This is going to be a long entry and while I have no idea how many people read my blog, I figured I would post this anyway, because I feel that what I have to say needs to be said and blah blah blah. So, get ready, I'm going to talk about sex.
The thing is, I've only been in my Human Sexuality class for a total of three days. What's nice about college level classes though, is that they make you think (well, they make most people think). So, I've been thinking about sex an awful lot. And not just the act of sex, but all sorts of things associated with sex. I'll discuss those things here.
First of all, I don't know how many people out there have had sex education, but judging from the types of people in my class, who range in age from probably 20 to their 60s, I'm guessing that not very many people have had sex education. I, myself, did not have sex education. All of my information was gained from the internet and hearsay. I had abstinence only education and I only found out what it was called recently. When I was in high school, instead of learning about male and female anatomy, different forms of contraception and the way to use contraceptives and instead of learning about sexuality in general, I was placed in a room with only females in my age range (the same was done for the boys). We were made to listen to an "ex-cheerleader" with supposedly several kinds of sexually transmitted infections. We were also made to watch a horrible slideshow, showing only the most extreme cases of venereal diseases. We were also told that condoms were largely ineffective against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (it's the new lingo). We were told that the safest sex is no sex. Wait until marriage. There was no "If you're going to do it, be safe and use protection." I often wonder what kind of opinions my classmates had on this type of "sex education". I know for a fact that many didn't pay any heed to this and had sex anyway. Unprotected sex, too, since a couple of them became pregnant during high school. I, being raised in a very open and supportive home, didn't pay much attention to this type of sex education (Also, being a rebel, I didn't put much stock in anything they told me in school.) But I have to wonder, what makes people believe that abstinence only education actually works? I have a few things to point out to you people in charge of everything.
1) Teenagers are full of crazy hormones. They're gonna have sex. They're never going to stop having sex. So, would you rather have a bunch of teenagers with kids and STIs? Or would you rather have a bunch of teenagers who know how to be responsible and know how to make an informed decision?
2) Waiting until marriage to have sex is a personal choice. It should never be forced upon someone. That takes away their free will. If you want to wait, cool, great. If someone else tells you that you have to wait, bad. You make the choices. My only advice is learn about it before you do it.
3) I do not care who you are, or who you think you are, but a person's body is their own. It belongs to them. I hear parents who say, "Your body is mine until you turn 18." Well, from that perspective, your parents should wipe your ass, dress you, wash you and treat your body as their own until you turn 18. But they don't do that. You do those things. Your body belongs to you and by all that is holy, you can do whatever you want with it. If your parents told you to cut yourself up, would you do that?
Those are just a few of my points. Now, I'm not saying "Disobey your parents" because really, they do have good advice sometimes. All I am saying is that nobody can make a decision regarding your body or your mind. I, for one, am tired of hearing that I should really get married or that I need to have kids. As a woman, I hear these things all the time. It angers me, because it is my decision to get married or have kids. That choice doesn't belong to anyone but me. If society shuns me for not doing what they want, oh well. I'm not going to be physically harmed and I can always find people who think like I do. If someone doesn't like the way I think or tries to force their ideas on me, they are not the kind of person I would want to have around. My basic point in all this is that real sex education, the kind where they tell you about penises and vaginas and all the different ways they go together and how you can keep them healthy, is what is needed. I honestly believe that if people are informed, then they make better decisions. You wouldn't buy a car if you knew nothing about it, would you?
The problem is that, even with a modern society, we have very archaic views about sex (a lot of other things, too.) What we do not realize is that sex, for pleasure or procreation, is a very basic human function. It is probably the most basic, besides eating. Should we all stop eating? Should we all eat the same things as other people? Should we wait until a certain time to start eating something? Should we hide certain foods from people, because we believe that they are too young to fully understand what will happen if they eat those foods? No, we can eat whatever the hell we want. So why is it socially unacceptable to have sex before marriage? Why can't women have just as many partners as men?
Another thing..and this really bothers me. People don't know anything about their bodies. I think an important part of sex education is learning what your body is like. I mean, we all learn where babies come from. Uterus, yeah. But how many girls right out of high school know the parts of their vagina? There are grown women in my class who don't know what a hymen is. It is also sad that we're supposed to think of our genitals as "naughty" and that we are discouraged from touching or looking at them. People, it's part of your BODY. It is yours, you should know what it looks like and what it feels like even if it is for no other reason than to know that it's healthy!
I think I have just about run out of topics to discuss. I really do feel that everyone needs to be educated about sex. It is part of who we are and no amount of stigmatizing or "hoping it goes away" will change that.
I'm done.
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