Sex Matters® in Media
While in graduate school I ran a small company called “As You Like It” that did in-home presentations of sexual toys (like Tupperware). It gave me great practice at public speaking about sex and allowed me to fund graduate school. I ran that company throughout grad school and for a few years after I graduated until my therapy practice was large enough to support me living in pricey San Francisco.
Those experiences were useful in another way. I’ve been a consultant to a large in-home sex toy presentation company for over ten years. Prior to the birth of my two children, I wrote a monthly column for their newsletter and spoke at their conventions with the goal of making sure they were basing their sales pitches on accurate sexual information and not hyperbole. Currently my work with them is more occasional because a married mom with two little children can only do so much.
I happened to be “mediagenic,” so through happenstance and a bit of good fortune, I did a lot radio and television appearances in San Francisco and New York. Those were the days of educational talk shows (just post-Phil Donohue but pre-Jerry Springer, et al) and it was a wonderful time. I got to offer sex education to folks that would never set foot in a therapy office. I’ve turned down invitations to do talk shows for the last eight years. That’s an entire essay in itself.
My media appearances led to the “San Francisco Examiner” (one of the two major daily newspapers at the time) offering me a weekly column in 1993. I wrote that “Sex Matters” column for seven years and it appeared across from the comics and above and to the left of Ann Landers. I could not have designed a better location! I service marked the name “Sex Matters” and have carried it with me ever since.
A health website (OnHealth) also thought up the name “Sex Matters” for their sexuality section as they were launching their site, but wisely decided to see if anyone “owned” it. Sure enough, they found me and realized that I was already doing what they wanted. That led to three years of writing columns and message boards for them before they merged with WebMD almost five years ago.
Related Links: Dr Ruth: Let's Talk Love & Sex, Dr Ruth Talks About Sex After 50
Those experiences were useful in another way. I’ve been a consultant to a large in-home sex toy presentation company for over ten years. Prior to the birth of my two children, I wrote a monthly column for their newsletter and spoke at their conventions with the goal of making sure they were basing their sales pitches on accurate sexual information and not hyperbole. Currently my work with them is more occasional because a married mom with two little children can only do so much.
I happened to be “mediagenic,” so through happenstance and a bit of good fortune, I did a lot radio and television appearances in San Francisco and New York. Those were the days of educational talk shows (just post-Phil Donohue but pre-Jerry Springer, et al) and it was a wonderful time. I got to offer sex education to folks that would never set foot in a therapy office. I’ve turned down invitations to do talk shows for the last eight years. That’s an entire essay in itself.
My media appearances led to the “San Francisco Examiner” (one of the two major daily newspapers at the time) offering me a weekly column in 1993. I wrote that “Sex Matters” column for seven years and it appeared across from the comics and above and to the left of Ann Landers. I could not have designed a better location! I service marked the name “Sex Matters” and have carried it with me ever since.
A health website (OnHealth) also thought up the name “Sex Matters” for their sexuality section as they were launching their site, but wisely decided to see if anyone “owned” it. Sure enough, they found me and realized that I was already doing what they wanted. That led to three years of writing columns and message boards for them before they merged with WebMD almost five years ago.
Related Links: Dr Ruth: Let's Talk Love & Sex, Dr Ruth Talks About Sex After 50
0 Comments:
Post a Comment