Yumi Stynes has opened up following the fallout over her sex education book for teens
Yumi Stynes says the furore over her book on sex for teenagers has left a mark, but she’s glad of some things
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Yumi Stymes has revealed the toll the furore over her book for teens on sexuality has caused, but she says there has been a surprise outcome.
Welcome to Sex: Your no-silly-questions guide to sexuality, pleasure and figuring it out, written by Stymes and Dr Melissa Kang, billed as a “frank, age-appropriate introductory guide to sex and sexuality for teens of all genders”, was released in May.
But a backlash following a campaign by some commentators earlier who branded the book “pornography” and called for it to be pulled from shelves over its ”graphic” content has taken a toll.
Big W removed it from its physical stores after staff faced verbal abuse. But it still remained available on Big W’s online site and sales have peaked.
“Look, a lot of people think that having a now best-selling book is vindication and victory and I’m really pleased that the net outcome of this controversy is that a lot more kids will be reading the book,” Ms Stymes told The Project on Friday.
“That makes me super happy.
“ As far as being the whipping person who has to cop abuse in order for this outcome to take place, I would really rather not … it’s been pretty rough.”
She said she supported Big W’s move to take the book of the shelves in its physical stores.
“No retail worker deserves to be in danger just for showing up and doing their minimum wage job to be honest,”
“If that’s what it took to keep retail workers safe then I supported it.”
The book sells for $16, and contains detailed explanations behind sexual activities including oral sex, fingering, anal sex, hand jobs, porn, sexuality and gender identity.
And after the controversy, it is selling well.
Ms Stymes said the book was factual and was meant to be used by parents as a way to communicate with their children when having the “chat” about sex.
“The whole thing about the chat is it’s not a chat, it’s an ongoing conversation,” she said.
“Nobody knows your kids better than you and your partner.”
She said the content in the book was factual and answers the questions teens were asking.
“It doesn’t matter the question, we will answer with scientific backing inside the book,” Ms Styme said.
“ You can be the filter for this information. You don’t have to give your children unbridled access to the book, you can be with them flicking through, choose the chapter you want to talk about.
“Kids love this information. If they’re not getting it from a book … they’ll go to the internet and that is infinite and incredibly unbridled and there’s a lot of terrible misinformation.”
Originally published as Yumi Stynes has opened up following the fallout over her sex education book for teens
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