--- title: #Popsexed: What We Learn About Sex From Pop Culture description: When TV, movies and book are our sex ed canonical: https://time.com/2895894/popsexed-what-we-learn-about-sex-from-pop-culture/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-18T20:56:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:30.382Z og:title: #Popsexed: What We Learn About Sex From Pop Culture og:description: When TV, movies and book are our sex ed og:url: https://time.com/2895894/popsexed-what-we-learn-about-sex-from-pop-culture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893fd27025895308/6986982ee53aba42c74d33ab/72305824.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2035 og:image:height: 1145 og:image:alt: Sex and the City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: #Popsexed: What We Learn About Sex From Pop Culture twitter:description: When TV, movies and book are our sex ed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893fd27025895308/6986982ee53aba42c74d33ab/72305824.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # #Popsexed: What We Learn About Sex From Pop Culture > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 18, 2014 8:56 PM UTC  Actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth on the set of "Sex and the City" Actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth on the set of "Sex and the City"HBO/Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 18, 2014 8:56 PM UTC Not every school has sex education, and many parents feel uncomfortable talking with their children about the birds and the bees. For girls, who mature earlier than boys, the lack of information can be especially confusing. So many kids seek out information from other sources, namely popular culture. To find out what they’re learning, Bitch Media [started a conversation](http://branch.com/b/sex-education-and-pop-culture) via the hashtag #popsexed about what women found out about sex from pop culture. The response they got suggests that girls discover the facts of life from movies, TV shows and books ranging from _Sex and the City_ to _Dirty Dancing_ to author Judy Blume. The other thing the submissions reveal is that pop culture isn’t always the best sex ed source. Women shared their experiences on Twitter about how what they saw in entertainment and other media made them feel ashamed of their bodies or confused about how to engage sexually with a boy. Here are the best #popsexed responses: > [](https://twitter.com/BitchMedia/status/479331196791312384) > [](https://twitter.com/rhapsody%5Finred/status/479339456080527360) > [](https://twitter.com/lerumelt/status/479325373667479552) > [](https://twitter.com/MadelineAshby/status/479336651110768640) > [](https://twitter.com/dumbsainted/status/479326010026905601) > [](https://twitter.com/emilyloringg/status/479328156722003968) > [](https://twitter.com/AllisonQuantz/status/479332083509514241) > [](https://twitter.com/jurZeegurrrl/status/479343956405149696) > [](https://twitter.com/activethinkerr/status/479336662502080512) **READ MORE:** [What’s Desperately Needed In Sex Ed Now](//time.com/119167/uc-santa-barbara-massacre-virgin-killer-sex-ed/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2895894/popsexed-what-we-learn-about-sex-from-pop-culture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2895894/popsexed-what-we-learn-about-sex-from-pop-culture/"},"headline":"#Popsexed: What We Learn About Sex From Pop Culture","datePublished":"2014-06-18T20:56:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:30.382Z","description":"When TV, movies and book are our sex ed","url":"https://time.com/2895894/popsexed-what-we-learn-about-sex-from-pop-culture/","keywords":["Living","movies","Sex","TV","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893fd27025895308/6986982ee53aba42c74d33ab/72305824.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893fd27025895308/6986982ee53aba42c74d33ab/72305824.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sex and the City","caption":"Sex and the City","creditText":"HBO/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2895894/popsexed-what-we-learn-about-sex-from-pop-culture/","name":"#Popsexed: What We Learn About Sex From Pop Culture"}}]}] ```