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Have you ever noticed how our use of the language relating to sex and sex education can be so problematic?
Do you remember your sex-ed class in school? Was it awkward for you? I’m sure if your instructor was comfortable with the explicit language the topic requires, it helped you be comfortable. If he or she was not, I’m sure you noticed and perhaps it had a negative effect on you.
In 1996, Eve Ensler wrote a classic episodic play for adults that illustrates how uncomfortable we are with explicit language. “The Vagina Monologues” has provoked appreciation and astonishment from audiences all over the world.
Have we made any progress in being comfortable with the use of clear language about sexual topics?
Two Michigan lawmakers recently had their speaking privileges suspended for a day for saying the words “vagina” and “vasectomy!” As a response to that, protesters assembled on the statehouse steps to call attention to women’s rights issues with chants of a spinoff of the Beatles’ “She Loves You,” with the chorus: “Vagina, yeah, yeah, yeah… yeah! ”
One of the law makers directly addressed her critics saying, “I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina.”
Politics aside, can’t we just get used to using words clearly?
When I was in medical school, a day just wasn’t complete unless, we as medical students, had to either say a difficult anatomical word in public or be involved with bodily fluids from that region. We soon got used to it all! I mean, were we supposed to just say “blah blah blah” to each other or patients, as comedian Lenny Bruce does in this video, when we needed to discuss body parts as part of medicine or life issues?
How are we supposed to teach sex education effectively without the use of clear, descriptive language?
Sex education is important. It provides young people with the positive information they need to understand their bodies and their gender roles. It realistically educates young people whose lives are already too infiltrated by distorted messages from the media. Educating our young people about themselves will help with self-appreciation and self-esteem. It also prepares them to regard the changes that they are experiencing as normal. They need to know what can happen to them relating to pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. In addition, this education will offer them protection from the inappropriate behavior of others and give them an outlet to bring their concerns to caring people in a safe environment.
For this education to be effective, it must be presented in a clear, understandable, accessible way. If we as adults cannot be comfortable with this language, how can we transmit this information to others?
I remember watching a roundtable discussion on TV about how sex education should be taught in our local schools. I had never seen so many adults stumbling with what words to use and which to avoid! I thought to myself that before the show, they all needed to warm up like a singer before a performance — except with these people, they needed to say the word “intercourse” until they were more comfortable with it, then advance to “penis,” “vagina” and so forth, as that seemed to be what it would take to free them from their mental bonds.
Or we can do it this way?
During blah blah blah, after blood is temporarily trapped in the blah blah so that it becomes enlarged, the blah blah goes into the blah blah blah. Blah blah blah culminates and terminates in blah blah blah. These events may be identified as occurring in a sequence of four stages: excitement, plateau, blah blah blah and resolution. The basic pattern is similar in both sexes, regardless of the specific blah blah blah blah.
All clear now?
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The Vagina Dialogue: The Importance of Clear Language About Sex and Sex Education is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog
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