I enrolled in a course in human sexual behavior, mostly because I wanted a buffer class for the semester since I’m taking some rather hard classes. Senior year in college sucks, since you’ve taken all the easy stuff in the beginning. I went to my first class and we discussed the syllabus and what the class expectations were to be. I realized then, that this was going to be more of a sexual education class, and I’m all about sexual education. I mean, after all, I review sex toys and write about my sex life in a public forum. The second class rolled around, and our instructor asked how many of us had had some form of sexual education in our lives, whether it be in high school, from our parents, from others, etc. I raised my hand, as did a small portion of the class. He asked how many had never had any form of sexual education in their life thus far. The majority of the class, about 80%, raised their hands. My jaw dropped. In a room full of college students, granted some of the class consists of freshmen, most had never had sexual education before. This fact shocked me.

With the growing popularity of smutty television shows, songs about S&M (thanks Rhianna), and sex in advertising, why are there not more efforts to promote sexual education? As the lecture continued on, our instructor told us that many parents are opposed to their children being subjected to that form of education in school. Let’s hit the pause button for a second. Most of these parents are just fine buying their kid a copy of Grand Theft Auto, or letting them watch CSI, Disney movies, iCarly, etc. Video games and television shows, especially the ones geared toward the younger generation, have quite a bit of adult material and sexual innuendos and references. I’ve watched iCarly, and the girls are always on about boys, their bra sizes, and who is going to hook up with whom. CSI has a lot of episodes involving sex crimes, and even BDSM. Disney movies are full of kink, fantasy, and often times romance, and hinted sexual innuendos.

As the lecture progressed we got into a heated debate about the shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom”, and how they glorify teenage pregnancy. Let’s hit the pause button again. Shows like these do NOT promote and glorify teenage pregnancy. They show the reality that young girls have to face when they get pregnant before they’re ready, and the struggles they endure. There is nothing glamorous about it other than the drama, magazine covers, and semi-celebrity statuses that evolve for these girls. There is a school in Tennessee where 90 pregnant teenage girls go before the birth of their children. Young girls are making pacts to get pregnant, but they don’t understand the consequences of their actions. Some of the biggest reasons the girls on the shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” state about why they got pregnant were: “He always pulled out.” “I took antibiotics with my birth control. I didn’t know they made the birth control ineffective.” or the ever famous “We couldn’t afford condoms or birth control.” Ignorance and lack of sexual education, along with other social and economic factors, were probably the cause of the pregnancies and mistakes the girls made sexually.

The lecture was turned back to the topic of us learning about sexual human behavior, and I thought more about the issue of so many hearing these lectures for the first time. It’s a shame that parents are so against their kids learning about sex, and think of it as something taboo. Not everyone does it, but a lot of people do. I think the mindset of a lot of parents is that of, if they pretend it doesn’t exist, their kids won’t get into it. The word “sex” scares a lot of parents.  “Condoms” and “birth control” are even scarier. The fact that kids, and even adults, are uneducated, has a lot of negative effects. Without proper sexual education, people are not informed of diseases, how they are contracted, and how to even tell if you have one; since most diseases do not show symptoms when first contracted. Education provides information on how to prevent the spread of disease, and how to protect you from it. I know that those of you reading this already know how to do these things, but others may not, and I encourage you to educate those around you.

I had sex education in high school, and I went to a Catholic high school. They were real with us, and told us that sex exists; that we’re going to do it, and that if we do decide to do it before marriage to use condoms. I was surprised they didn’t show us how to put condoms on bananas. The fact that we were educated in sex, and what can happen when you do it without protection and proper precaution, made me appreciate my sexuality a lot more. Granted, some of the girls did get pregnant after we graduated, but we knew the consequences of our actions. If more schools were proactive in teaching teenagers, and even pre-teens, about sex, a lot of pregnancies could be prevented.

An interesting statistic I learned in this course, that I learned today actually, is that there is more nudity and sexual content shown on television in Europe than there is in America, and their rate of teen pregnancy and teen sex is lower than ours. The fact that Europe is more open about sexuality could be a cause of the lower rates of pregnancy and such, but it still does happen.  I think that American media should take a leaf out of Europe’s book and be more sex positive, and not treat sex like a disease.

We should be taught in our teens to embrace our sexuality. There is so much negativity about being gay, bisexual, asexual, a virgin, a slut, etc. With proper education and knowledge about sex, we could not only learn to be more accepting of others, but also how to better protect ourselves from what is out there, disease and pregnancy wise. If you’re a parent, I encourage you to talk to your kids about sex. Answer their questions, because let’s face it, they’re going to do it one day. Would you rather them go into it without knowledge, and wind up with a child on the way, or with a disease that may not be treatable? Or would you rather have them know the risks and consequences of a lack of precaution, and have them healthy and without remorse? The choice is yours, but I highly encourage and promote more sexual education for our up and coming young generation.