Stories on Sex Ed

Just from reading the postings of my fellow classmates, I have come to realize the variety of experiences women have both in their formal sexual education and the way in which they received "the talk" from their parents. It hit me, though, that most of us represent the same generation of women, learning about sex from pretty much the same generation of adults. If those experiences were so radically different, my mind was abuzz with possibility.

When my grandmother was a child, her mother was terrified to discuss with her anything about the changes in her body, so she simply didn't bother. One day, my grandma went to the bathroom to discover that she was bleeding heavily, and she was scared out of her mind. With no information on menstruation, she jumped to the conclusion that she was dying and began sobbing hysterically. She went running to her mother to tell her, and her mother apparently deemed it appropriate to tell her that she had simply gotten her period. As a result, my grandma started discussing menstruation with my mom as young as six or seven, to keep that from ever happening to her.

Here is a link to a post from a while back on Feministe, about the ways in which girls were taught about their bodies. The post itself is interesting, but the best part is the comment section, filled with amazing stories from women of all ages about their experiences. I highly recommend reading through them.