Let’s talk about sex (education)
ELEANOR MARGOLIS reflects on what she wishes she’d learned at school
“There’s no denying our first experience of good sex can be revelator
ELEANOR MARGOLIS is a freelance journalist who also writes a column for New Statesman.
@EleanorMargolis
I’ve never understood why, during sex ed at my secondary school, we were shown a video of a real-life, ejaculating penis.
It was mostly the boys who screamed (they probably thought they’d come across as “gay” if they didn’t). The clip seemed to come out of nowhere, with little context or explanation. It only served to make sex – the very thing the lesson was supposed to elucidate – seem all the more frightening and abstract; more like something out of a disused plastics factory turned art gallery in Berlin than something normal and fun in an Ikea bed. Let alone something that could be enjoyed by two people of the same gender. We – the girls at least – were sent away with goody bags full of tampons to figure it all out for ourselves.