Songs for Sex Ed!

[KierC]

Hi everyone!

Recently, a friend of mine asked me: If you had to make a playlist about sex ed, what songs would be on it?

This question was a little confusing at first. Was my friend asking for “songs about intercourse”? Songs about identity? Songs about consent? Songs about the history of women’s sexual healthcare (yes, there’s a song for that!)? There’s so many ways one could go to make a “sex ed playlist,” but hey, listening to music is a way I practice self-care, so why not make a playlist!

I gave it some time and thought over the past couple weeks, and I think I wouldn’t make a single playlist, because when we talk about comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), we talk about different things like consent, safety, relationship skills, agency, resilience, self-acceptance… the list goes on! These topics interact with each other so I think there’d be some repetition too.

Here’s one song I thought about initially when thinking about consent (NO by Meghan Trainor also came up in my head immediately):

Slow Down — Alicia Keys

What songs come to mind for you, about any of these topics or about something I didn’t mention? Relatedly, what would you name your playlist if you made your own?

[Asking Queries]

Hi!

I know this post has been up for a while, but I figured I might as contribute!

I really like But You’ll Do by MALINDA (https://youtu.be/MSWSy9fpcpY?si=a63Jdf4JMhW0rnvk), it talks about a lot and is hard to summarize, but I like it as what feels like a song about strong but not enmeshing love.

Playlist name — hmm… not sure.

- AQ

[KierC]

That song is so awesome for this!

I really appreciate when they sing “I don’t need everything from you”: this is such a good reminder in sex ed that our community is exactly that — a community of many people in many places — and not one person can do or be ~everything~ for us … and that’s okay!

Thank you for adding onto this thread, I always enjoy new songs!

[StephR]

I just discovered this Cyndi Lauper song about a childhood friend who died from an illegal abortion. It's a sad song, but it's an important reminder of what can happen when we don't have access to the healthcare we need.

[AliahMaharaj]

The songs that come to mind for me are “Not a Phase” and “Coming Out” by Jessie Paege, a YouTuber and musician whose work I love. Both of the songs are about embracing and being proud of being queer <3<3

[HannahP]

On a related "taking my time" theme as the Alicia Keyes song is Jenny by Walk the Moon. I love the implication of watching for signs of enthusiastic consent in the line "I'm not gonna take it from you, I'll let you give it to me."

[Jacob]

In some ways a good portion of all lyrical music seems to me to have at least a whiff of the topics covered in sex education like navigating sexuality and questioning the assumptions of interpersonal relationships. I feel like music was one of the ways we did this before organised modern education, especially the relationships side.

One of my favorite examples is Hare's on the Mountain[Youtube], with this gorgeous rendition recorded by Shirley Collins in 1964, the origins of which goes back to at least 1837 when it was quoted in a novel but with other claims of it going back to the 14th century. That feels unlikely, and my guess is it probably just evolved over time, with a few prominent rewrites, but no actual start date.

It ends with "I'll leave them alone and attend to my schooling" -which is hardly sex positive but does speak to individual agency, being done with pushy men, and feels like it comes from a different place (and may a different time) compared to the mystical exploratory verses.

Like, "f the young men could sing like blackbirds and thrushes, many young girls would go beating the bushes?" We must know!