--- title: Women and Sex: Let's End The Stigma description: The founder of the Beautiful Project writes about why it's important to celebrate, not objectify sexuality. canonical: https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/ author: Naomi Katz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-10T14:00:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:01:59.532Z og:title: 'It's 2016—Why Is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex?' og:description: It's about celebrating, not objectifying ourselves og:url: https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c805a66baefefb9/69888a66524fc074c3df71ea/we-are-sexual-beings-2.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: we-are-sexual-beings-2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'It's 2016—Why Is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex?' twitter:description: It's about celebrating, not objectifying ourselves twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c805a66baefefb9/69888a66524fc074c3df71ea/we-are-sexual-beings-2.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's 2016—Why Is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex? > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Naomi Katz](https://time.com/author/naomi-katz/) ## Naomi Katz Mar 10, 2016 2:00 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Naomi Katz](https://time.com/author/naomi-katz/) ## Naomi Katz Mar 10, 2016 2:00 PM UTC The stigma surrounding female sexuality is pervasive and affects girls and women of all ages. We are sexual beings, yet even in our most intimate relationships, we often don’t know how to express ourselves. The examples we see around us teach us to objectify ourselves, rather than celebrate our sexuality. We often find ourselves reacting to being sexualized, rather than expressing our own desires. That’s why, for the past 15 years, I’ve been working with young women in the [Beautiful Project.](http://www.beautifulproject.net/) In our work to cultivate confidence, we aspire to inspire a real expression of sexuality that is empowering, not demeaning—despite the many influences that teach us otherwise. It all started when I was 23\. At the time, I was living in New York City, working as a high school teacher and getting catcalled on the street on a daily basis. It was nauseating, but it was far worse for my students, adolescent girls who had to deal with the same indignities. They admitted that there was a part of them that liked the attention, even though it was coming from men who were seemingly drunk on objectification. Since I ran a girls’ group at my school (established at the request of my students), it was relatively easy for me to facilitate discussions about body image and competition. But when the conversation turned to sexuality, I was unsure of myself. Though I was clearly in a different stage of life than my students, I heard my own insecurities reflected in their voices. As I listened to my girls share their fears and voice their curiosities, we shed light on a taboo subject, allowing each girl to explore the idea of sexual expression. By speaking honestly, we create a culture that embraces female sexuality without demeaning it, a culture that honors the most basic human desires and the beauty of women’s bodies. Our girls deserve nothing less. _Naomi Katz_ _is the author of_ [Beautiful: Being an Empowered Young Woman](http://www.beautifulproject.net/#!book/c1jiu) _and the founder of_ [_Beautiful Project_](http://www.beautifulproject.net/)_, a movement dedicated to building self-confidence among adolescent girls and young women._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/"},"headline":"It's 2016—Why Is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex?","datePublished":"2016-03-10T14:00:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:01:59.532Z","description":"‘By speaking honestly, we create a culture that embraces female sexuality without demeaning it’","url":"https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/","keywords":["motto","Relationship","sexuality"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c805a66baefefb9/69888a66524fc074c3df71ea/we-are-sexual-beings-2.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Naomi Katz","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/naomi-katz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c805a66baefefb9/69888a66524fc074c3df71ea/we-are-sexual-beings-2.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"we-are-sexual-beings-2","caption":"‘It’s 2016—Why Is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex?’","creditText":"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/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/","name":"It's 2016—Why Is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex?"}}]}] ```