Sex education is the same class where you sniggered and giggled while the impassioned teacher droned on about menstrual cycles.
At the time, unlike the other subjects you were taught, you didn’t really know what the whole syllabus about the topic was and you took what you could because there was no exam to write.
Little did you know there was an exam – just a few years ahead, and as bad luck would have it, you wish you had listened to the sex ed teacher well. But then you remembered that he didn’t teach you about anything practical at all that could have come handy.
If only the sex ed teacher clarified the following issues properly, we wouldn’t have to scour and comb the internet for hours to get proper information.
1. Porn is not a good way to understand sex
Because porn is unrealistic and most of the things that happen in there is fictional. It is a performance art, just like movies. Remember how we always remind ourselves that life is not like a movie. The exact same thing holds true for porn too.
We wish our sex ed teachers had taught us that before we learned it ourselves the hard way.
2. Birth control pills aren’t that effective
Because they come with a lot of prerequisites. Firstly women have to take them for seven consecutive days for them to be effective. It does NOT work instantly. Also, if you miss even one of the days in the seven, you are in potential trouble.
Remember the “Nirodh” ads that advertised the efficiency of oral contraceptive pills? Turns out they are not really that efficient either. The real world efficiency is around 91%.
Also, its effectiveness can vary with other factors such as antibiotics, medicine stomach acidity and even dandruff control shampoos can hamper its efficiency.
3. And you need to take precautions while using a condom
Let’s make one thing clear – condoms are very efficient in preventing STDs.
But they aren’t as effective as we think them to be. Most of us blurt out that “Condoms are 99% effective!” and some say 97%.
But in reality, they are just about 82% effective. This too with a long list of things you have to keep in mind while using it.
So you see, it is not just about using the condom, it is also how you use it too.
4. How, when and what to masturbate to
We either got the gyaan that masturbation once in a while is OK or masturbation is a sin and your ears will fall off if you indulge in it too often.
We became adults and figured out by ourselves that it is not that big a deal at all. It would have been super nice of our sex ed teachers if they had taught us the subtleties of the act – how many times is ok, when to do it and the precautions you should take if your parents are in the house. Just saying. It would have helped.
5. The subtle things about a vagina
The image above is probably the same image you were shown in your sex ed class. The problem with that image is that we didn’t have a single clue of what it actually looked like in real – even after watching porn.
It would have been cool if they had taught us what an actual vagina looked like, instead of us finding it out through the twisted world of porn.
6. All vaginas butts, boobs, penises are unique
Again, they showed us the biological drawing of a human female and male body and that was it. The body was anatomically perfect, and so are the bodies in pornography.
Our sex ed teachers should have taught us that everybody differs from the other. No two boobs are same, and no two penises are either.
7. The subtlety of saying yes and no
Or even saying “No” openly for that matter.
8. Abstinence doesn’t work at all
Because when a couple falls in love with each other sparks are going to fly and they will make love. Abstinence just doesn’t work in such cases, or in any case for that matter.
People are going to have sex. Period.
9. Orgasms. Definitely orgasms.
It is only deep into adulthood we come to know the difference between a climax and orgasm. It would have been super helpful if they had at least told us that sex is not as mechanical as we thought it to be.
10. Cleaning up down there
We should have been taught how to groom ourselves down there because the Internet, even today, is confusing. And hygiene down there is extremely critical if a person is sexually active.
We should have been taught what a healthy penis and vagina look like. We should have been taught of the diseases we can contract if we do not clean the pubic areas properly. It is sad that we come to know more about genital health through Playboy magazine than our sex ed teacher.
11. There are toys. Just telling us about their existence
Some people may consider it a taboo topic, but since sex ed should encompass everything about sex, the existence of sex toys should have been revealed to us. Not because we would use it in the future – but because it is a piece of information about sex.
Also, sexologists recommend the use of sex toys, since they are better than having sex with an unknown partner.
12. You need to talk to your partner about sex to have good sex
Wham, Bam, thank you, ma’am.
That’s all I remember from my sex ed class back in school. We were taught how a man and a woman did it and then there was a 2-hour lecture on abstinence. They never emphasized the importance of communication between consenting partners and how it affects the whole experience of having sex.
Hope they upgrade the curriculum so that we become more educated in this vastly ignorant field of sexual education.
Are there any other issues you wish they could cover? Let us know in the comments.