Shailene Woodley says STDs and teen pregnancy might go down if masturbation were taught in schools, especially to girls.
The “Snowden” actress — who starrred in the teen pregnancy drama series “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” spoke about the importance of sex education in a recent interview with Net-a-Porter.
“As a young woman you don’t learn how to pleasure yourself, you don’t learn what an orgasm should be, you don’t learn that you should have feelings of satisfaction,” Woodley said. “I’ve always had a dream of making a book called ‘There’s No Right Way to Masturbate.’ If masturbation were taught in school, I wonder how [many] fewer people would get herpes aged 16, or pregnant at 14?”
The actress also expressed her concerns about the toll that Hollywood takes on women’s sense of self-image.
“The environment is incredibly unhealthy,” she said. “Women get a little skinnier, a little blonder, their lips get fuller, and it’s not a stereotype, it’s real, and it’s because there’s a mold they’re told they have to fit in order to stay relevant.”
Woodley is best known for playing Tris in the “Divergent” films, in which her character rebels against a rigid caste system. In Oliver Stone‘s “Snowden,” she plays the girlfriend of the infamous NSA whistleblower.