Let's talk about sex

When Dr. MB first asked the class what we would change about the world to make it a better place, what seemed like a thousand ideas unloaded into my brain. Of course, there were the obvious answers: equality for everyone, the dismantling of various oppressions, etc. Unfortunately, how easily doable are these? What is the likelihood that I would still be alive to see these be achieved in my lifetime? The “what” and “why” questions are easy but the “how” is more complex. “How” includes massive re-education and un-learning of oppressive ideas and thoughts, as well as a complete reworking of our political and economic systems. It seemed like aiming a bit too high for a class exercise.

Instead, I decided to tackle something that was a little more attainable in the near future. I think this world would be better with a more comprehensive sex education program that is available to all.

Many people do not have a proper sex education, whether this is because they were taught abstinence-only sex-ed (where the students are taught only to practice abstinence, instead of teaching them about safe sex, or STIs, or their own reproductive organs, or the fundamentals of how and what sex is) or if their sex-ed program is just not up to par. Many problems stem from these program failures, including, but not limited to: higher rates or teenage pregnancy, higher rates of STIs, guilt and shame surrounding sex, confusion about sexuality and in particular non-heterosexual sexualities, higher rates of sexual assault and rape due to mis-education of what consent is and isn’t, and confusion about gender.

To bring sex education up to a higher standard, we should begin by educating the sex educators. While there are some sex education teachers who are knowledgeable in this area, there are many schools and learning environments where this is untrue. If we want to teach our children better sex ed, we have to start by teaching the adults, especially those who will be passing this information on to our youth. Next we need to do away with abstinence only education. While abstinence should still be presented as an option to the students, it can’t be the only option. Lastly, we need to start instilling in children from a very young age the ideas of consent and respecting others’ bodies. By simply teaching children that no means no and that any kind of physical touch should be stopped when asked or when someone is expressing discomfort via body language will teach children the fundamentals of consent.

I think that these changes will greatly benefit our society and will be instrumental as a stepping stone towards the larger goals I mentioned at the beginning of this post. While things like equality and getting rid of oppression are very important, I don’t think these are goals that one can achieve on their own. It is through smaller goals put forth by individuals that will get us to that much better place. Which is not to say that people can’t or shouldn’t focus on several different causes at once, but that we need to take the smaller steps to achieve our goal of a better society.

And now that my post title has got this song in your head, here you go: