Jaclyn Friedman: No Pill Will Fix Your Sex Life (Ever)

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, sex-educator, and activist whose work helped establish the “yes means yes” standard of sexual consent. Her new book, Unscrewed; Women, Sex, Power, And How To Stop Letting the System Screw Us All, was released in November, 2017.

On this episode of Simplify, Caitlin Schiller talks with Friedman about sexual empowerment – or the lack thereof, which Friedman calls “Fauxpowerment.” They discuss some of the fundamental challenges to women becoming truly sexually empowered and what’s at stake if we don’t make it happen. In between, they touch on nitty gritties ranging from the politics of the Spice Girls to tactics for talking to your partner about sex.

Plus, they break down where the term “girl power” comes from.

After their conversation, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to make a booklist about good sex and working with (or against) the powers that be.

(FYI- we're publishing this episode a day earlier than our usual Thursday release date because tomorrow Blinkist is having an all-day Holiday Party! Woot! Next week we'll be back to Thursdays.)

For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-sexual-empowerment-jaclyn-friedman-youre-not-broken/.

Quick reminder: This season, we are collecting your voices! It's not as creepy as it sounds, we promise. We just would love to hear how you would answer one of the questions we always ask our guests: “What have you discovered was much easier than you initially thought it was?” You can just record your answer with any voice memo app and email it to us at [email protected].

If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. Let them know what you're reading!

Thanks to Nico Guiang for our fantastic intro and outro music. Listen to more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.