Laci Green Talks MTV, Sex+, and Misogyny
John Tancredi ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Editor
Laci Green is a sex education activist and YouTuber. She’s responsible for her personal channel, Sex+, which garners over one million subscribers, as well her new MTV web series, Braless, and A Naked Notion in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. Laci was also one of the original hosts of D News, a channel she has since left. Her shows bring crucial information to so many people across the world who are deprived of proper sex education and to those who just want to know more. Her fans see her as a delightful, bubbly person with so much knowledge on the other side of their computer screens, and she was just as lovely in person as she seems online.
Emertainment Monthly: Sex education is definitely one of the smaller communities on YouTube. It’s pretty much just you and Sexplanations. Why do you think that is?
Laci Green: Yeah. I mean, I’m not really sure. I think YouTube is still a pretty new space. There’s a lot of uncharted territory, but a lot of people are afraid to talk about it. They feel they’re not equipped to talk about it. It’s a lot of forces colliding I think, but I think we’re seeing it change. Since my channel has had some success, there have been a lot of spin-offs and people trying to do that kind of thing.
Where does the motivation to make these types of videos come from? For both starting the channel and continuing it.
Well, I started doing sex ed stuff because I had abstinence-only education, even though it’s illegal where I live, so a lot of law breaking happening in the real of sexual health at public school so that pissed me off. And there were a lot of things that happened in my life that, you know, I’ve had a lot of experiences with really blatant misogyny and rape culture. All the things that I talk about are really personal to me. Even if I don’t talk about they ways they’re personal to me, they are, and that’s why I’m talking about them. And so, knowing that there are people out there that felt as alone and isolated and confused or without a place to get their questions answered as I was is definitely my strongest motivation because I want to give those people a place of resource. I want to be a resource for them. And I love what I do, so that doesn’t hurt.
Sex+ is very much your show. It’s vlog style so it’s very personal. A Naked Notion feels very much the same way.
Yeah. Although that one goes through a lot more people because it’s for Planned Parenthood.
That makes sense. Your MTV web series, Braless, has a higher production value and seems more like what you were doing on D News. What was it like working with MTV on making that show considering what MTV has been doing on all their other fronts might not be exactly be sex positive content?
I think MTV is trying to be a force for good. I do think they want to be on the right side and MTV has some more progressive roots as well, so they’re trying to get back in touch with that. But, it’s been interesting. They’re really awesome. I love the folks at MTV. I’m not just saying that, I really do love them. They’re really supportive and really on the same page about this stuff. But having so many people involved in a video process comes with its own challenges, so it’s not quite the same for me as making videos for my own channel.
From your personal channel to Braless have you noticed a difference in the community dynamics? On Braless you were answering and responding directly to comments in the videos.
I stopped doing that because it required me wade through the comments, which I generally regard as something that’s not very good for my well being. I think the [Braless] community, from what I’I can tell is a little more in tune with the pop culture stuff than even I am. You know? It’s a little bit different. It’s not quite as academic. Sex+ is very much a college student thing, like that is my core audience. I think that Braless is a little bit more diverse and maybe even a little bit younger.
Watch one of Laci’s videos: