Before I even officially became a college student, I wandered along the club and organization fair, searching for one booth in particular. I weaved among the lines and after a few minutes and discussions with clubs I wasn’t particularly interested in, my eyes finally laid on it—a booth that had information, pamphlets and otherwise on sexual health and education.
I’ve always been a huge advocate for expanding sex ed within school systems and for helping others get the information they need. At this booth, they gave me different flyers and pamphlets and even some free condoms to help encourage me to teach my friends and peers about safe, healthy, and consensual sex. I took these items with pride.
A year ago in high school, I decided to try and start a segment in our school paper that would help anonymous students get answers for sex ed questions they may have, answered by a trusted source. While it had only the best intentions, it got quickly shut down due to being “obscene.” What I question is what about students wanting to know about how different aspects of sex, puberty, and otherwise is so bad?
While teenage pregnancy rates are falling, there is so much pressure in the media and in society to become sexually active, and even to those at a young age there is a desire to start dating. There’s also a problem within our sex ed classes at school, with abstinence being such a praised teaching method while hardly touching base on other methods. Of course, you can’t get pregnant or impregnate another person if you don’t have sex, so this option should not be ignored! Unfortunately, there should be a better understanding of what other options there are, such as condoms, pills, IUD, implant, and so on and so forth. In my experience, many people don’t know or else are not sure of how to properly have safe sex.
I cannot and will not pride myself on being some sort of expert, but I feel like I do know enough to either help my friends that come to me or else have the resources for them to go to. My backpack has the pamphlets I’ve collected over the past months and, due to reasons mostly thanks to looking for options to help my problems with my reproductive system, I have a fairly large input on different birth control options and what would be best for each person.
One of the biggest things, especially now being in college, is the importance of consent being taught. There’s so many instances within my social circles that I have heard of unconsensual sex, either due to force, being under the influence, or else someone not wanting to but doing it anyway, and many other reasons, but many times they don’t realize it could have been prevented. I feel like within our sex ed classes that consent is not talked about as much as it should be, especially considering that (in my case, at least) sex ed ends once you reach the high school age, which is when it should be even more implemented since it’s more relevant at that age.
What I want people to take away from this is that sometimes our school systems are not going to be able to teach you everything you should really know about sex ed. While this is not our faults, we should take it upon ourselves to broaden our knowledge of sex ed in order to benefit not only ourselves but our peers if needed. My friends know they can come to me if they have a question since I have learned so much about this topic, but I’m not an expert, and I’m not always going to be there, no matter how much I’d want to be.
If you take the time to learn outside of the classroom, it will not only benefit those around you, but you as well. You may still find yourself confused at times, but you will know where to go to and how to access the information you need, which will help you so much in the long run. Since we don't learn as much as we should in these classes, educating yourself and others can help make your experiences much more safe and enjoyable.
Get yourself to a reliable place with unbiased, factual information and teach yourself. Get resources to hand out to others and to refer to when needed, and never be afraid to step in if you see someone that needs help getting out of an unsafe situation. All of this can help make the world a safer, healthier, and more consensual space to live in.
