It’s been a while since many of us received a formal sex education in school, so it's OK if you've forgotten exactly how birth control works or what the ovaries do. Now, sex therapist and media personality Dr. Ruth Westheimer is rewriting her Sex for Dummies handbook for a new generation, according to Variety .
Better known as Dr. Ruth (she has a master’s degree in sociology as well as a doctorate in education), the 90-year-old’s rise to stardom started in 1980 when she launched her first radio program, Sexually Speaking , at a time when such subjects were still considered somewhat taboo.
Nearly 40 years later, Dr. Ruth is turning her attention to an old classic to speak directly to Millennials. This will be the fourth edition of Sex for Dummies , which was originally published in 1995, and the updated version will be released sometime this year.
Although her views on sex and relationships have been ahead of the curve in many ways, Dr. Ruth is still traditional in other areas. She doesn’t believe in one-night stands—not because she thinks they're immoral, but because they can lead to loneliness and other problems. She also tells Vanity Fair that she worries about the influence of technology on Millennials’ ability to communicate and have genuine relationships. The updated version of her book will address all of these concerns and more.
“I will talk about loneliness, I will talk about the issue of the art of conversation, the issue of sexually transmitted diseases, all of those issues,” Dr. Ruth tells Variety .
This announcement comes ahead of a new Hulu documentary about the life and work of Dr. Ruth , a German-born Holocaust survivor who moved to a children’s home in Switzerland at age 10, moved to Israel at 17 and joined the Jewish freedom fighters, and ultimately emigrated to the U.S. in 1956. A trailer for the documentary, called Ask Dr. Ruth , says it will be “coming soon,” but the specific release date hasn’t been announced yet. Check out the trailer in the video below.