Let’s Talk About Sex Baby

Let’s talk about sex baby… let’s talk about how abstaining from sex is not the only birth control, and if you want my opinion (which if you’ve read my other blogs I know you do) all schools starting in middle (like 6th grade) should begin THE sex talk. Not the Birds and the Bees (whatever that is) but SEX, I know it’s a scary word, but we need to do better. I know there’s a bunch of blogs about the lack of sex education in schools but 1, you haven’t read mine and, 2, it’s still a huge issue and doesn’t seem to be getting better, Exhibit A. 

So from my personal experience with sex education, it started in 6th grade and my teacher was blunt and brutal, but not necessarily in a bad way. My class was separated by sex and we were taught by the teacher of that particular sex. My teacher went over the anatomy of both sexes, how babies are produced, then went into STDs…she had pictures which were not required, she decided to add pics to scare us straight…well, it WORKED and that’s 6^th grade sex ed. As far as I remember there were no talks about consent, how to learn about your body through masterbation, or how sex isn’t inherently bad, it was if you had sex you WILL have a baby. Therefore no sex = no baby and that’s all we needed to know. 

I had sex education again during high school for gym class which wasn’t memberable but I do recall that boys and girls were learning about sex together. As far as my memory goes there wasn’t a specific topic about consent or masterbation, though they did discuss birth control. My household never really talked about it much either, my Birds and the Bees talk went as such with a close family member; “My first time having sex I got pregnant, don’t you want to go to college before having kids?” That plus learning about STDs in 6th grade I’ve been afraid of sex ever since and still am to this day. 

Have I had sex before, yes. I’ve had good sex and I’ve had bad sex but getting to that point of being comfortable with someone was a huge milestone for me. I was lucky enough to have a partner who was very patient and understanding with me but not everyone has that, and I think my fear of sex, in part, is the fault of how we learn about sex, usually through the media. It’s 2021 people, we are becoming more outspoken and need to learn about our bodies, whether that’s loving ourselves before giving love to someone else or not being ashamed of having consensual sex. Sex education is extremely important and with movements such as #MeToo and #97Percent I think improving sex education will be a great step in beginning the dialogue early and removing the fears and stigmas around sex.