If you thought their bathing habits as parents were odd, wait until you learn how Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell talk to their kids about sex!
The couple continue to be open books about their relationship and child-rearing, especially in podcast form. In Monday’s episode of Armchair Expert, Dax and co-host Monica Padman welcomed Gwyneth Paltrow. Because the Avengers: Endgame star has become something of a sexpert through her sex-positive lifestyle site and its new Netflix spinoff show, Sex, Love & Goop, there was a natural lead-in to discussions of how to have that talk.
Related: The Sex Advice Gwyneth Gave To Her Teen Children
Dax shared what he figures is an “unpopular opinion” among fathers of daughters, saying:
“Of course, the most generic thing every guy says to me is, ‘Oh, you better have a gun, there’s gonna be guys coming around.’ This notion I have to protect my daughters’ virginity with great prejudice if necessary. My response is, I do not want my daughters to have sex so they can get approval from somebody, but if my daughters are horny and want to have sex, that was my favorite activity, remains my favorite activity, I’d be lying if I said I was any way anti-that activity.”
So progressive and anti-patriarchal! LOVES IT!
But then the convo moved to the way his famous wife talks to their daughters about sex. It turns out KBell is completely straightforward about it — and doesn’t bother beating around the bush with euphemisms! Dax proudly told his guest:
“I’ll tell you one thing that my wife does that’s ingenious, when she describes sex to our children she says, ‘And then the woman takes the man’s penis and puts it in her vagina.’ So right away it’s, you’re in charge of this, you will decide to put this in your vagina, not the man puts his penis in your vagina.”
Obviously we were taken aback at first at the frankness. But he’s right, framing it this way — where women have more agency — in their first exposure to ideas of sex is very smart foundational work. As Dax put it:
“You’re in the driver’s seat. I was like, that’s a nice little adjustment we’re gonna make.”
This really is so smart! We’re sure not all parents are going to feel comfortable enough to get to the penis-in-vagina talk in the first place, but that’s a different discussion altogether.
What do YOU think of the Veronica Mars star’s sex talk tip??
[Image via Kristen Bell/Instagram.]