A Thank You Letter To The Failed Sex Ed System Of America

Dear Failed Sexual Education System of America,

Thank you for conditioning me to hate words like sex, penis, vagina, clitoris, and anus, and turning chlamydia, herpes, AIDS, and gonorrhea into jokes; they're not bad words or jokes. It has taken me years to be comfortable even saying them to my doctor. Thank you for making it taboo to talk about any of those things in school hallways, causing whispers and misinformation to spread like wildfire.

Thank you for allowing sex ed to be a state decision, and that only 24 states out of 50 mandate their schools to teach it, and only 12 of those 24 mandate that it must be medically accurate. Thank you for allowing abstinence-only based sex education. Thank you for leading to so many unplanned teenage pregnancies due to incorrect information or worse, no information. Thank you for using scare tactics, telling young girls that they'll get pregnant and die if they have sex, but subtly letting boys know that it's okay for them to have as many sexual partners as they want. Thank you for never teaching how harmful slut-shaming can be. Thank you for the slut-shaming.

Thank you for never mentioning consent. Thank you for subliminally teaching young boys that they can have sex whenever they want because they won't bear the consequences of a pregnancy. Thank you for never teaching students what a broken home looks like, how much strain is put on a single mother or father, or how much child support matters and costs.

Thank you for never mentioning places like Planned Parenthood. Thank you for never teaching us what a gynecologist or a pap smear is. Thank you for telling us the only options for an unwanted pregnancy were putting the baby up for adoption or keeping the baby anyway. Thank you for never mentioning the word abortion. Thank you for scaring young girls into being ashamed of and scared for wanting sex.

Thank you for all the misinformation and the left out details. Thank you for never teaching how hormonal birth control works. Thank you for leaving out that girls can have multiple orgasms and that boys have rebound times. Thank you for leaving out that girls even can have an orgasm. Thank you for teaching that the only reason that humans should be having sex is to make babies. Thank you for ignoring the fact that we are human and disregarding the fact that we can very easily get aroused. Thank you for never teaching that vaginas are elastic and that a vagina isn't really loose from sleeping with multiple people; it's loose because the girl's sexual partner is doing something right arousing her and preparing her for sex so it won't be as painful. Thank you for leaving out the fact that period sex is not a bad thing. It relieves cramps and is so much more intense for the girl, albeit just a bit messier.

Thank you for making girls ashamed to have their periods. Thank you for teaching us to either shove foreign objects up our vaginas to staunch the flow of blood pouring out of us or wearing a hygienic pad and leaving us to feel like we're sitting in a pool of our own blood. Thank you for making boys terrified of and/or uncomfortable because of tampons. It's actually hilarious to see their reaction when we just whip one out of our purse. Throw one in the middle of a circle of them and it's like watching oil shrink away from dish soap. Thank you for making a girl bleeding through her pants one of the most embarrassing things to happen to her.

And most of all, as a woman, thank you for leaving out the fact that a clitoris exists and what exactly it is and what it does.

Sincerely,

A Pissed Off and Informed Female Who Is Scared for Her Future Children Who I Will Most Definitely Be Teaching the Things That You Probably Never Will