'PORN can be GOOD if sex ed is good': Former sex ed teacher defends 'porn literacy' for kids

On "The News and Why it Matters," BlazeTV hosts Sara Gonzales, Stu Burguiere, and Alex Stein reacted to a video circulating on Twitter that shows former private-school sex educator Justine Ang Fonte discussing the many virtues of "porn literacy."

Fonte, who resigned from the elite Dalton Prep School in Manhattan in 2021 after outraged parents complained about the educator's alleged "porn literacy workshop" for first-graders, argued in the video that "porn can be good if sex ed is good."

Fonte asserted that there are "artistic liberties that we want people in the creative world and, specifically, in the entertainment industry that is pornography to have the ability to exercise. But it's on us to create commentary and discourse around it, and if we're in a sex-negative world, yeah, porn's gonna be bad because kids are defaulting to that to learn about their bodies ... but that doesn't mean it's the porn industry's fault."

"When, you know, people are just saying, 'We need to just ban porn, and it's always bad, and it leads to addiction,' these are very big, generalized statements that people are making. It's about managing. It's about understanding and being literate. It's about being more aware of the beautiful ways that porn was invented to be this fantastical, wildly unrealistic tool we can use to explore our emotions and our bodies," Fonte went on to say.

"But just like any other film that we're looking at, there are many genres. There are some really good movies out there, and we know there are some really bad movies out there. It's just that the really bad movies are having a higher platform because of access, and so our young people are watching the really bad movies and nobody's telling them why it's bad and how there are ways to understand your body in a lot more holistic, comprehensive, intersectional, safe ways," she continued. "So I don't want this to be a discussion on anti-porn because frankly, that's not my stance. And I know that's a hot take for some people who may be expecting to learn how do we tell kids to stop watching porn."

While Fonte's co-panelists nodded enthusiastically, seeming to agree with her take on "the beautiful ways" of porn, the good people of Twitter had questions:

Watch the video clip below to hear Sara, Stu, and Alex react, or find full episodes of "The News & Why It Matters" here. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.

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