Liz Goldwyn is the granddaughter of legendary Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn, one of the men who built the Hollywood studio system. But the 41-year-old has become a respected writer and filmmaker in her own right, and as she discussed in an interview with Vogue magazine this week, she is now pursuing a longtime ambition: bringing sex education into the digital age.
In fact, she says, she was pushed to achieve that goal somewhat earlier in her life than she had planned by the threat posed to women’s health and sexual health in general by the Donald Trump adminisitration.
“I knew at an early age I’d eventually want to leave behind some sort of comprehensive sex education database,” Goldwyn told the fashion magazine. “I thought it would be later in my life, perhaps in my 60s or once I officially got a PhD. But the past couple of years, and the current administration, pushed me to look at my life and decide if I’m really living my truth and fulfilling what my mission is. What is success to me? When I answered that question it was having an impact on furthering the discussion around sex and sexuality.”
More specifically, her answer consists of her recently launched website TheSexEd.com, as well as an accompanying podcast, also titled The Sex Ed. She has now produced and hosted three episodes, which will soon be available for download via iTunes.
Goldwyn is perhaps best-known for her 2006 book Pretty Things: the Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens and an accompanying HBO documentary film, also titled Pretty Things.
She told Vogue that she had the idea for her site around the same time as she was exploring the burlesque scene.
“I bought the domain name for the site in 2008, but it’s been an uphill battle my entire career, with people saying, ‘Why do you care?’ Women have been sidelined throughout history,” she said. “Whenever sex is added to the mix, people become even more culturally uncomfortable with it.”
She describes the site in her online biography as “dedicated to sex, health, and consciousness in the digital age. The Sex Ed is here to educate, inform and inspire new discussions around sexual wellness.”
As might be expected, porn plays a significant role in Goldwyn’s vision of sex education for the digital age. Her site features a video “sex positive” discussion with industry legend Nina Hartley, and on November 8, according to the site, Goldwyn will host a public forum on “Pleasure, Power and Porn” with feminist porn director Erika Lust.
“As digital platforms have made the nature of sex more transactional, it hasn’t done anything to foster intimacy and communication between partners,” Goldwyn told Vogue. “To have really great sexual experiences, you have to feel liberated. The more you discuss these things, the freer you can be in the moment.”
Photo by GoldwynFilms / Wikimedia Commons
