Social media is a well-established communication method, but little academic literature explores the psychological and social benefits for sexuality education. Particularly for queer, trans, and racialized communities – who have been historically maligned by state-based sex education – social media has become a tool to build internal capacity and psychological well-being as well as democratize, amplify, and share experiences around sexuality. Informed by intersectionality and health literacy frameworks, this commentary provides concrete examples of how and why these communities are taking advantage of social media as a means of liberation and form of sexuality education in and of itself. We also provide practical strategies for researchers, educators, and organizations seeking to utilize the power of social media.
About: How it all Began (2016). Women of color sexual health network. Retrieved from http://www.wocshn.org/about/.
2.
AdamsM. L. (1994) Sex at the board or keeping children from sexual knowledge. In: PrenticeS. (ed.) Sex in schools: Canadian education & sexual regulation, Ottawa, ON: Our Schools/Ourselves, pp. 60–81.
3.
BarakA.Boniel-NissimM.SulerJ. (2008) Fostering empowerment in online support groups. Computers in Human Behavior24(5): 1867–1883.
4.
BergoldJ.ThomasS. (2012) Participatory research methods: A methodological approach in motion. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung37(4): 191–222.
5.
BowlegL. (2008) When black+ lesbian+ woman≠ black lesbian woman: The methodological challenges of qualitative and quantitative intersectionality research. Sex Roles59(5–6): 312–325.
6.
BowlegL. (2012) The problem with the phrase women and minorities: Intersectionality – An important theoretical framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health102(7): 1267–1273.
7.
CarterJ. B. (2001) Birds, bees, and venereal disease: Toward an intellectual history of sex education. Journal of the History of Sexuality10(2): 213–249. doi: 10.1353/sex.2001.0022.
ChristensenH. S. (2011) Political activities on the internet: Slackivism or political participation by other means?First Monday16(2): 9. doi: 10.5210/fm.v16i2.3336.
10.
ComacchioC. (2006) The dominion of youth: Adolescence and the making of modern Canada, 1920 to 1950Vol. 8, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
CraigS. L.McInroyL. B.McCreadyL. T.Di CesareD. M.PettawayL. D. (2015) Connecting without fear: Clinical implications of the consumption of information and communication technologies by sexual minority youth and young adults. Clinical Social Work Journal43(2): 159–168. doi: 10.1007/s10615-014-0505-2.
CrenshawK. W. (1991) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review43(6): 1241–1299.
16.
DeauxK. (1993) Reconstructing social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin19: 4–12.
17.
DeHaanS.KuperL. E.MageeJ. C.BigelowL.MustanskiB. S. (2013) The interplay between online and offline explorations of identity, relationships, and sex: A mixed-methods study with LGBT youth. Journal of Sex Research50(5): 421–434.
18.
DuguayS. (2016) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer visibility through selfies: Comparing platform mediators across Ruby Rose’s Instagram and Vine presence. Social Media+ Society2(2): 891–907.
19.
FineM. (1992) Disruptive voices: The possibilities of feminist research, Ann-Arbor Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
20.
FineM. (2016) Just methods in revolting times. Qualitative Research in Psychology13(4): 347–365.
21.
FreireP. (2000) Pedagogy of the oppressed, London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing Group.
GreeneB. (1995) Lesbian women of color: Triple jeopardy. In: Comas-DiazL.GreeneB. (eds) Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy, New York, NY: Guilford, pp. 389–427.
24.
GutiérrezR. A. (2011) Afterword: Virtual sex ed. Sexuality Research and Social Policy8(1): 73–76. doi: 10.1007/s13178-011-0044-3.
Laureano, B. (2015, October). The LatiNegrx Sex Survey. In Proceedings from the Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians (ABSC) Conference, Philadelphia, PA, pp. 2–5.
LimM. S.VellaA.Sacks-DavisR.HellardM. E. (2014) Young people’s comfort receiving sexual health information via social media and other sources. International journal of STD & AIDS25(4): 1003–1008. doi: 10.1177/0956462414527264.
33.
MacKinnon, K (SSHRC-CRSH). (2016, April 4). Kinnon MacKinnon: Reflections of female-to-male gender identity (video file). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdWF7iEbswQ.
34.
ManduleyA (2013, May 10) Minority matters: A conversation with Bianca Laureano. #24Mag5: 30–34.
McKayA.BarrettM. (1999) Pre-service sexual health education training of elementary, secondary, and physical health education teachers in Canadian faculties of education. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality8(2): 91.
MitchellK. J.YbarraM. L.KorchmarosJ. D.KosciwJ. G. (2014) Accessing sexual health information online: Use, motivations and consequences for youth with different sexual orientations. Health Education Research29(1): 147–157.
PhillipsK. P.MartinezA. (2010) Sexual and reproductive health education: Contrasting teachers’, health partners’ and former students’ perspectives. Canadian Journal of Public Health101(5): 374–379.
43.
PillowW. S. (2003) Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education16(2): 175–196.
ScheimA. I.JacksonR.JamesL.DoplerT. S.PyneJ.BauerG. R. (2013) Barriers to well-being for Aboriginal gender-diverse people: Results from the Trans PULSE Project in Ontario, Canada. Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care6(4): 108–120. doi: 10.1108/EIHSC-08-2013-0010.
51.
ShawL. H.GantL. M. (2002) In defense of the internet: The relationship between Internet communication and depression, loneliness, self-esteem, and perceived social support. CyberPsychology and Behavior5(2): 157–171.
52.
SmithL. T. (1999) Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples, London, UK: Zed Books.
53.
StrykerS. (2008) Transgender history, Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.
TanJ. Y.XuL. J.LopezF. Y.JiaJ. L.PhoM. T.KimK. E.ChinM. H. (2016) Shared decision making among clinicians and Asian American and Pacific Islander sexual and gender minorities: An intersectional approach to address a critical care gap. LGBT Health3(5): 327–334.
56.
Taylor, C. G., & Peter, T. (2011). Every class in every school: Final report on the first national climate survey on homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia in Canadian schools [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://egale.ca/every-class/.
Tufekci, Z [TED]. (2015, February 2). Zeynep Tufekci: How the internet has made social change easy to organize, hard to win [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo2Ai7ESNL8.
60.
VeenstraG.PattersonA. C. (2016) South Asian-white health inequalities in Canada: Intersections with gender and immigrant status. Ethnicity and Health21(6): 639–648.
61.
Von WagnerC.SteptoeA.WolfM. S.WardleJ. (2009) Health literacy and health actions: A review and a framework from health psychology. Health Education and Behavior36(5): 860–877.
62.
WardJ. V.TaylorJ. M. (1992) Sexuality education for immigrant and minority students: Developing a culturally appropriate curriculum. In: SearsJ. T. (ed.) Sexuality and the curriculum: The politics and practices of sexuality education, New York, NY: Teachers College Press, pp. 183–202.
