You deserve to understand your body, embrace your sexuality, and find joy without shame. For those raised in purity culture, messages about sex were rooted in fear, silence, and control. Virginity was prized above all else, sexual desire was condemned, and women, queer, and trans people were often left shrouded in shame. The results have been devastating: fear of intimacy, painful or unsatisfying sex, and a lingering sense of brokenness.

In The Purity Culture Recovery Guide, sex educator Erica Smith—founder of the Purity Culture Dropout® program—offers the comprehensive, inclusive, and trauma-informed sex education many never received. Drawing on more than two decades of professional experience, Smith replaces shame with empathy, self-compassion, and empowerment. She provides medically accurate information about bodies, birth control, pleasure, communication, consent, and abortion, alongside affirming discussions of gender, sexuality, and relationships. Smith’s approach is both practical and healing. Readers will learn how to set boundaries, challenge damaging beliefs, explore their own sexual values, and build a new sexual ethic based on respect, autonomy, and joy. Most of all, this book insists that there is nothing wrong with you. Whether you are beginning your recovery from purity culture or seeking to deepen your sexual self-understanding, The Pleasure You Deserve is an essential, shame-free guide to reclaiming pleasure and rewriting your sexual story.

Author Biography

Erica Smith (she/her) is an award-winning, internationally recognized sexuality educator with over twenty years of experience. She has provided comprehensive sex education, HIV prevention, and support to young women and LGBTQ+ youth in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system, worked with transgender youth and families since 2002, and served as an abortion care counselor. In 2019, she created the Purity Culture Dropout® Program. A sought-after expert, she has been featured by Bustle, Parents, The Daily Beast, Men’s Health, HuffPost, MTV, and Vice.

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