The 70s were some good times. Disco! Gay liberation! My birth! And the 1970s also gave us the gem of a movie above. It’s an educational video showing a mother walking in on her son masturbating. We’ve all been there. Right? Right?

It is just as awkward and weird as bell bottoms and my mother’s hair back then. But, like those two things, it too is a riot.

There isn’t better proof that an active, healthy, happy sex life keeps you looking young and vibrant than Betty Dodson, the great American sex educator who basically invented sex-positive feminism and almost single-handedly made masturbation okay for women. She turns 80 today — and doesn’t look a day over 60! It could also be the fact that she’s been known to date people 40+ years her junior. Or maybe what keeps her young is simply her super, super sweet nature (we met her at a Society for the Scientific Study of Sex conference in Vegas — natch! — and she was a ray of sunshine, attracting fans like bees to light). She’s in the process of creating her memoir online, via installments of text and video, with her web partner Carlin Ross (the younger one in the videos). Check out DodsonAndRoss.com. But don’t let the sweet, grey-haired exterior fool you — Betty will tell you stories that will make you blush with shock and/or envy.

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