Posts Tagged: sex education
Unwrapped: The Best Valentine’s Day Gift!
Chocolate, stuffed animals, and flowers might be nice, but nothing shows your affection like a big lubricated pack of condoms! In honor of February being National Condom Month, and with it being Valentine’s Day, what better way share the special day than with a pack of condoms. We’re always told to use protection because with no glove, there’s no love. However, not all of us were taught the important lessons of wrapping it up. Almost a decade ago, 87% of high schools taught abstinence as the most effective method to avoid pregnancy and HIV. Yeah, it makes sense that if you never have sex, you won’t be at risk of anything. Unfortunately, hormones don’t work that way and we eventually all grow up. There are still many states and schools promoting… Read more »
How Ohio State’s “Condom Club” is Promoting Inclusive, Safe Sex — One Prophylactic at a Time
One of the first things I did when I set foot on to the Ohio State University campus was sign up for “Condom Club” membership. “Condom Club” briefly known as “Safer Sex Society” is the place on campus to get almost all things a person might need to have safe sex. Oh and they also provide free sex-ed workshops to students. Ohio State is home to about 60,000 students. The presence of “Condom Club” on campus is very important. For me, the Club has been instrumental in my sexual education and practice. (Fun fact: the very first lube I ever used was from the “Condom Club”). The Club is about more than providing students with prophylactics. For some like myself, attending one of “Condom Club’s” safe sex workshops was their… Read more »
The Revolutionary Act Left Out of Most Sex-Ed Programs
I was perusing the internet as I’m wont to do and I discovered an article that made me scream. I wasn’t sure if the scream was in excitement or terror. The article? It was about a university in North Carolina, Elon, which is going to have a class on masturbation. A class that students can take to learn about masturbation. Although it hasn’t been confirmed yet if this class at Elon will actually happen, I think it has the potential to be revolutionary. Finally, a sex-ed class that will focus on anatomy and pleasure, not how to prevent pregnancy. I’m not the only one who got shoddy sex-ed in high school. The fact that it was almost always penis centered (how to put on a condom!), always about preventing pregnancy… Read more »
All I Want for Christmas is YOU…th Comprehensive Sex Ed!
While everyone is busy jotting down the latest electronics on their Christmas Wish List, there’s something even better than the newest iPhone, tablet, or clothes from Urban Outfitters that I want for Christmas this year: comprehensive sex education. Now, you may think that teaching teens medically accurate, age appropriate sex education is a given in the 21st century. I mean, why would teachers lie to teens about safe sex and withhold life-saving information on how to become healthy adults and form healthy relationships? This Is America! We live in a country where no one would tell teens that “condoms cause cancer,” “birth control pills cause abortions,” “sex is worse for girls because they are much easier to infect and easier to damage,” “condoms have holes in them and a failure… Read more »
An Infectious Silence: Stigma and the Persistence of HIV Among Young People
Yesterday was World AIDS Day, and there were a great deal of new coverage documenting it—reports of how we’ve progressed since AIDS became a full-fledged epidemic in the 80s, how we’re still at risk, and how young people are still incredibly at risk. Forty percent of all global HIV transmissions are spread by those between the ages of 15 to 24, according the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and while some parts of the world are seeing decreases in the number of HIV infections every year, others are actually seeing an increase.
You Have the Right to Pleasure
When I was in middle and high school, sex education was short, uncomfortable, and hardly comprehensive. I remember sitting in a classroom with about 30 other students my senior year (a little late, if you ask me…) watching my PE teacher squirm in front of us, pausing intermittently. “So, I mean, what you all really need to know is, uh, so when the, uh, when the, um, the penis…” Queue giggles.
Let’s Talk About Talking About Sex
October has been deemed “Let’s Talk Month” in the hopes to encourage families to talk about a wide range of issues related to sexuality, like body image, healthy relationships, gender and sexual orientation, safe sex, using birth control…all that good stuff. At first I thought it was strange to them to choose the month October, especially given that Halloween has claimed it since the mid 16th century. Then I remembered how my mom was more scared to talk to me about sex growing up then I was of horror stories of monsters and ghosts and the supernatural. So now October makes perfect sense.
3 Ways to Improve Sex Positive Activism
I’m a pretty big fan of Sex Positivity, mostly because I’m a fan of people being able to have all the consensual sex they want to have, if they want to have it, and not be made to feel gross about it. Because unfortunately we’re caught in a strange tug-of-war, where we see sex tossed about in the media like glitter on a Lisa Frank folder, but in action, we shame individuals constantly for their sexual identities and desires. And even when we see sex constantly, few of those images of sex are particularly healthy ones. AND even if you do see a healthy navigation of sex in mass media, it’s probably between two white, able-bodied, straight cis people.
Obamacare, Sex Education and You
With headline after headline, news story after news story since its introduction in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) has been scrutinized, analyzed, loved, and hated by the American public. With the threat of defunding Obamacare hanging from the lips of politicians, there are a lot of issues to be concerned about, such as access to affordable healthcare. However, what worries me the most about defunding Obamacare is not about health insurance, but rather, sex education.
Young, Broke, and Denied Abortion Access: Millennials and the Hyde Amendment
Is there ever any end to the parade of articles decrying Millennials? Judging by the sheer volume that the media churns out decrying my generation as one self-absorbed, lazy, and curated within a bubble of indulgent vapidity, you can say there’s a perception that Millennials are the bane of the United States. Which is funny, seeing as on average, we’re receiving more education than our parents, have less job opportunities, being crushed by debt, and still being pointed at as “just expecting a handout.” This hypocrisy is especially teeth-grindingly blatant when it comes to the Hyde Amendment.
