UChicago’s second annual Sex Week kicked off with the university’s infamous Lascivious Ball, jumpstarting a week of panels that unpacked the social interactions and relations dominating our perceptions of sexuality. While a myriad of experts and students alike discussed their own notions of sexual activity and culture, award-winning Wicked Pictures adult film actor, writer and director Jessica Drake served as one of the week’s most popular guests, giving her take on the pitfalls of modern sex education.
Drake, who has acted in more than 300 adult films and scooped up countless nominations and wins at the AVN Awards, appeared at the Logan Center on Saturday to run her own panel “From Porn Star to Sex Ed.” There, Drake walked the audience through her career, life in the adult industry, and the truths and myths surrounding adult actors and their career.
But Drake’s talk focused primarily on the gaps in society’s approach to sex education, shedding light on how modern sex ed still fails to address the situational aspects to sex that young people face daily. While information about sex is now more accessible and thorough than before, many young people still do not have access to more complete sex ed that emphasizes how their environment can affect their decisions when it comes to sex.
“When I was first taught about sex, I was taught that ‘this is what happens when you have sex, if you have sex, you will get pregnant, you will get an STD,” explains Drake. “You talked a lot about the anatomy of sex, but that was about it. I wanted a more reality-based sex ed that showed how hormones play into everything, and I wished that there was more about how alcohol, drugs, and consent impact your sexual health.”
The result, says Drake, is that the Internet serves as the only source of sex ed for many people. Though porn can serve as a positive learning tool that teaches audiences how to “spice up their sex life,” online porn generally does not cover the situations that affect young adults’ sexual decisions and how they should be addressed.
“The bigger picture is that some of these people’s only reference is online, but a lot of sex is also coupled with peer pressure and the perception that young people have to do certain things sexually to fit in, and today’s sex ed doesn’t always acknowledge that,” says Drake. “Then what you see is a lack of awareness in what is even legal, and then you add that to a culture where young people are getting wasted, which can make them go a little too far.”
“Next thing you know, people can be pressured and coerced into doing certain things, and pictures can be circulated. That’s how a case like Steubenville happened, which is why we need to derive the best possible way to avoid situations like that in the future.”
To do so, Drake spends most of her workshops fleshing out the situations that can sway young adults’ decision-making when it comes to sex. By working in news reports of relevant current events, Drake’s workshops are structured to show her attendees the possible implications of their actions. This entails that Drake dedicate a huge fraction of her workshops and panels to defining and discussing consent, deconstructing what is often a gray area in sexual decision-making.
“I always talk about consent based on where and how people are in their lives, which means that I go through what consent means for both men and women, and I go through what it means for you if you’re straight, homosexual, bisexual, or if you identify with another category,” says Drake. “You don’t have to have an elaborate reason to say no; you can say no to someone without spelling everything out for them if you don’t want to. Believe it or not, a lot of people actually don’t understand that, but it’s something so crucial to grasp whether you’re in a heterosexual relationship or something else.”
Relaying these concepts to young adults defines Drake’s life, leading her to travel around the world for educational seminars and workshops while starring, writing, directing and producing adult films for Wicked Pictures. Following a conversation with a workshop attendee back in 2012, Drake put together and released a series of educational adult films, Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex, to provide her audiences with an accessible source that adds their sexual well-being.
But for Drake, nothing can top the face-to-face interactions she has with her panel and workshop attendees. As students lined up to see her one by one following her Sex Week panel, Drake engaged her panel participants, distributing copies of her DVDs while beaming as she patiently answered every question thrown her way.
“The questions are definitely my favorite part,” she says. “I always save the last twenty minutes of my talks for questions because then I know what I’ve maybe missed. The questions are what I use to make each talk better and more complete.”
As she jets off to her next location, Drake not only seeks to re-shape many of the notions surrounding sex and sexuality, but to also reveal the power young people have over their own bodies and surroundings.
Want to know more about Jessica Drake and her work as a sex educator? Then follow her on Twitter, and browse through her “Guide to Wicked Sex!”