CREATIVE NONFICTION 15
STEPH AUTERI has written
about sexuality for The Atlantic,
Vice, Pacific Standard, and
other publications. She is the
author of A Dirty Word.hat’s that, Mommy?” asks my daughter, pointing to
a long, clear plastic canister filled with individually wrapped
condoms. The condoms are on my desk, next to my laptop, on which
I’m typing an article on innovations in condom technology. “Open?”
“It’s a maraca, sweetheart. See?” I shake the canister so it makes a
muffled schick-schick sound.
She doesn’t buy it.
“No! Open!” she wails, reaching for the canister, her fingers scrab-
bling to pop off the end piece. I roll my eyes because I can’t even, and
then I pluck it from her hand. Place it out of reach.
I am all about educating my daughter, and I subscribe to the philoso-
phy that sexuality education should begin at birth. At three, she already
knows the proper names for all her body parts, and I gamely respond to
questions about my nipples. But there are limits to what she’s develop-
mentally ready for, and a discussion about condom use and other forms
of contraception seems several bridges too far.
But when you write about sexuality for a living, questions that aren’t
typically asked by most kids for at least several more years become
inevitable. Atop my desk, alongside my condom collection and among
the binders, book galleys, and empty coffee mugs that crowd my laptop,STEPH AUTERI
When They Start
Asking Questions
W
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