Why Sex Education is So Important

At 15, I was still scared of boys, sort of. Sure I’d “date” them, and yeah I’d make out with them, but everything else? Terrified. It was because I knew next to nothing about boys, sex, *whispers* penises, and all that good stuff. You learned about sex in one of three places: 6th/7th grade so-called-sex-ed lectures; your equally uninformed friends; your parents (so.mortifying.).

Oh, ’92. So good, so innocent, so….awkward. Way back in 1992, SimCity still had copyright codes hidden in black & white pixelated jumbles in a booklet that required a piece of see-through red plastic to enable viewing of text – without it, you were struck with natural disasters every 10 minutes. Oregan Trail was still fun, sorta, if you didn’t mind the thyphoid. The internet? Did not exist as far as we were concerned. We still used the motherfucking 30-some volume encyclopedia in hardcover for our school projects, as software-based (hello, Microsoft Encarta, long time no see) wasn’t yet available.

Today’s teenagers have the privilege of not just copious internet access, but Scarleteen. Scarleteen provides kids with accurate, safe, embarrassment-free sex education and a place to ask questions. They don’t use scare-tactics, they use facts. At the end of the day, the hormones of a 15-17 yr old are not going to be swayed by a threatening father, a threatening religion, or simple lack of information.

If I had had Scarleteen access in high school, I would not have:

~ thought that my self-worth to men was based on my physical appearance

~ thought that my self-worth to men was based on how “far” I’d go

~ continued to have no clue as to the whereabouts of my clitoris until age 24

~ been so nonchalant about condoms

In short, my sex education/dating education….sucked. It sucked in that it severely lacked. And I know that things aren’t perfect, even now. There’s a lot of mis-information floating around the ‘net, and even some schools providing incorrect information. But this site, Scarleteen, it’s a huge help. It’s a big dent in the “war”. And the problem is….they run on donations. They need help to continue on providing the information and support that teenagers so badly need.

If you read a lot of sex blogs you’re going to be reading a lot about Scarleteen over the next month, because there is a Blog Carnival going on to raise money. So if you’re able, please donate to them. Even just $5 can help. I’m offering what little incentive I can, which I mentioned here. This Bag O’ Swag is up for grabs, and all you have to do to enter to win it is donate to Scarleteen.

Click on the photo to read about all the swag you’ll get, and how to enter.

More from Scarleteen on donations:

As those who work on the web know, while many services — including all we offer at Scarleteen — are free on the user-end, they are not free to provide, especially for a site of this size, depth, heritage and reach. Given the lack of support for teens in general, and the lack of support for comprehensive sex education, we have often operated at a deficit, and have an operating budget that is exceptionally low for the reach and scope of our services. Because the userbase we serve often does not have the means to donate themselves, despite our high traffic of those users, we depend on young adult parents, allies and mentors to help us sustain this service for the teens we all care so much about.

Scarleteen is, and has always been funded primarily by private donations: donations are critical to our survival as an organization. We are fully independent media. If you support what we do, and support the idea that young adults should be able to get accurate, inclusive and caring sexuality information and help when they need it, how they need it, we ask that you do what you can to help support us in that endeavor.

For information on where your donations will go click here. For more information on what we do and why it’s so important, find out more about us here.