Positive Sexuality Resources
Information for Sexual Health
This reading list brings together a wide range of books -- scholarly work, self-help books, novels, and memoirs -- on a variety of topics relating to human sexuality and sexual health. Although medical and scientific information is included, the main emphasis is on the broadly human experience of sexuality -- physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, aesthetic -- in all its richness, variety and complexity.
Sexual Health Is Sex-Positive
All of these works are, in the broadest sense of the word, sex-positive. Written from many different perspectives, they celebrate the diversity of human sexuality. They see sexuality as a gift to be cherished, embraced and expressed, a resource for healing and pleasure and connection. This reading list is positive in another way, as well: it focuses on sexual health rather than on pathology, on optimal experience rather than just ameliorating symptoms.
Search for Sexual Information
This list grew out of my own curiosity about sex, which dates back at least to elementary school days. In the conservative community where I spent my childhood, one did not talk openly about sexuality. Furtive conversations occurred in the boy's locker room or late at night on a Boy Scout campout, laced with ignorance, misogyny and homophobia. In church I heard many sermons on the dangers of sexual behavior outside of marriage (which only further piqued my interest), but I don't remember much being said about the beauty and wonder of sexuality.
Even in my small town there were resources for sexuality "information" available to the determined young person. I did locate Song of Solomon in the Bible, so on a slow Sunday morning I could study early Semitic erotica while pretending to follow along with the lesson. I still remember the shock and thrill of discovering Peyton Place on the shelves of the city library, and the feverish late-night reading that ensued. And of course, the encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus were consulted on all bodily functions!
Accurate Sexual Information Important for Sexual Health
Accurate information about sexuality is imperative for healthy maturation and development. Open discussion helps to remove taboos and the sense of shame they foster. I hope this reading list furthers your learning about human sexuality.