Joycelyn Elders gets all the credit for starting Masturbation

We are hip-deep in it Masturbation can Everyone, and it’s about time we pay tribute to the powerful black woman who started it all, don’t you think?

(Minnie) Joycelyn Elders served as the 15th Surgeon General of the United States for 16 months, from 1993 to 1994, during the Clinton administration.

In a speech at the UN AIDS conference in 1994, she was asked whether she thought teaching children to masturbate could reduce unprotected sex. she answered:

“I think it’s something that’s part of human sexuality, and it’s something that maybe should be taught.”

A little after, she was abruptly fired for his “controversial” public views that masturbation should be covered in school sex education curricula.

Reminder: She was fired by Bill Clinton, the same president who deemed it appropriate to insert a cigar into his intern Monica Lewinsky’s vagina.

A Sharecropper’s Daughter

The elders grew up in a poor environment sharecropping family, the eldest of eight, and in fact wrote a book She details her journey, starting with her humble beginnings. Sharecropping, for those who don’t know, came about after the Civil War and was essentially a form of glorified slavery where a landlord would allow a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop, ultimately encouraging them to produce the largest harvest possible in order to ensure they remained tied to the land and unable to pursue other opportunities.

But Elders never seemed to let her social position (or the simple fact that she was a black woman) hold her back.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in biochemistry, served as a second lieutenant in the Army, became a physical therapist and physician, and was certified as a pediatric endocrinologist, all before becoming the director of the Arkansas Department of Health in the 1980s (appointed by then-Governor Clinton, no less). Not bad at all.

But when she was appointed chief medical officer, she faced some opposition. Elders believed that this opposition was motivated by sexism and racism.

“Some members of the American Medical Association, a certain group of them, didn’t even know I was a doctor. They passed a resolution that from now on every Surgeon General would have to be a doctor, which was a blow to me.[…]They don’t expect a black woman to have accomplished what I’ve accomplished and done what I’ve done.”

His life’s work without fear

Elders was the second woman and the first African-American to serve as surgeon general. She was a strong advocate for comprehensive sex education, especially for black girls and women. She was an outspoken critic of old textbooks that claimed only white women had naturally regular menstrual cycles (!). called the black ministers who called birth control pills “black genocide,” essentially trying to control and exploit black women’s bodies in the name of religion.

“If you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t control your life,” she said.

Elders became a powerful voice for the African-American community and was known for speaking out about the links between poverty and teen pregnancy. Op-ed in the New York TimesIn her book, she writes that poor African-American teenage mothers are “captives of a slavery that the 13th Amendment did not provide,” detailing the ways in which early pregnancy can perpetuate a cycle of poverty. It’s also a major reason she’s stressed the importance of teaching sex education in public schools.

Of course, during her time as a GP, Elders’ outspoken views quickly began to outrage the religious right. Firmly entrenched in her pro-choice stance, she even went so far as to urge Americans to “Getting over this love affair with the fetus.”

Hell, she must be doing something right: She was dubbed the “Condom Queen” by conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh in 1994 because she favored condom distribution in public schools. He meant it as an insult, and yet I personally find the title rather flattering. Sort of.

Bonus points: the elders also gave him their voice support for the full legalization of drugs decades before it became a mainstream topic – as a way to reduce crime. Then, in a 2010 article, she made it clear expressed support for the legalization of marijuana, writing, ““I think we’re consuming a lot more dangerous drugs that are legal: cigarettes, nicotine, alcohol… I think they have a lot more devastating effect on the physical. We need to lift the ban on marijuana.”

Q: When can I have lunch with Joycelyn Elders?

Sticky Self Love

The unfair dismissal of the elders was partly the inspiration Sticky: A (self-)love storya 2016 documentary and comedy by Nicholas Tana that explores why so many people are afraid to talk masturbation (trailer) here). The film includes an interview with Elders herself about why she was fired by the former president Clinton for his controversial statement on World AIDS Day. Elders defends his remarks:

“I thought it would reduce unwanted pregnancies and disease,” she said, adding that she advocated that students be introduced to the idea that masturbation is common and perfectly natural – not that they should be taught how to jerk off or rub themselves. techniques. For my part, a) I hate that she had to clarify this at all, and b) I dream of an educational landscape in which this is even OK to teach basic techniques (especially for girls).

Other inspiring quotes from the Elders interview:

“We know that 80 to 90 percent of men masturbate, and 65 to 70 percent of women masturbate, and the rest lie; so what are we going to talk about?”

“In America, we can’t talk about sex. We can. But we can’t talk about it.”

In the powerful spirit of Masturbation May, I leave you with this final meditation: What can You that you do but don’t talk about? What steps can you take to better align with who you are and what you stand for?

Pro tip: Masturbate to clear your head before pondering these and other deep questions. <3