Let's Talk About Sex
March 30th 2010 21:27
Another article that I wrote for the same website that never seen the light of day that I came across on the same disk.
Two truths about sex: everyone does it at some point and without it the human race wouldn’t be here. I don’t think anyone, even the religious right, can argue with those two statements. However, how much do people really know about sex?
I was reading a story recently about a 21 year old woman who gave birth that didn’t know she was pregnant. Commentary on the article shows that people either think she was fat or stupid. Apparently, only fat and stupid people can’t tell that they are pregnant. It annoys me to no end that people would make blanket assumptions about someone they have never met.
People also assume that everyone knows about sex and how babies are made. They forget that we live in a world where abstinence only education, even though it has been proven not to work, is pushed in lieu of real sex education where teenagers learn about more than the birds and the bees but learn about sexually transmitted diseases and how to protect themselves. Parents aren’t usually comfortable talking about these things so teenagers are left with little or incorrect information that they learned from their friends, internet, or magazines. There are a large number of young women, and men for that matter, who know that a sperm and egg come together to produce a baby. What they don’t know is how that sperm and egg meet. They have never been given that information directly. Some people can figure out that this thing we call sex, a penis and vagina come together, is how it happens. Others don’t make the connection because they are never given enough information to fill in the missing pieces.
There are also those highly religious people that raise their kids in a bubble and make sure that their kids aren’t, as they put it, worldly.
As saturated as our society is with sex, it isn’t a replacement for sex education. Since there is very little sex education taking place, a sensationalized news story is put together every time a woman gives birth that doesn’t know she is pregnant. It gives others someone to laugh at and talk about because it’s assumed that the woman is stupid, or fat. No one sees such an event as troublesome or a sign that something has to be done to better educate people.
I am left wondering how many pregnant teenagers haven’t known and went into panic mode when they went into labor. How many times has this accounted for babies that have been found dead because they were thrown away?
We need to start looking at teenagers and saying to them, “This is how your body works. This is what sex is and this is what could happen if you have sex. This is how you protect yourself.” It’s better than the alternative.
Sex is a normal part of life and it feels good. It’s time we quit talking about it in hushed tones as if it’s some dirty secret. Human beings were designed as sexual creatures, that can’t be changed even though society does everything it can to suppress that.
In our own history young girls were married off as soon as their cycles started, and this still happens in some cultures. In some ways this was smart because that is about the time teenagers become sexually aware and curious about the opposite sex. Today, as a society, we don’t want to acknowledge that sexual awareness and we do what we can to keep teenagers “kids”.
Frank, open discussion isn’t going to turn people into sexual deviants. In fact, for many, it may put an end to some of the curiosity. In the end, anything that helps put an end to assumptions and unfair judgment is a good thing.
Two truths about sex: everyone does it at some point and without it the human race wouldn’t be here. I don’t think anyone, even the religious right, can argue with those two statements. However, how much do people really know about sex?
I was reading a story recently about a 21 year old woman who gave birth that didn’t know she was pregnant. Commentary on the article shows that people either think she was fat or stupid. Apparently, only fat and stupid people can’t tell that they are pregnant. It annoys me to no end that people would make blanket assumptions about someone they have never met.
People also assume that everyone knows about sex and how babies are made. They forget that we live in a world where abstinence only education, even though it has been proven not to work, is pushed in lieu of real sex education where teenagers learn about more than the birds and the bees but learn about sexually transmitted diseases and how to protect themselves. Parents aren’t usually comfortable talking about these things so teenagers are left with little or incorrect information that they learned from their friends, internet, or magazines. There are a large number of young women, and men for that matter, who know that a sperm and egg come together to produce a baby. What they don’t know is how that sperm and egg meet. They have never been given that information directly. Some people can figure out that this thing we call sex, a penis and vagina come together, is how it happens. Others don’t make the connection because they are never given enough information to fill in the missing pieces.
There are also those highly religious people that raise their kids in a bubble and make sure that their kids aren’t, as they put it, worldly.
As saturated as our society is with sex, it isn’t a replacement for sex education. Since there is very little sex education taking place, a sensationalized news story is put together every time a woman gives birth that doesn’t know she is pregnant. It gives others someone to laugh at and talk about because it’s assumed that the woman is stupid, or fat. No one sees such an event as troublesome or a sign that something has to be done to better educate people.
I am left wondering how many pregnant teenagers haven’t known and went into panic mode when they went into labor. How many times has this accounted for babies that have been found dead because they were thrown away?
We need to start looking at teenagers and saying to them, “This is how your body works. This is what sex is and this is what could happen if you have sex. This is how you protect yourself.” It’s better than the alternative.
Sex is a normal part of life and it feels good. It’s time we quit talking about it in hushed tones as if it’s some dirty secret. Human beings were designed as sexual creatures, that can’t be changed even though society does everything it can to suppress that.
In our own history young girls were married off as soon as their cycles started, and this still happens in some cultures. In some ways this was smart because that is about the time teenagers become sexually aware and curious about the opposite sex. Today, as a society, we don’t want to acknowledge that sexual awareness and we do what we can to keep teenagers “kids”.
Frank, open discussion isn’t going to turn people into sexual deviants. In fact, for many, it may put an end to some of the curiosity. In the end, anything that helps put an end to assumptions and unfair judgment is a good thing.
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