There are certain segments of the sex positive movement and its sister movements (feminists, gay rights activists, trans rights activists, etc…) that hate Dan Savage. Savage has been giving sex advice for decades now, and because of his quick mouth, acerbic wit, and admittedly stinging sense of humor, it’s easy to go back twenty years, ten years… last week, to find him saying something offensive about someone.
Out of context, it’s easy to paint Savage as Enemy Number One using his own words against him, but it’s hard to miss that few have done as much to progress the discussion about sex education and diversity acceptance as Savage. For one, I wouldn’t be doing this without Dan Savage. I’ve been reading his column for over fifteen years, and each week I listen to his podcast, and I own all of his books, even that Savage Love comic book that you didn’t know existed.
A few weeks at (when I started writing this blog post but somehow never fucking finished it), Savage’s television show, Savage U debuted on MTV. I’m not going to lie: the show is couched in an MTV style that drives me nuts sometimes, but I don’t think it overpowers the fact that MTV is now airing a progressive sex education show, something they’ve needed since they took a nose dive sometime in the ’90s. (Check out one of my earliest posts for SEX+STL about how awesome MTV was in the ’90s.)
Thanks to the magic of embedding, I can share the complete first episode of Savage U with you right now: