9: Defining Sexual Values for Ourselves: Part 1 with Erica Smith

In this episode, Kelly is joined by award-winning and nationally-recognized sex educator, Erica Smith, for the first episode in two-part series on defining sexual values and ethics for ourselves. Here, in Part One, Erica walks us through the Five Circles of Sexuality, originally developed by Dr. Dennis Dailey in 1981, and adapted in Erica's resource My Sexual Values Workbook. We discuss:

• What the five circles of sexuality are and how they can help us sort through our beliefs, convictions, comfort levels, knowledge, and more to begin defining sexual ethics and values for ourselves

• Intimacy: Within this circle are things like communication, non-sexual intimacy in all kinds of relationships, casual sex/dating, commitment, vulnerability, boundaries, and more

• Sensuality: Within this circle is the ability to give and receive pleasure, to identify what gives us pleasure, fantasy, arousal, desire, how we feel about masturbation for ourselves and/or a partner, the orgasm gap, etc.

• Power & Sexualization: In this section, we discuss things like agency, consent, power differentials, coercion, manipulation, sexual violence, victim-blaming, using others for our own benefit without care/concern for them, and more

• Sexual Health & Reproduction: In this section, Erica walks us through what types of things we'll encounter in this circle like contraceptives (communal and individual), STIs, pregnancy, abortion (communal and individual), anatomy, etc.

• Sexual Identity: Within this circle, Erica talks us through gender identity, sexual orientation, and attraction (whether you identify as on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum or as a cisgendered, straight person).

GUEST BIO: Erica Smith (she/her) is an award winning sexuality educator and consultant with over 20 years of experience. She has provided comprehensive sex education and advocacy to young women and LGBTQ+ youth in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system, worked in abortion care, and supported HIV+ and transgender adolescents and their families. In 2019, she developed the Purity Culture Dropout™️ Program to help people learn all of the sex education that they missed growing up in purity culture- sex ed that is accurate, queer inclusive, trauma informed, compassionate, and comprehensive. Erica lives in Philadelphia with her partner and house full of rescue animals. You can find her on Twitter, on Instagram, or at her website by clicking those links. Erica's resource workbooks can be found on her website, or at this link: https://www.ericasmitheac.com/webinars-books