Queering Sex Ed

Queering Sex Ed

By: Rachel Lewis

WGSS 2000

If you grew up in the United States, you probably experienced sex education around the age of 10 or 11. You were young; your body was probably starting to go through changes that you didn’t understand very well. You may have been growing darker hair in new places; you noticed that you smelled worse than usual after a long day on the playground, or that little blemishes would pop up on your once perfectly soft skin. You may have started to be more aware of your other classmate’s bodies as well, opposite sex or otherwise.

When your teacher finally brought up sex education (you knew it was going to happen this year because your older friends tell you), everyone in the class would get jittery. You would then be separated into two separate rooms that divide the boys and the girls. Our teachers then proceeded to teach us about what sex was; a penis goes into a vagina, the penis ejaculates, and a baby is made. They may have discussed the reproductive system briefly, or the differences between boys and girls. This type of teaching is a perfect example of heterosexism: the assumption that all relationships between romantic partners are inherently straight, therefore asserting that heterosexuality is superior to other sexualities because it is the norm. When children are taught that the only way for people to express love for one another through a heterosexual union, they begin to normalize heterosexuality without being able to critically question what love and sex can mean to them on a personal level. By trying a less heteronormative approach to sex education, we allow our children the opportunity to let feelings and urges come from natural places. Denormalizing straight sex would ultimately be more inclusive to children who believe that they are queer, transgender, asexual, etc.

While a majority of the population reports that they are straight, there are still many youths who fall somewhere on the LGBT spectrum. These children are taught that sex is only okay one way, in school or at home. By offering queer sex education to all students, queer kids will not only be able to understand themselves better, but those who do not identify as queer are able to learn about areas of love and sexuality that they may have never been exposed to. According to Teen Health Source, queer sex education would have multiple requirements: inclusive, sex positive, accessible, cis, trans* and asexual inclusive, youth positive, body positive, empowering rather than same-based, and one that accounts for pleasure. With at least 3 states requiring that all forms of “gay” behavior be taught as illegal, immoral, or a hazard to your health, we definitely have a long way to go to queer sex education.

Some may argue that 10-11 years old is “too young” to teach children about safe sex. According to Planned Parenthood, however, young teens that have healthy conversations about sex with their parents are more likely to delay having sex, have fewer sexual partners, and are more likely to use protection. Young children become curious about their bodies, and this curiosity is something that we should nurture.

I for one remember finding little dark hairs under my armpits one day and thinking to myself, “am I turning into a boy?” I had never seen a woman with hair under her armpits before. This shouldn’t be shocking; every single portrayal of women in the media I was exposed to was an image of an airbrushed model with perfect hair/skin/nails. I had never even seen a woman with a lot hair anywhere on her body except her head. I knew what shaving was, but I thought only your legs got hairy, and that in order to be a girl you had to have smooth legs. My leg hair became me worst enemy, then my armpit hair, and finally, my pubic hair. I hated the pubes the most; they were dirty, and I wanted my vagina to be hairless because the notion of hair did not sit well with those I chose to surround myself with. It took me a long time to make the connection that that hair grows naturally, and did not grow for the purpose of me shaving it off. When I finally broke out of that spell of shaving, I remember feeling wind through my leg hair for the first time.

 

 

 

WORKS CITED

 

"Queering Sexual Education." TeenHealthSourcecom Queering Sexual Education Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.

 

 "Talking to Kids About Sex and Sexuality." Talking to Kids About Sex and Sexuality. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015WO