Sex and education
HED 320
Spring 2014
Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me.
There is a story that many children are lucky enough to hear from their parents while growing up. This is not one of gallant knights, dragons, or any princesses, but one of wisdom and caution; rather it is of the birds and bees which is an eye opener for many adolescents, because of the misconceptions that is clears up about the word-that-must-not-be-said “sex”. Coming from a Middle Eastern background, the topic of sex was very taboo and was not openly talked about, especially with my parents. The lack of explanation and clarification of what this word really meant caused me to start picking up broken pieces of information from friends, school, and the media. In the schoolyard having two fifth grade kids talking about what they think sex was, is like the blind leading the blind. Growing up I had many bizarre understandings of what sex consisted of and what would happen after two individuals would have sex. The three most impacting misconceptions that I have had were where babies come from, what women wanted in a sexual relationship, and safe methods of practicing sex.
In the fourth grade I was on the swings during recess having an enlightening conversation about where babies came from with one of my good friends. This was the first discussion I had ever had relating to sex, and being the convincing sales man that Cody was, he had brainwashed me into thinking that women get pregnant by men peeing on their belly buttons. Then the baby explodes out of the belly button when women give birth. This was the first misconception that I had about sex and it was the one that probably scarred me the most because of the events that quickly followed that conversation with Cody. My parents approached my older sister, who was eighteen at the time, and I to tell us that we were going to have a little brother because my mom was pregnant. When I heard this I was horrified to think that my dad would pee on my mom, considering
Spring 2014
Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me.
There is a story that many children are lucky enough to hear from their parents while growing up. This is not one of gallant knights, dragons, or any princesses, but one of wisdom and caution; rather it is of the birds and bees which is an eye opener for many adolescents, because of the misconceptions that is clears up about the word-that-must-not-be-said “sex”. Coming from a Middle Eastern background, the topic of sex was very taboo and was not openly talked about, especially with my parents. The lack of explanation and clarification of what this word really meant caused me to start picking up broken pieces of information from friends, school, and the media. In the schoolyard having two fifth grade kids talking about what they think sex was, is like the blind leading the blind. Growing up I had many bizarre understandings of what sex consisted of and what would happen after two individuals would have sex. The three most impacting misconceptions that I have had were where babies come from, what women wanted in a sexual relationship, and safe methods of practicing sex.
In the fourth grade I was on the swings during recess having an enlightening conversation about where babies came from with one of my good friends. This was the first discussion I had ever had relating to sex, and being the convincing sales man that Cody was, he had brainwashed me into thinking that women get pregnant by men peeing on their belly buttons. Then the baby explodes out of the belly button when women give birth. This was the first misconception that I had about sex and it was the one that probably scarred me the most because of the events that quickly followed that conversation with Cody. My parents approached my older sister, who was eighteen at the time, and I to tell us that we were going to have a little brother because my mom was pregnant. When I heard this I was horrified to think that my dad would pee on my mom, considering