like a friend giving advice. The riso materiality is in reference to the zine format’s DIY nature, which has the anti-authoritarian spirit that has mobilized many political struggles over the decades.

Website

I created an active website to sell the books. I was able to ship them to friends in San Fransisco, Louisville, Detroit, Los Angeles, Indiana, and even all the way in Germany. It was a great learning experience in how to package and sell my own product through various online payment formats like Square, Paypal, and Shipstation. No profit was made from this book, the cost paid for the materials and cost of printing. 

Screen Prints 

I’ve always wanted to learn how to screenprint, so I used this opportunity to screenprint shirts and posters. Design is a form of reasearch. This gave me insight into the work that goes into production. Screen printing is a labor of love.

Quick, Iterative Ideas 

The Pecha Kucha format presents 20 slides of possible project statements (“I’m making a [what] for [who] so that [outcome(s)]”). Quick ways to explore different contraints and ideas.

In the Netherlands, schools aim to educate parents too. Parents’ nights are held to give parents tools to talk to their kids about sex. This insight led me to the idea that the communication between parents and their children is just as important as learning the material in a school environment.

The United States ranks the first amongst developed nations in rates of both teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

37 states require that sex education include abstinence.

Only 2 programs that teach abstinence-only education were found to be medically accurate. 

nly 2Programs

Teens in states that prescribe more abstinence education are more likely to become pregnant.

With sexuality, a symbol of, a means for, and a potential threat to attaining autonomy, children and teenagers in the United States do not receive the support they need to navigate sexual and emotional maturation. To change this situation, we must engage in the processes of cultural and institutional innovation by choosing to have open conversations around sexuality.  

This is when I learned we need to start this dialogue early, earlier in fact than most people would suspect.

Writing Credit ︎︎︎Mary Gossart

Director of Education and Training Planned Parenthood Health Services of Southwestern Oregon