Yeah - I mean, there are fundamental issues in leaving a religion and facing that pressure from family and your community. I don’t think its easy in any situation where identity is so closely intertwined with faith, and there’s really nothing (I don’t think) that can stop those problems.

If it’s uplifting at all, she is a mother now, and she is the most loving mother possible. All she knew was tragedy, and she turned it in to the wonderful life she deserves :)

I remember not knowing at all beyond “giggle giggle penises are gross and strange,” and then knowing pretty much everything except the slang and certain positions, but I don’t remember fumbling with information in the middle. I *must* have, but it has escaped my memory.

I had a baby sitter named Fern in the 70’s who was a crazy Bowie fan and smuggled me into an Iggy Pop/Bowie concert when I was 10. That part’s not really relevant; I’m just bragging. But I think I caught her with a boyfriend. So I went to my dad for answers. He was very open and I’m pretty sure he sorted it all out…

“And little Jamie Jr., You’re here because mommy tricked daddy with a lace catsuit and patent thigh highs.”

Me, too! Ahh, books. The great educators.

I’ll tell you one thing. I won’t make the same mistake of telling my husband about those boots like I did with the lace catsuit.

thought that ejaculation happened almost immediately upon insertion of a penis into a vagina

That there is something nobody talks about! The discovery of sex and arousal through literature. I would bet if you did a poll, most women first heard of orgasms and female pleasure through reading of romance novels. I know I did, and thank God I read those way before I was exposed to the porn world’s idea of sex and…

That pit of the stomach arousal/nauseated feeling is one you never forget. I was reading the “historicals” by the time I was 11.

Even after sex-ed I thought that ejaculation happened almost immediately upon insertion of a penis into a vagina. In my head, sex was a ton of foreplay, penetration, then immediately the end of the act.

Looking back I think this was the point of the book? The whole premise was these parents explaining to their kids how babies are made and they come up with this bullshit story about people laying eggs, and then the kids start laughing and explain how sex really is and that’s where all these silly illustrations come…

My parents gave me “Our Bodies, Ourselves” which covered masturbation extensively (yay!) but was less informative about what the hell was going on in a dude’s body. Which is, I guess, the point - but it would have been helpful to know.

Also, “making love” is maybe my least favorite term for sex. It is 1000000% not what is happening when I am involved, as much as I love my boyfriend.

Fun fact: That’s exactly why King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had trouble conceiving. Louis would penetrate her, just kind of lie there for ten minutes, pull out, and go back to his bedroom. This went on for years.

I’d be curious to get a copy and go back and look to see if the pleasurable aspect of sex was even discussed. Like, the current push for sex ed is to let children know why people have sex, not just cover the reproductive biology aspect of it.

And based on her biases there was no chapter on threesomes.

Until I had sex ed I thought “making love” was just kissing someone while laying down. When I learned that penises existed and were involved I was horrified. It did not occur to me until even later after that, that making love meant sex and that penises were involved.

I’ve posted this before, but what the hell:

You should probably explore some Vertigo stuff, like Sandman, Lucifer, Hellblazer, Shade: The Changing Man, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Punisher: MAX (Ennis's 65-issue run), Preacher, etc.