"The Sexual Revolution Was Central To Women's Liberation"

Part 2 of VH1's documentary mini-series Sex: The Revolution aired last night, and a portion of it focused on the sexual revolution's influence on feminism in the 1970s and vice versa. The doc combines archival footage of interviews, TV shows, and protest rallies and new interviews with heavyweights like Gloria Steinem, Helen Gurley Brown, Ariel Levy, Erica Jong, and Susan Brownmiller. Nearly 40 years later, Steinem is still sticking to her guns that the sexual revolution was a disservice to women because it was a movement for men to make women more sexually available to them. (How can she not realize by now that we all have natural sexual desires?) Ariel Levy, author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, offered a different (and perhaps younger?) take on the sexual revolution, asserting that it was important for feminism, because gaining equality in sexual satisfaction was a key element in the women's movement. Still, it was nice to see both sides of the argument presented. Clip above.

Cosmo Girl Has The Spiciest — And Smartest — Advice When It Comes To Teen Sex

Down Under, two of the major teen magazines, rivals Dolly and Girlfriend, are banding together to fight government suggestions that the magazines come with "audience age recommendations," because of the sexually-explicit nature of their question-and answer-sections. According to the Daily Telegraph, "Tasmanian Senator Stephen Parry said he was concerned readers as young as 11 were writing in for answers to questions on anal and oral sex." (Because if they don't read the magazine, their questions will magically disappear, right?) Dolly editor Gemma Crisp told a government inquiry, "We see it as a service. It's our responsibility to provide the correct information rather than them (readers) saying to their 15-year-old friend, 'my boyfriend wants me to do this, how do I deal with it?'" We decided to see what kind of advice the American teen magazines are giving their readership. A look at sex coverage on the websites of Teen Vogue, Cosmo Girl, Elle Girl, YM and Seventeen, after the jump. More »