BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 07:35 PM

You say that couple were "doing it wrong" for years, Amos?

Kind of makes one wonder just how they were doing it! ;-)

(Not in the ear, I hope...)

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 07:29 PM

From: Jack the Sailor - PM
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 07:03 PM

There is something about sex that is autodidactic.

I know there is a jacking off joke somewhere in there.

Ah, yes there is.

That's about all I dare to say. ; - )

Jay

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 07:03 PM

There is something about sex that is autodidactic.

I know there is a jacking off joke somewhere in there.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: akenaton
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 06:49 PM

I agree with Hawk.....learning for oneself is great fun...dont complicate matters

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Amos
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 06:37 PM

There is something about sex that is autodidactic. ALthough I know of one case where a couple did it wrong for years, and finally thehusband had his wife comitted for want of an heir. In the 20th century!! Mygawd.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 06:31 PM

My point being, any child who wants to learn facts about sex and who has a bit of initiative can do it quite readily by seeking out information him or herself...through normal literacy, in fact! ;-) It would certainly help if one got some helpful information from one's parents, teachers, etc, but if one doesn't, there are other ways.

I never found religion standing in the way of my learning anything about sex, saulgoldie. It wasn't even a factor in my case, because we didn't belong to any religion nor did it play any significant role in the various schools I attended in my youth.

What did play a significant role in those schools was nationalistic political bullshit. They were not teaching me to worship God when I was in school, saulgoldie, they were teaching me to worship the modern political state and to serve it unquestioningly for the rest of my natural life.

So what pushes your buttons clearly doesn't push mine, if I may go by the general tenor of your opening remarks on this thread. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 06:18 PM

My father was too inhibited to tell me anything sensible about sex! ;-) (not that he didn't try...)

My mother told me nothing about it.

My classmates told me various silly things about it.

I got quite a bit of useful information from books.

And that, in the end, turned out to be good enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: akenaton
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 06:14 PM

Brilliant...not lost your touch I see. :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 06:00 PM

In the same sense that shaving is akin to suicide, I would suggest...

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: gnu
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 03:50 PM

Well said... especially... "I further suggest that depriving children of education about their behaviour as sexual beings is akin to child abuse."

A very insightful and precise observation.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 03:31 PM

I agree with Kevin- 'literacy' can be twisted and pulled to fit this idea but it is a torturous exercise.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:10 PM

Literacy is the right term, I think, for working knowledge gleaned from education both formal and informal... like cultural literacy.

Couldn't agree more.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:04 PM

"Literacy" - what a very peculiar use of the word. "Understanding", "knowledge", "awareness", those are the kind of words that make sense here - but "literacy"...

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 11:59 AM

"... but the man couldn't help it."...a culturally embedded excuse for "they don't want to help it."
   This usually accompanies the attitude that marriage conveys ownership to a man. (That is, official ownership. Many men assume de facto ownership if a woman allows sex..)

My wife learned this song many years ago: it makes a point.

Ballad_of_Erica_Levine

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: akenaton
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 11:43 AM

The biggest danger is when information is concealed...as in the latest hiv figures.
You Americans are fortunate to have an open and independent organisation like CDC to give you the facts.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Big Mick
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 11:01 AM

The old celts had it right. They understood the cycles that drove folks and didn't assign a morality to it. Sexual curiosity and urges were as natural and obvious to them as the sun coming up.

It's just sex, after all. Relax.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 10:26 AM

All too often the label "promiscuity" is used to condemn. Promiscuity is the abandonment of choice. So long as anyone exercises choice they are not "promiscuous".

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 05:56 AM

In his memoirs Spike Milligan tells of him being sent to a convent school when the family lived in India, his mother asked the Mother Superior how they separated the sexes ? usualy with a crowbar the nun replied.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 05:03 AM

I fully agree, and would add that emotional literacy ia as important as sexual literacy. By that I mean teaching the importance of respect and kindness in relationships, that using people for physical pleasure alone is wrong, and that male and female alike should be cherished and viewed equally in all our dealings. The trouble is that the mechanics of sex are taught, but not so much the importance of love, trust and mutual respect.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: mauvepink
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 04:39 AM

Education is the way forward in a great many areas of our lives. Ignorance causes much hurt and distress. Openess - and I do not mean promiscuity - in sexual matters gets rid of ignorances when done right. When things are taboo it makes space for doubt and ignorance about true underlying feelings and reasons. Women often pay the price for a lot of this though I would never say men cannot be victims too.

I'm with saulgoldie for sure on this

mauve

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:44 AM

And, the misogyny continues in our Congress.

Ebbie, it seems so many cultures thought men were so helpless in controlling their "urges" and, of course, blamed it all on the women. Sadder, still, it is happening in so many places, today.

saul...I agree with you, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 11:49 PM

Yesterday I was forcibly reminded of the long history of the oppresion and abuse of women.

I was talking with a Tlinget woman - a bright, literate women who grew up in the traditional way of Alaskan Natives in Hoonah, Alaska, a village on an offshore island in Southeast. A very large part of their culture is story telling, which acts as an oral history passed down through generations.

One of the taboos in Alaska Native culture is to marry within your own moiety. I'm sure it was instituted hundreds of yeas ago to prevent inbreeding.

Anyway a Raven must not marry a Raven but an Eagle. If your mother was Eagle, you must find someone to marry whose mother was Raven. Rebellion has/had severe consequences.

She launched into a traditional story where this woman and man married/had an affair within their own moiety. When the Elders discovered it, they took the man and put him with a different woman.

They took the offending woman and bound her to a stake at the shore facing the incoming tide, where she drowned.

When I remonstrated, my friend told me, The woman knew before she ever went out with him that it was taboo.

I said, The man knew it too!

She said, Ah, but the man couldn't help it.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 09:27 PM

Women are hurt much more by attitudes which are still demeaning and erode self esteem, by the still existing lack of decent ways to make a living, support their children in the absence of responsible men to help out.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 09:20 PM

I sent my own three kids to Catholic high schools. Contrary to what some might expect, the schools did a pretty good job of teaching the kids what my ex and I didn't. The texts the kids used were excellent. My ex was in nursing school when the kids were in high school, so they got some of their sex education in connection with their mother's nursing school education and texts.

I homeschooled my stepson through high school, and the homeschool charter school didn't offer a sex education course. My stepson is taking a human sexuality course in junior college this summer, and it seems to be excellent.

There are some things that parents can't teach teenage children very well, so it's good to have a mix of parental enlightenment and good sex education in school. I think all four of my kids ended up with a pretty good mix of both.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 09:19 PM

Definition of a 'father': A man who doesn't want HIS daughter doing what he wanted other men's daughters to do when he was their age.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 09:04 PM

I was a bout 15 and dating this girl who lived down the street and one day I was over at her house and her daddy walked over to me when no one was within earshot, looked me square in the eyes and said, "You know they punch a hole in one outta three rubbers" and then walked away...

I donno if that is true but I doubt it but that ain't the issue at all... Heck, I mighta made to second base with his daughter but this was like the 50s and 15 year old boys just weren't gettin' much more back then... I would have loved to have had to worry about "them rubbers"...

LOL...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: DrugCrazed
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:57 PM

Hear hear. I'm too young to be a parent, but by god do they need to teach some stuff

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:52 PM

On npr tonight there was a show about the sexual world of the handicapped. It was refreshing and uplifting to hear.

The sexual repression of muslim boys and men are expressed in rapes of inpunity which under their laws protects the men and prosecutes the women.

The sexual teachings of right wing christianity hasn't stopped anything but does make for a rich and varied world of accusation and shame.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: michaelr
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:46 PM

I am very sorry, saulgoldie, but I'll have to agree with you.

Subject: RE: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:15 PM

Hooray for Saul!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: BS: Sexual Literacy: Not Enough of it.
From: saulgoldie
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:12 PM

I insist that many of our social and political problems stem from too many people not being literate in human sexuality. Too many of our faulty notions of sexuality come from religious books and ancient and long-discredited social notions rather than from what we know actually is.

Competent and honest sex education is far too often challenged by religious entities, and this perpetuates our faulty knowledge. I further suggest that depriving children of education about their behaviour as sexual beings is akin to child abuse. We teach them about most other aspects of bodily health, and this should be no different. If parents are sexually illiterate, then it should be done by well-informed and comfortable teachers.

I further suggest that much or most of this illiteracy hurts women disproportionately.

I am certain that many false notions will turn up in this thread. And I will correct them as I see them.

Saul