The "s" word

As i have my morning ritual of papers and coffee at the cafe below my apartment before work this morning, something unusual on the paper's reader's comments caught my eye. There was a lengthy full page of sex practices' description. The entire article was written by a doctor or reproductive health illustrating methods of sex practices commonly performed by people all over the world.

While what i read what might have struck someone not much older than a teenager's interest -merely-, i wondered, why publish such a redundant article! The entire article highlighted scientific terminology on what blowjobs and butt sex is called. As if we dont' already know. as if it served a purpose.

The reason i found it redundant is because, knowing a scientific terminology of any given word is of no use if the aim of the article was to spark more awareness on how to protect yourself from STDs.

All the talk cock sing song terminology will not keep more and more teenagers from being infected with STDs. What they need is sex education. It doesn't take someone with a psychology degree to explain that teenagers tend to do what they are told not to do. Telling them about the possible STDs and consequences of unsafe sex is only the grass root of the whole awareness raising effort. What they need, is to see and hear from other unfortunate people who have been inffected with STDs. Visual stimulations are more effective than cognitive stimulations in th attempt in behavioral changes. Hence the saying, seeing is believing. Just because Gonorrhoea is not as life threatening as AIDS, it doesn't mean it will not scar you and your future sex life or relationships for life.

Malaysia still takes on a non-confrontational approach when it comes to sex education. To us, sex education is a taboo topic culturally and religiously. We come up with excuses that if we were to conduct sex education in school, we will be encouraging our youths to open up to pre-marital sex.

True and false. Knowing the different contraceptive methods will enable teenagers to have a healthy and safe sex life, and perhaps condone more sexual experiences. However, turning a blind eye is worse, as we do not stop them from eventually being sexually active. But we also put them at risk of being infected with all sorts of infections and diseases as well as unnecessary distress of starting a family before they are ready. Curiosity is not something we can curb. It is better to know the hows and why, than to just hope that their curiosity will eventually phase out. There is a saying which says that curiosity is a mother of invention. Hell yeah in this context, only that the invention is more of STDs and unwanted births.

I strongly believe that it is important to start sex education in school itself. While sex education can be embarassing and awkward, it is a milestone in creating a more health conscious malaysian youth from a sexual perspective. Recently, a little girl told me that her classmates were talking using the "F" word. And they were 7 years old. Pre-schoolers the year before. What the hell? We cannot blame it on the parents using the words at home casually or as swear words. It is because the meaning of the word is not explained to a child, that the child uses the word carelessly without thinking of its consequences. It is because even as parents, they tend to shield their children from any information to do with the birds and bees and give their children the negative connotations of sex as being a dirty word and action.

Sex education will be a saving grace to your younglings if it's anything. And the way our system is going right now, there is very little hope for the younger generation. If we keep looking at the smaller picture and focus of preserving what's lft of our culture, surely in time, we will see that our current emphasis is so miniscule compared to the bigger problem of trying to stop an STD epidemic.

Sex is beautiful. Let us not view it as a sin.