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by Carmen Rios

It is not new knowledge to women in the United States that the education systems most schools have in place don’t leave enough room for female pleasure – or much of anything related to female sexuality. But the biggest news may be how it affects not only what’s under our skorts, but also what’s inside our wallets. Orgasm Inc., a new documentary, has revealed that women might actually be suffering from this divide in an unexplored way – by buying into myths about their own bodies.

A lack of information on sexual pleasure, according to Orgasm Inc., has made women more culpable to the pharmaceutical companies selling them drugs to fix problems like “female sexual dysfunction,” and more. It’s certainly an easy mess to make sense of: women and girls are denied knowledge, and discussion, that centers on their sexuality. This certainly could lead to something like, oh I don’t know… being duped into buying a machine called “The Orgasmatron”—a device inserted into the body with a wire running along the spinal cord– or buying pills for a disease that for-profit companies invented.

Remember: a lot of women in this world don’t even understand their own anatomy. So how can they know what turns them off, what gets them off, and what’s “normal” and “healthy” for women sexually?

Feministing recently posted a story that includes horrifying scenes from the film, and excerpts of what they learned while filming. They also include a comprehensive list of how this injustice could be fixed in the future:

• Comprehensive sex education that teaches us about safety AND pleasure
• Feminist sex shops where people can learn about the tools out there (no prescription required) to help us achieve sexual pleasure
• The need to debunk all the heteronormative myths about what “normal” sexual functioning and desire look-like

Ending the sexualization of young women in the media involves educating women about their sexual rights and their sexual health. This is important – and so is this film. For more information and showings, check out www.Orgasminc.org.