Stories From the Playground

An Introduction to the Sexual Autobiography

When I was 19 I took a Human Sexuality class that changed my life forever. We were given an assignment to write a sexual autobiography, to look at our lives from birth until present and untangle all the stories along the way that have contributed to the particular expression of sexuality that we are right now. We were asked to look back at the art we grew up with, magazines, shows, music, technology. To remember what our parents, caretakers, and teachers had told us (or not told us), and what we learned from other children. We were asked to explore our first encounters with menstruation, ejaculation, kissing, masturbation, growing body hair, puberty, boobs, balls dropping, first touch, dreams, fantasies... All of it!

We were also told that if we had a particular trauma that we could avoid stories altogether and might seek support. For those of us averse to writing, we were encouraged to draw, sing, dance or create a movie about our sexuality.

At the time I was a procrastinator,…