Teen Vogue recently published a guide to anal sex and it has definitely brewed a storm across the globe. Written by a sex educator Gigi Engle, the article was aimed at “teens, beginners, and all inquisitive folk” where the author mentions how “being the dark is not doing your sexual health or self understanding any favours”.

She writes, “What about the teenagers? What about the LGBTQ young people who need to know about this for their sexual health?” and then headed on give us a step-by-step guide for beginners. The author also solved the biggest question on everyone’s mind, that is, “poop”.

“I want to personally assure you that you will not poop on anyone during anal sex. Sure, there are horror stories, but aren’t there always?” stated Gigi.

But then, there’s always that burning question of how appropriate an anal sex story is for a magazine whose target audience is, well, teenagers. And thus began a massive furore that does not seem to end anytime soon.

Take a look at what others had to say about the piece:

The Independent wasn’t too impressed with Teen Vogue’s story and stated in their article titled ‘Teen Vogue’s Bizarre Anal Sex Article Shows Women Are Still Being Defined In Relation To Men’ how, “Our responsibility as adult women influencing the next generation is to raise them up to be confident in their self-worth, and fighting against a culture that seeks to define them by their sexuality and what they can do for men. Regardless of whether they consider their vulva to be part of their woman’s body, their clitoris exists, and they are more than just a hole for a penis”. 

 Their author further stated, “Teen Vogue’s target audience is not non-prostate owners seeking to provide sexual satisfaction to men through their anus. Teen Vogue’s target audience is teenage girls, most under the legal age of consent, who are deserving of adult women to teach them to value themselves for who they are, not by what they are in relation to men.”

The Stream, in response to Teen Vogue’s story, published their article ‘Teen Vogue Coaches Teenagers in Sodomy’ where they wrote about how, “A magazine produced for your teenage daughters is giving them explicit instructions on how to be sodomized.

It is teaching them to be used by a guy, in a very dangerous way, for his pleasure and satisfaction. It is giving the clear message to every teenage boy that it’s perfectly acceptable to sodomize a girl, to use her, even physically hurt her for the sake of an orgasm”.

They also disclosed their homophobia with, “It is glorifying as good, normal and healthy, the harmful practice of homosexual sex”. 

YouTuber Wild Smith also published a video where he mentions how the “article is trying to convince somebody to try this” and that “oddly enough, it’s written by a woman”.

Watch video:

But then, there were others who thought the massive outrage was not justified. Here’s a lowdown on those who thought there’s nothing to freak out about Teen Vogue’s article. 

Newnownext writes: “None of the language is gendered—instead, there’s information on analfor people with prostates and those without. The importance of ‘enthusiastic consent’ and condom use are both heavily emphasized, and readers are reassured that although it’s often stigmatized, anal sex is ‘a perfectly natural way to engage in sexual activity’—with the caveat that ‘anal (like all sex acts) is not universally enjoyed by everyone, and that’s totally OK.'”

Queerty stated: “Of course, the magazine’s audience isn’t just teen girls. Readers include gay men, older women, and trans people, too. And in recent history, the magazine has been building a respected name for itself with incisive political articles and thoughtful commentary like “Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America.

Sexual health is important, and since sexual health in high school so rarely covers anal sex, Teen Vogue’s article is needed. As gay men, think if we had something in high school other than Queer as Folk DVDs to teach us in the ins and outs of anal. We may have been a bit better informed and less scared of the sexual act.”

And here’s how people reacted on Twitter: 

So, what do you think of the entire controversy? Write to us in your comments below.