How Are Teachers With Repressed Sexuality Expected To Impart Sex Education To Students?
It’s ironic that despite being the world’s second most populated country, Indians still refuse to talk about sex and sexual health, and these things remain taboo in our society. While our country continues to have sex and reproduce, talking about sex is still hush-hush. And dare we talk about sex ed, it’s blasphemous. I could go on and complain about the lack of sex ed in schools in India but if we think about it, who is going to be giving us this sex ed? Teachers, hai na? But how do we expect teachers to provide students sex ed when society has repressed their sexualities? Let’s understand this problem more in-depth.
In a society where women don’t talk about their sexuality, how can we expect them to talk about sex? While men openly discuss their genitalia, women don’t even speak about their vagina with their mothers or their girlfriends and in order for female teachers to educate students about sex, we first need them to be empowered. Another fact to note is that sex ed in our schools is more focused on teaching abstinence but are they really going to abstain? Not really. So, why not talk about safe sex instead, hai na?
Let’s Begin By Empowering Women And Their Sexuality
It’s extremely important to talk about women and their sexuality, their sexual desires and sexual health before we expect them to educate others. Sex education lessons will only be fruitful if women are able to own their sexuality freely and say the words ‘vagina’, ‘penis’ and ‘sex’ without being shamed or ashamed. I remember my school days when teachers would silently skip the reproduction chapter because talking about genitalia made them uncomfortable. What’s the root cause of this? Well, to begin with, ever since our childhood, we’ve been told to keep our ‘private parts’ hidden and not talk about them. How many parents do we know who call a penis, a penis and a vagina, a vagina and not ‘private part’ or ‘pee pee’. How are kids supposed to feel comfortable with using the correct term for their genitalia when parents refuse to say it or talk about it? Moreover, if as parents, you cannot have an open conversation with your kids, how is a teacher whose sexuality is just as repressed as yours going to speak to a class of say 40 or 50 students about sex and genitalia?
Also Read: Neelam Kothari, Bhavana Pandey Don’t Want To Say The Word “Vagina”. Why Are We So Intimidated By Our Lady Parts?
The first step towards making sex education in India better is for parents to talk about vaginas and penises and sex with their kids. Only then can we expect kids to understand their genitalia and feel comfortable enough to ask the right question and seek proper education about sex, sexual health and reproduction. More importantly, teachers need to be sensitised about sex and sexual health and women need to have a safe space to talk about their sexuality and own it openly without being shamed for it. Sex education in India needs to begin by educating the teachers and by making it socially acceptable for women to not just own their sexuality but also speak about sex, sexual health and their sexual desires.
The Direction Of Sex Ed Needs To Shift
We’ve all experienced our teachers limiting sex education to either not talking about sex or simply telling us that we’re too young to have sex and that we should abstain from having sex. But doesn’t that just take away the whole point of sex education? Sex ed is supposed to teach students about sex and sexual health and more importantly safe sex. And not imparting sex education is not going to stop people from having sex instead, students will only turn to untrustworthy sources for information. So, isn’t it just better to guide them about safe sex, consent, reproduction and reproductive rights? I think it’s high time we talk about sexual health and sex with the youth instead of asking them to steer clear of it.
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