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Erica Smith, Sexuality Education and Consulting

Body Awareness made easier, and a note about purity culture and Epstein

Published about 1 month ago • 2 min read

Hello everyone!

In the Purity Culture Dropout™ Private Community, our monthly theme is Coming Home to Our Bodies. I chose this theme because I know that part of growing up in purity culture means intentionally disconnected yourself from your bodily awareness.

The cool thing is that learning to listen to your body is a skill that you can develop. If you've gotten good at ignoring what your body is telling you, your brain "turns down the volume" on the messages, and you have to do some work to get that signal turned back up again.

Here's a little body awareness exercise you can do right now:

Noticing Neutral Sensations​
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By focusing on neutral sensations, you develop the ability to observe experiences that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant. They just are!
Start with body signals that aren’t emotionally charged, and just merely observe.

Examples:

  • How warm or cool you feel
  • The weight of your body in the chair
  • The texture of your clothing on skin
  • The rhythm of your breath

Name one neutral sensation you notice right now. Hell yeah!

Now try this for just a few seconds a day, and it will help you turn up that volume again.

Real quick I want to talk about a current event

It has been a deeply deeply unsettling revelation that so many powerful men (and women) are likely implicated in the sex trafficking of children with very little consequences. I'm mentioning this because unfortunately some defenders of this presidency including prominent American "Christians" have been trying to make it sound "not so bad" or "not actually pedophilia" if the victims were teenagers. So I want to say, on the record, for everyone, that downplaying the sexual trauma of teenage girls while excusing men's desire for them IS PURITY CULTURE BULLSHIT.

It enrages me so deeply, and I'm so sorry that any of you who grew up with these ideas have to witness this kind of messaging on such a large stage.

I'm gonna leave you with a post from one of my favorite accounts who talks about feminism, beauty culture, and aging:

One final thing- this Thursday, November 20, is Trans Day of Remembrance. The Trans Remembrance Project put together a really important and comprehensive report for 2025 and they remind us that we are in an extraordinary moment in the fight for trans lives and greater gender freedom for all.

Thanks everyone, and I hope we all have a quiet news week.

xo

Erica

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600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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Erica Smith, Sexuality Education and Consulting

The Purity Culture Dropout™ Program

I developed the Purity Culture Dropout™️ Program to help people learn all of the sex education that they missed growing up in purity culture- sex ed that is accurate, queer inclusive, trauma informed, compassionate, and comprehensive. I have worked with hundreds of people to help them learn about healthy sexuality after high control religion. Subscribe if you're curious about / invested in shame free sexuality education that's specifically tailored to the needs of people coming out of high control religions and purity culture. Expect information not just about healthy sexuality and upcoming programming, but also cultural commentary on sexual politics in the US. I'm a sex educator with 25 years of experience and I'm excited to share that with you.

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