Lithium Magazine
  • Home
  • About
    • Editors
    • Writers
    • Artists
    • Photographers
  • Contact
    • Work With Us
  • Events
  • Shop
  • Read
    • Sex & Love
    • Culture & Entertainment
    • Activism, News, & Politics
    • Life
    • Photography
Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
Followers
Followers
Lithium Magazine
Lithium Magazine
  • Home
  • About
    • Editors
    • Writers
    • Artists
    • Photographers
  • Contact
    • Work With Us
  • Events
  • Shop
  • Read
    • Sex & Love
    • Culture & Entertainment
    • Activism, News, & Politics
    • Life
    • Photography
  • Sex & Love

Can TikTok Save Sex Ed?

  • August 6, 2020
  • No comments
  • 4 minute read
  • Natalie Mechem

From Judy Blume novels to Cosmo’s “Cosmo Confessions” to the social media “sexperts” we rely on today, I think we can all agree that sex education in the U.S. comes from everywhere but the classroom. At first mine consisted only of tampons dipped in red Kool-Aid, a vague, animated video, and an “STI prevention” PowerPoint presentation which encouraged abstinence and offered graphic images of disfigured genitalia. I wouldn’t learn until years later that period blood isn’t always bright red, that real boobs look nothing like cartoon boobs, and that many STIs have no signs or symptoms.

Thank god my mom quietly slipped me a copy of American Girl’s The Care and Keeping of You one Christmas—otherwise, I never would’ve gotten through puberty. Even so, those adorable illustrations depicting how breasts develop could only help so much. Everything I learned about sex and sexual wellness after closing that paperback, I learned on my own. I didn’t feel comfortable talking to my very creepy, very male pediatrician about it and I didn’t have a wiser, older sister to ask for advice. All I had, really, was the internet.

YouTube creator Hannah Witton became my go-to gal for everything sex and relationships. Hannah drew me in to what felt like honest, intimate conversations with an older sister about everything from sex toys and birth control to monogamy and feminism. After discovering her channel around the age of 16, I finally felt like I was learning something worthwhile about sex. 

Now, online sex education has found a new platform: TikTok. Doctors are getting creative with how they disseminate information about sexual and reproductive health by using the viral app to create short, educational videos. The idea is to make this information more accessible by combining expert knowledge of sex with the casual culture of social media.

Take Dr. Jennifer Lincoln (@drjenniferlincoln), an OB/GYN with 791K followers and 11M likes on TikTok. Just as her bio promises, her profile is definitely “the health class you wish you had in HS.”  Her videos cover everything you never learned about in school, from skipping your period on birth control to removing your pubic hair to treating yeast infections, and usually include popular songs, sounds, stickers, and filters.

Dr. Lincoln also specializes in myth-busting. She’ll often post duets with other TikTokers who are unknowingly spreading misinformation about sexual health. She dueted one TikTok that suggested antibiotics and melatonin can “cancel out” birth control, reacting to the video with head-shaking and finger-wagging while urging viewers to watch the rest of her videos for the real facts. With one 13-second TikTok, Dr. Lincoln shattered a misconception I’ve heard passed around for years.

Beyond the TikToks themselves, I’ve learned a lot from the comments sections, where users ask questions and actually get answers from reliable adult doctors. Considering how my teachers in high school ignored most of the sex-related questions we wrote anonymously on slips of paper and instead instructed us to read the human sexuality chapter of our textbook silently to ourselves, Dr. Lincoln’s TikTok really does feel like the health class I wish I had in high school. 

If you’re feeling skeptical about “TikDocs” lacking professionalism—can you really take a dancing, lip-syncing doctor seriously?—let me just say, I think that’s the whole point. When it comes to sex education, the awkward barrier that exists between adults and young people makes transparency and comfort pretty much impossible for both parties. By using TikTok as a platform for sex ed, doctors create a much more comfortable space for conversation, which is something I and most other teens never had. 

I grew up with the notion that sex is shameful. Then I got online and found sexual imagery around every corner—I was introduced to a world that’s ashamed of sex and yet totally obsessed with it. Understanding this confusing dichotomy becomes one of the main obstacles of young adulthood for those navigating love and sex who are unsure about what’s realistic and what’s sensationalized, what’s healthy and what’s abusive, what’s fact and what’s just plain fiction. I would’ve liked to have had access to Dr. Lincoln’s comment section from my bedroom when I came home from school on STI PowerPoint day, paralyzed by the fear that if I ever had sex, my vagina would either fall off or be plagued by warts or sores or bugs for the rest of my life. Seriously.

But even if TikDocs have serious potential to spread useful information about sexual health, we also have to ask whether TikTok users are actually finding this information easily enough. TikTok is infamous for its censorship issues. There have been many instances of sex-ed videos suddenly disappearing from the app because they don’t comply with the “community guidelines.”

How do we ensure that sex ed TikToks by reliable doctors don’t slip through the cracks? For starters, you can follow a couple to stay updated with their content. I’ll send you off with a list of a few TikTok docs who are doing an excellent job spreading informative, sex-positive content. Give them a follow if you want to learn a thing or two. 

8 TikTok Docs to Follow

  • @drjenniferlincoln
  • @dr.staci.t
  • @mamadoctorjones
  • @drlorashahine
  • @alirodmd
  • @nicolealiciamd
  • @drleslie

 

By Natalie Mechem

Graphic by Jennifer Adams for USC Annenberg

Related Topics
  • ATTENTION
  • health
  • Natalie Mechem
  • sex ed
  • social media
  • TikTok
Previous Article
  • Culture & Entertainment

Cracking the Enigma of Carrie’s Obsession with Mr. Big

  • August 6, 2020
  • Colette Bernheim
View Post
Next Article
  • Culture & Entertainment

Rewatching “How to Survive a Plague” in Quarantine

  • August 7, 2020
  • Isabelle Robinson
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Sex & Love

Sexual Empowerment or Reckless Endangerment?

  • March 2, 2021
  • Modesty Sanchez
View Post
  • Sex & Love

Our Lady of Autoeroticism: Catholicism, Capitalism, and Female Masturbation

  • February 16, 2021
  • Andrea Panaligan
View Post
  • Sex & Love

Craving a COVID Hoe Phase

  • January 28, 2021
  • Maya Page
View Post
  • Sex & Love

I’m (Not) Sorry for Ghosting You

  • January 14, 2021
  • Tamara Jones
View Post
  • Sex & Love

Writing Desire

  • December 15, 2020
  • Sofia Sears
View Post
  • Sex & Love

Fun Date Ideas for These Uncertain Times

  • December 11, 2020
  • MJ Brown
View Post
  • Sex & Love

Prude in the Sheets, Slut on the Screen

  • December 10, 2020
  • Andrea Panaligan
View Post
  • Sex & Love

In Conversation with Sex-Positive Icon Ruby Rare

  • December 4, 2020
  • Alice Garnett

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Featured Posts
  • 1
    Sexual Empowerment or Reckless Endangerment?
    • March 2, 2021
  • 2
    What’s the Point of “Fake Accounts”?
    • March 1, 2021
  • 3
    Oops!… We Did It Again: Why We Get Off on Women’s Pain
    • February 28, 2021
  • 4
    “Whole Lotta Red”: A Feverish and Avant-Garde End to 2020
    • February 28, 2021
  • 5
    Blind Worship and the Films of Quentin Tarantino
    • February 27, 2021
Recent Posts
  • Why You Should Reject Music Elitism
    • February 26, 2021
  • Middle School Ends, But “Pen15” Is Forever 
    • February 26, 2021
  • How TV About Getting Lost Taught Me About Survival
    • February 25, 2021
Categories
  • Activism, News, & Politics (69)
  • Culture & Entertainment (141)
  • Fashion & Beauty (31)
  • Life (133)
  • Photography (63)
  • Sex & Love (68)
Search
Instagram
OnlyFans, selling worn underwear, sex work—are these acts of sexual empowerment or reckless endangerment? As Modesty Sanchez writes, “Because OnlyFans creators are portrayed as entrepreneurs taking control of their image and brand, the role that the platform itself plays is often obscured and dismissed, especially since the company prefers to hide behind the feminist, sex-positive glow emanating from the sex workers that have flocked to the site.” Often, the dangers of online and IRL sex work are simply swept to the side while corporate exploitation is covered up by a girl boss narrative. Read the latest on Lithium now ⚡️
What’s the point of “Fake Accounts”? Written by Lauren Oyler, Fake Accounts is a perfect addition to the list of much-overhyped millennial reading: Normal People, Bad Feminist, How to Do Nothing, etc. And if Oyler wasn’t such a harsh critic of that specific literary circle, this novel would just be another pretty well-written, unmoving book. But Oyler has gone after too many media darlings like Sally Rooney, Jia Tolentino and Roxane Gay in open takedowns that center on her distaste for moralizing, self-absorbed, digital-first writing. Read Lithium writer @katwilliiams take on this book, live on the site now 📚
Britney Spears, Tessica Brown “Gorilla Glue Girl,” and trauma porn all have something in common—they are representations of our fascination with women’s pain. In @tamaravjones’s latest piece for Lithium, she points out that “It’s up to readers to support better journalism and think about the consequences before sharing their unfiltered hot takes on social media. Britney Spears’ legal battle will continue and inevitably, someone else will take Tessica Brown’s spot as the internet’s main character, and I can only hope that we manage to break this cycle before someone else gets hurt.” Live on Lithium now 💫
Playboi Carti’s newest album Whole Lotta Red is the rapper’s ARTPOP. While it’s different from a lot of the rap dominating the Billboard 100, Carti does something a lot of mainstream acts are afraid to do: experiment. Lithium writer @kaiya.shunyata dives deep into Whole Lotta Red and discusses how the album, like Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP, is a fantastic work of exploration and departure from the rap that mostly dominated 2020. Read about it now 🎧
When you’re first getting into film, you tend to hear the same names repeated over and over again: Fincher, Scorsese, and, most of all, Tarantino. But when @kaiya.shunyata rewatched his directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, she couldn’t help but think of his mistreatment of actresses (notably, Uma Thurman), his use of the N-word in films, sprinkled in like a garnish he and his fans can’t live without, and decades of controversies. She writes, “It’s become impossible to ignore the way Tarantino has been worshipped, while simultaneously not changing the things for which he’s been criticized.” Read about it on Lithium now 🎬
Middle school sux. Hulu’s Pen15 follows thirteen-year-old best friends Maya and Anna as they tackle an endless seventh-grade year. From day one, they face humiliations that only strike when you are thirteen, like bad haircuts and periods. But Pen15 sets itself apart from all the other middle school dramas by not only having good stories and actors, but drawing attention to the fact that even performing thirteen is a complex thing. Read about it now on Lithium, written by Jade Stillwell 📚
We’re all culprits in contributing to the shame and embarrassment that have become synonymous with listening to specific artists. Rex Orange County has become the unofficial pinnacle of a wannabe-indie girl who’s a regular Urban Outfitters patron. A Smiths fan is egotistical and decidedly unable to get laid. Bon Iver attracts the coffee shop connoisseur with a God complex. @elliergreenberg’s latest is all about why you should reject music elitism— this one is a must-read. Live on Lithium now 🎵
@holt.sheena’s latest piece is an ode to garage bands and punk shows past. She writes, “I loved every part of it—the moshing (which I observed, perplexed, from the sidelines), the music, the sense of belonging.” Read her latest piece on Lithium now 🎸
Shows about getting lost are meaningful in a lot of different ways, especially during the pandemic. Watching shows like Lost and Survivor make us wonder, “how do people skip their skincare routine for more than a week?” to deeper examinations of trust and acts of selflessness when storylines like allies and sacrifice come into play. Alex Eich writes, “These are both stories about our magnificent, if inconvenient, need for other people. And they taught me to find beauty in a shared will to survive.” Read about it now on Lithium 🏝

Input your search keywords and press Enter.