“Whether we like it or not, research shows kids ARE having sex, and much of it is unprotected and had well before there is a clear understanding around how consent works,” she said. “Masturbation is one of the safest, healthiest activities a young person can do in the privacy of their own bedroom,” she explained. “And yet we continue to shame it and avoid discussion of it when it has the power to potentially prevent cases of sexual trauma and STDs.”
“Girls should be taught to label all the parts of their vaginal anatomy from as young an age as possible,” she argued. “Is it any wonder then that young women go into the world thinking their pleasure is a non-issue during sex?”
Nadia pointed out a recent study in Time Magazine which looked at a study from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) that found that on average, less than half of girls ages 14-17 had ever masturbated, while half of the boys in that same age range said that they masturbated at a minimum twice a week.
Because our current version of sex education focuses on the mechanics of sex (or reproductive biology as writer Dan Savage has said), Nadia told The Daily Mail that girls don’t understand the emotional reasons behind sex, which includes their own pleasure.
“[Girls are] going out and having partnered experiences without any understanding of what their bodies are even supposed to feel during arousal and orgasm,” she argued. “Masturbation is the safest way to learn what you do and don’t like without risking your health in the process.”
A recent study by the University of East London confirms this finding, reporting that one fifth of boys ages 16-20 say that are “dependent on porn as a stimulant for real sex.”
In the United States, only 25 states require mandated sexual education classes. And of those 25, only 13 states have required that these classes are medically accurate. Which means that if we don’t figure how to have these kinds of conversations, awkward or not, then we might be failing our kids in the long run.
