Despite the obvious flaws in your western sex education structure, it's much better than what I have in my country. I come from a multicultural country aka one where a lot of religions coexist. And obviously, this means religion is a big part of most citizens' life here. The downside is that sex and puberty are considered taboo subjects because of religions. Here's how it went down when I had sex education at school: The Ministry of Education sent a woman to our all-girls school to talk to us. I believe it was supposed to be a weekly meeting where we would be learning new things during every class. But frankly, the sessions were so uninformative that we all ended up forgetting about them after a few weeks. Another unsuccessful sensitisation campaign by the government. With good reason too. The only things I can remember was probably the diagram of the female reproductive system. No diagram for males, or maybe there was one but she didn't go over what any of them meant. At 11 years old, those diagrams just look intimidating to you and you'd rather just forget about and hope to never see them again after the session was over. If she did mention certain technical words, she wouldn't explain what they meant, assuming we already knew, or she would go on a tangent, telling some story, only for us to forget what was previously discussed. The only thing I remember vividly, because it crushed my soul at the time, is the way she was praising the woman's duty of marrying and carrying babies. There was no lesson on how to use condoms or the mere mention of them. STDs might have been lightly touched, as a disease transmitted sexually before marriage. The clearest way to explain those sessions was as a religious lecture on womanly duties to the man. Why was all this soul-crushing to me? It relates to the story she told next. She told the supposedly real story of a woman who got so sad from men breaking her heart that she decided to transition into a man. I forgot her(the woman giving the lecture) logic behind that move. Basically the trans guy went through all of his treatment except a hysterectomy. Then he met a man who treated him right for the first time, they fell in love, married, and he carried their child. I am respecting the person's identity here, fictional or not, but that's not what the woman did as she told the story. Her point was that we can never get rid of one's womanhood no matter how hard we try. We all HAVE to become mothers because that is simply how we are born. It was traumatizing to me because, as a transmasc non-binary person, I felt absolutely invalidated right then. Almost like I was chasing an impossible, intangible dream. You can try to imagine that intense disappointment for a child who recently started menstruating, was never prepared/educated about what periods meant before they began feeling the changes and absolutely hating it. To my 11-year-old self, periods were like an unforeseen disease that I immediately wanted to get rid of. The thought of simply having to bear with them monthly for 50 years was a nightmare. I had absolutely no intention of becoming a mother as that woman preached. At the time I thought that what the woman taught us was the only way to live a life. I still wished to remain unmarried and childless but was traumatised for a long time after those talks. The woman was plainly homophobic and transphobic and I wasn't the only student who hated her for it all (despite being unfamiliar with the lgbtq+ community myself at that age, i could understand that the hate they got was irrational). I hope my story teaches some still hesitant ppl out there how important proper and inclusive sex education is for the youth. Without proper training to address the right issues, ppl might be sharing very dangerous and harmful rhetoric that isolates ppl like me who are already discriminated against on a daily basis in society.
Thank you so much for sharing your personal story, it's clear this needs to be addressed globally. Hopefully your message will speak to people and let them know they're not alone 🙌
Girl in green knows her stuff 🙌🙌
hey that's me!
Kids are starving and this is what you’re worried about
Go feed them then
@@beastcarleeto707 i would if I could. What now?
Despite the obvious flaws in your western sex education structure, it's much better than what I have in my country. I come from a multicultural country aka one where a lot of religions coexist. And obviously, this means religion is a big part of most citizens' life here. The downside is that sex and puberty are considered taboo subjects because of religions. Here's how it went down when I had sex education at school:
The Ministry of Education sent a woman to our all-girls school to talk to us. I believe it was supposed to be a weekly meeting where we would be learning new things during every class. But frankly, the sessions were so uninformative that we all ended up forgetting about them after a few weeks. Another unsuccessful sensitisation campaign by the government. With good reason too.
The only things I can remember was probably the diagram of the female reproductive system. No diagram for males, or maybe there was one but she didn't go over what any of them meant. At 11 years old, those diagrams just look intimidating to you and you'd rather just forget about and hope to never see them again after the session was over. If she did mention certain technical words, she wouldn't explain what they meant, assuming we already knew, or she would go on a tangent, telling some story, only for us to forget what was previously discussed.
The only thing I remember vividly, because it crushed my soul at the time, is the way she was praising the woman's duty of marrying and carrying babies. There was no lesson on how to use condoms or the mere mention of them. STDs might have been lightly touched, as a disease transmitted sexually before marriage. The clearest way to explain those sessions was as a religious lecture on womanly duties to the man.
Why was all this soul-crushing to me? It relates to the story she told next. She told the supposedly real story of a woman who got so sad from men breaking her heart that she decided to transition into a man. I forgot her(the woman giving the lecture) logic behind that move. Basically the trans guy went through all of his treatment except a hysterectomy. Then he met a man who treated him right for the first time, they fell in love, married, and he carried their child. I am respecting the person's identity here, fictional or not, but that's not what the woman did as she told the story. Her point was that we can never get rid of one's womanhood no matter how hard we try. We all HAVE to become mothers because that is simply how we are born.
It was traumatizing to me because, as a transmasc non-binary person, I felt absolutely invalidated right then. Almost like I was chasing an impossible, intangible dream. You can try to imagine that intense disappointment for a child who recently started menstruating, was never prepared/educated about what periods meant before they began feeling the changes and absolutely hating it. To my 11-year-old self, periods were like an unforeseen disease that I immediately wanted to get rid of. The thought of simply having to bear with them monthly for 50 years was a nightmare. I had absolutely no intention of becoming a mother as that woman preached. At the time I thought that what the woman taught us was the only way to live a life. I still wished to remain unmarried and childless but was traumatised for a long time after those talks. The woman was plainly homophobic and transphobic and I wasn't the only student who hated her for it all (despite being unfamiliar with the lgbtq+ community myself at that age, i could understand that the hate they got was irrational).
I hope my story teaches some still hesitant ppl out there how important proper and inclusive sex education is for the youth. Without proper training to address the right issues, ppl might be sharing very dangerous and harmful rhetoric that isolates ppl like me who are already discriminated against on a daily basis in society.
Thank you so much for sharing your personal story, it's clear this needs to be addressed globally. Hopefully your message will speak to people and let them know they're not alone 🙌
Love this 🙌
love this! couldn't have put it better myself 💖
Glad you liked it!!
Oh God