Must-See Video: “I Have Sex”

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Not to blow your minds or anything, but young people have sex. And quite a few of them are pissed about the proposed budget cuts to Planned Parenthood, which has been basically deemed a giant abortion factory instead of a comprehensive sex education advocate and family planning provider. In reality, Planned Parenthood offers many health and gynecological services, STD and STI screenings, cancer screenings, birth control, and counseling, and students don’t want those services taken away.

I Have Sex,” is a video produced by students at Wesleyan University. Posted last week, it has rapidly garnered more than 238,000 views on YouTube. The idea has spread to other schools, including Bard College; Oberlin College; Elmira College in Trumansburg, New York; and also to Americans studying abroad in Equador and France. Sex isn’t the only thing young people have, of course. They also have mad social-media skills, which is partly why the videos have gone viral. The Wesleyan organizers attracted more than 30,000 people to their “event” on Facebook, and have launched a proper fan page that’s gaining followers as well.

Perhaps the video’s most telling tidbit is its camparison between what the government spends on tax breaks for oil companies ($2.5 billion) versus how much it pays to keep Planned Parenthood afloat ($75 million).

You can read more about the student-led Planned Parenthood campaign here, but first check out the video below. Get inspired, get informed, and realize that young people getting laid isn’t cause for some great moral panic. Axing sex education and reproductive services, on the other hand, is.

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate