In school, we get a basic sex education, right? You have a lesson on periods at the end of primary school, through high school you might have the odd lesson on STI's and how to avoid them (always use a condom, kids), you might even watch your teacher put a condom on a fake penis in your contraception lesson. As far as my sex education goes though, that was about it. Now, I'm not saying our teachers should be giving us the lowdown on the best porn or how to orgasm or whatever, but a bit more in depth discussion needs to happen in my opinion.
Teenagers learn most of this stuff from porn which is not at all true to life and can be extremely damaging. I want there to be education on REAL sex. Let's ensure there are NO taboos; as long as it is legal and consenting, let's talk about it. For example, do we teach men that sometimes women want a bit of foreplay before the big show?! No. Do we talk about the benefits of lube?! Not at all. Sex education never portrayed sex as a fun and healthy part of life. Sure it taught me to be cautious (mainly because it made me scared of it for a little while) but where is the useful information about real sex?!
Growing up, I learnt all my sex knowledge from Cosmopolitan magazine and talking with friends. It could be worse, I know, but as awkward as it might have been, learning the ins and outs (sorry for the pun) of sex would have proved beneficial. Why can't we be taught that not all women (in fact very few) women can climax through penetrative sex? Why can't we be taught that not all men are rearing to go and thinking about sex twenty-four seven? Why are we left to find all this out on our own and spend weeks, months or even years worrying that we are abnormal!?
We need to be teaching teenagers that it is ok to talk about sex. Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't 'rude'. It's natural. It's healthy. It's fun. Let's stop teaching teenagers that sex is a taboo and instead encourage healthy conversations. We need to start this in school because when they're 18 and learning everything from porn, we have failed.
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