LOS ANGELES—Indie documentarian Ani Easton Baker premiered her movie Who’s Your Teacher? last week on YouTube, in partnership with movie and internet star Anna Akana. The documentary explores the shortcomings and failings of sexual education in American public school systems through the lens of a variety of adult performers, including Lotus Lain and Nina Hartley.
Baker came to the project with over a decade of experience as an educator. Her goal with the movie was to address a myriad of flaws in the sex education curriculum in American public schools at every level of development and establish coursework at each grade level that explores the nuances of human interaction, including but not limited to sexuality and anatomy.
“I read an article by adult film star NIkita Bellucci about all the messages she receives from undereducated young people about their bodies and sexuality because they’re not being taught,” noted Baker. “I thought, well isn’t that just a perfect encapsulation of the issue? I think it would be great if comprehensive sexual education was as readily available as sexual entertainment.”
The initial scenes of the movie feature Baker reviewing photocopied questions from actual fifth grade students about the mechanics and nuance of sex, ranging from humorous to disconcerting. She explains, “I would like to envision a world in the future where there is a mandatory class at every grade level that just teaches people how to be people, and I don’t think we should call it Sex Ed.”
Baker goes on to interview adult performers about their experiences having fans who ask them earnest questions about sex, sexuality and intimacy that they never learned in the sexual education offerings in school.
In the movie, Baker interviews adult performer Ela Darling, who explores the double standard of expectation to which adult entertainment is held. “Porn is fantasy for adults. We don’t look at any other form of fantasy media ... to teach us life skills," Darling says. "We don’t ask The Fast and the Furious to teach us driver’s ed. We don’t place those demands on any other form of media, but somehow with porn, we expect it to be instructional.”
Perhaps the most succinct summary of the movie and of Baker’s overall concern with the current state of public sex education came from a discussion with AVN Hall of Fame performer and educator Nina Hartley, who said, “The most detrimental thing about continuing on the path now in regards to sex education is that it’s not working. It is not reducing violence, it is not reducing unintended pregnancy, it is not reducing STIs, it is not reducing trauma, it is not reducing ignorance, it’s not reducing isolation, it’s not reducing alienation, it’s not reducing self-loathing.”
Who’s Your Teacher? is available to watch for free on YouTube. For more information about the movie, visit whosyourteacherproject.com.
