Bristol Palin makes 6 figures preaching abstinence while real sexuality educators are paid shit
Bristol Palin is pregnant again. Blah blah blah, who cares? Not my business what she does with her body. When I read the article, what I did care about was the part that said, oh btw, she was paid $262,500 in one year to be a spokesperson for an abstinence-only “sex education” campaign. And on top of that, she was paid upwards of $30,000 per speech she gave advancing abstinence only messages. She became a millionaire, or nearly a millionaire, on the backs of youth who she fed lies and fears to via a campaign that has been proven ineffective time and time again by actual sexuality educators and researchers.
Hypocrisy issues aside, this is rage inducing.
While Palin rakes it in on the heteronormative, sexist, sex-phobic, and did I mention INEFFECTIVE “don’t have sex until you’re married” train, real sexuality scholars and educators, doing real work building a sexually literate and compassionate society, are forced to accept shit wages.
Observe:
This job listing for a Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Educator in Massachusetts pays $27,300 per year. The position requires a candidate who can “utilize public health and community organizing
models to develop effective strategies for eliminating domestic and
sexual violence in the community at large". You’d think someone trained and skilled at PREVENTING DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE would be worth more than $27,300.
Society: What are your skills?
Person A: I can prevent people from being raped.
Society: Here’s $27,300
Society: What are your skills?
Person B: I can tell a corporation when they should buy and sell loans so they maximize their interest margins.
Society: Here’s $90,000, plus bonuses
Fuck society. Seriously. This is unacceptable.
This job listing is for a Youth Health Educator in Washington DC. The successful candidate must have a 4 year degree in psychology, social work, or public health, a certification in HIV testing, at least one year experience working with people living with HIV, and oral and written fluency in both English and Spanish. The pay (in Washington DC mind you, where the cost of living is even higher than it is in NYC) is $32,500.
These are non-profits, but the private sector isn’t any better.
This job listing for a Sex Educator at a private for-profit sex-positive sex toy store and education center pays $11.50 an hour, part time. This job listing, at a different education focused, mission driven sexuality store pays $19,110 per year, full time, and this is in SAN FRANSISCO, where the average apartment costs $41,496 per year to rent. How is this feasible? Although this position is more for a sales associate/sex product educator than more formal educator, but still, how is this feasible?
Academia doesn’t pay sexuality educator very well either.
Consider this job listing at a university for a professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies department. The candidate must have a “minimum of a Master’s Degree in Humanities, Social Sciences or Gender and Women’s Studies with a background in LGBTQ sexuality studies required. PhD preferred.” Salary: $34,202. I’m going to say it again, because it bears repeating: PH.D PREFERRED, $34,202.
My goal is not to throw any of these businesses and agencies under the bus. I believe they all pay their sexuality educators the best they can with their budgets. I think the issue goes above them, to the level that they are not bringing in the kind of money, either via donations, grants, or sales they need to pay their sexuality educators more. And they can’t do that because people and governments don’t donate/grant/spend like they would if they *valued* sexuality education and the experts that do that work.
That’s it, point blank. You don’t value it. The money is clearly there. The agency that paid Bristol Palin $262,500 is a non-profit. Those agencies that paid her $30,000 for a speech were able to drum up that money from somewhere. There is no shortage of money for sex ed; there is a shortage of value for comprehensive, social-justice focused, HONEST sex ed.
