Teen Vogue has faced a barrage of criticism (and praise) for printing a frank and down-to-earth guide to anal sex. The feature is aimed at young people of all gender identities and sexual persuasions.
Given the rising rates of STIs, and the fact that anal sex is not covered on school curriculums, you’d think people would be happy that Teen Vogue was taking a lead in this issue. But not so.
Twitter went into meltdown when the issue hit the shelves. One Christian mom even filmed herself burning the issue in her backyard.
‘The backlash to this article is rooted in homophobia’
A gay editor took to Twitter on Friday to defend the magazine’s decision to publish the piece.
Philip Picardi is the magazine’s Digital Editorial Director.
‘If it’s OK with you guys, I’m gonna TALK ABOUT ANAL SEX FOR A WEE LIL THREAD,’ he begins, before saying that the title had been inundated with hate mail since publishing the anal sex guide.
He goes on to suggest that as a result of receiving no sex education, he began his sex life with little idea of how certain infections can be passed on. This included information about HIV and its transmission.
He says that the information he received in just 40 minutes with a health professional was crucial to his future health. It made up for the lack of information he received when younger.
His last tweet has been liked almost 17k times and been re-tweeted over a 1,000 times. GSN has reached out to Picardi for comment.
‘The outrage over this piece by Teen Vogue shows that we still have a long way to go’
Ian Howley, CEO of UK-based gay men’s health charity GMFA, applauded Teen Vogue on its guide.
‘Articles that talk about anal sex in a fresh and frank way are always welcomed by us at GMFA. Too many young LGBT+ people are not provided the basic sex and sexual health information they require.
‘For far too long we have relied on the internet and magazines to teach our young LGBT+ community about how to have safer and better sex. The outrage over this piece by Teen Vogue shows that we still have a long way to go.
‘But we can start by making sure versions of this article are taught at school level so that young LGBT+ people, and the general young population, grow up knowing about how their bodies work and how to have anal sex in a safer way.’
GMFA has produced several articles of its own on anal sex – check its website for more information.
