Sex, it is a continuous discussion that some people refuse to have and it is perpetuating an ignorant rape culture. My mother is a health teacher, focused mainly on sexual education, therefore growing up I never thought babies came from storks or bought at stores. I learned that adults had sex and that was it, no magic and no myths to prolong. I knew about STDs and how reproductive organs work by the age of six, and it never once bothered me thinking about it, in fact I did not think about it. I did not really care because I was a child, it was not something pertinent in my life but at the same time it wasn’t a big secret or a taboo kept from me to prolong my innocence.
Me knowing made me be more at peace with my body, I was not confused when I had my first menstruation cycle because I already knew what it was and how to take care of myself, I saw as it as it was, something natural. More often than not that is not the case for girls around the world, the moment they get their periods for the first time they have not even heard what it is and some even think they are bleeding to death. Something more to be noted is a lot of boys spend most of their adolescence not knowing what menstruation is, just because it is considered a vulgar topic and only for women to discuss in private.
Menstruation is not the only thing that we should learn about, there should be a whole year round obligated curriculum on human sexuality implemented in schools, because sexuality is much more than just sex. Sexuality is related to your physiology, sexual orientation, gender, your health, society’s views on gender roles, and basically everything from the moment you were conceived to the moment you die because you are the result of what started as two sexual cells that united and divided a million times.
Many adults believe that teaching children about these topics will make them go and have sex, that them not teaching is preventing them from doing so but the only thing they are doing is preventing them from getting the right information. Because adolescents do not get the right information they go on to the world and get information from people who are not well informed or just do not get any information at all. They get pregnant or get STDs that could potentially kill them, then adults go on to talk about how this generation is stupid and ignorant but fail to remember who made them that way in the first place.
For a world that creates unrealistic expectations of sex with things such as porn we are very fast to judge who gets to learn about the natural sexual things that happen in our bodies.
How adults deal with sexual education is the way adolescents will deal with it too, with disregard and ignorance. Our sexuality is more than just sex, it’s part of society’s construct, it is mental and it is physical. It is more than just something that regards people who are sexually active, it regards everyone because it is one of the most natural things we as humans have. So learning about sexuality from a young age did not traumatize me it made me able to make mature and intelligent choices, everyone should have the right to be educated too.
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