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Sex is an act. An act that, despite our modern times, is chucked into a corner to collect dust until you are “old enough” to open it up. The punch line is, that once you unfold it layer by layer you are left with limited pieces of advice- one being that “abstinence is key”. With that limited information, a young teenager in love or curious finds themself in a bedroom with another equally confused, and maybe even a little afraid.
What our society needs to understand is that everyone will experience a sexual encounter in life; therefore, handing out packets of deodorant and tampons is not enough to fulfill the knowledge a woman or a man need to have about their bodies. Our current and almost non-existent sexual education lacks in multiple departments including birth control information as well as information for those in the LGBTQ community. Cole L., a member of the LGBTQ community says, “not only were we born in a society that declares we don’t belong, but the very limited sex programs for people in this community only serve to emphasize this point.” Sex is not heterosexual and everyone deserves the right to know what is happening to their bodies once sexually active as well as the right precautions to take. This lack of dialogue is what leads some teenage woman finding themselves with preventable UTIs as well as painful sex because they were not informed through their school or parent’s about the complications that come with having sex. “Any information I got was from TV as well as the internet. I feel like they gave some stranger value to it- sex is just sex. It is nothing to be ashamed of,” Vanessa O. explained. Not talking about sex mystifies a topic and formulates a taboo aura around it. The results could lead to harm or possible pregnancy. According to the Huffington post, the United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy with only 18 states having requirements to teach students about contraception. Furthermore, 37 states allow “medically inaccurate sex education”. Sex education should not be a requirement or a privilege for just private schools, but should be open to the general public.
There are places in this world that have stretched out of the normative and taken a progressive route. Netherlands, being one of them, teach students “comprehensive sex education,” as they call it, starting at the age of 4. In the Netherlands, it is a law to provide sex education which unravels to be much more than just about sex, but about acceptance over sexual preference as well as respect for each other. This is a great contrast in places such as Utah whose sole goal is to promote abstinence. This form of teaching does not explore the aftermath of premarital sex as well as not fully respecting other religious backgrounds that do not call for abstinence. Sex has no gender nor religion, therefore it should be treated as so.
As a country that flunctuates and breathes diversity, we need to take into account all the types of people in this world when it comes to any type of education. We are not black and white and sex is not either.
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