Sarah Rose’s mini-zine Laid: Stuff I Wish I’d Known about Sex Before I Started Having It is a brief document that summarizes concepts of sex positivity, self-love, consent, and safe sex. It’s a very quick read – 16 pages in 1/8 page size – and is comprised of pieces of advice succinctly offered. There is no exposition, no exploration of the history or sociological background for ideas, no stats, etc. Just quick, helpful pieces of advice for people looking at having sex for the first time. These range from very short and witty:

“If you tell someone how you want to be touched, and they ignore you, stop fucking them.”

To slightly longer statements that point out truths that might seem obvious, but are far from it:

“Sex feels good. The thing your sex ed teacher and your parents probably aren’t telling you is that sex can make you feel wonderful. Amid all the talk of STIs, pregnancy, and safer sex (which ARE actually important things to know) what gets left out is this: fucking someone you care about or are deeply attracted to can be awesome.”

The final pages of the zine list some helpful resources for those seeking more information. This zine just scratches the surface of info on consent and sexuality, but it’s a good place to start, and I’m glad someone has expressed these concepts in such a quick, easy format.