As always, there is more information about this subject than we had the space and time to cram into one comic! Please do some further reading on your own at the following resources:
► Coronavirus (COVID-19) from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
► Sex and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) from NYC Health
► A Guide to Sex and Love in the Time of COVID-19 from Healthline
► Sex and Love in the Time of Coronavirus (Specifically their advice on “Sex With an Existing Partner You Don’t Live With“) from Verywell Health
► Coronavirus and sex: What you need to know from the BBC
We’ve also got a handful of comics that go further in depth with the topics we covered in this comic:
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► How to Selfie Like a Boss (Sexting) ► Manual Sex (Doin’ Hand Stuff) ► How to Masturbate… With a Vulva! ► How to Masturbate… With a Penis! ► Our Current Favorite Sex Toys |
Of course it’s all easy and fun for us and health organizations to encourage average people to engage in sexual activity online, but this is actually a thornier subject to navigate because of the SESTA/FOSTA legislation that was passed in the US in 2018. Supposedly it is meant to stop online human trafficking (a noble cause!) but in practice it is an overly broad and poorly defined law that holds online platforms liable for hosting sex-related content (even if it’s not soliciting money) in an effort to punish ALL Sex Workers and deprive them of community resources that keep them safe in order to drive them further underground. You can learn more about it in this article on Vox, A new law intended to curb sex trafficking threatens the future of the internet as we know it . It’s especially ironic that the NYC Health Sex and Coronavirus packet encourages people who “make a living by having sex” to opt for digital avenues during the pandemic, which puts them in danger of SESTA/FOSTA legislation. The thing is, it’s not just cracking down on Sex Workers (which is bad!), but it impacts everyone who produces sex-related content as well. It’s definitely stopped us from producing a few comics we’d been planning to run because the poor wording of the law may put us at risk.
Chances are, your naughty photos and videos will fly under the radar on apps and platforms if you’re not a Sex Worker. But. Y’know. It’s a draconian law that restricts the sharing of sexual content and it’s unequally enforced to hurt the most marginalized among us. If you have the luxury of sexting freely, maybe kick a buck or two over to the Sex Workers Outreach Project, sorta like participating in those carbon offset programs when you take a flight.
