Sex Education is a necessity in today's world. It just bugs me out, how people treat such a topic with glaring stigma and farce. Puberty, Menstruation, Sex, STDs affect all of us, and pretending that they do not exist will only incense the fire of this burning ignorance about the subject. It's time we treat this subject maturely and do our part in learning and educating ourselves not only about Sex but also about the growth of human beings and what ubiquitously affects all of us.

I knew the time when I was 12-13 years old. I used to take part in school competitions, I used to talk with my family, relatives and the one things that drove me crazy was people saying to me that your voice is squeaky and you should have a voice that has depth and a deafening sound that signifies power and makes people fear you because of it. It was the most ludicrous thing I had heard. I admit that my voice was squeaky. But there was nothing I could do about it. But one thing that I did do, was to doubt myself in why I have this voice and not others of my age. It is now when I learnt about puberty and that your voice becomes more and more grounded and clearer as you reach the end of puberty is when I realized what was going on back then. And this is why I think sex education is a necessity in today's world. Neither my parents, teachers or my relatives knew why I had a squeaky voice, but had an expectation from me at that time to sound like mature people. Had I known back then about puberty, I would lived my life a little differently back then.

I had a friend back in school who was gay. He was complete male, but just so happened that he seemed to like boys i.e. in scientific terms, his sexual orientation was gay but his gender identity was male. But the fact is, neither me nor the boys in the class thought that this was natural and they just completed isolated this person. My classmates would make jokes about him, mock him, prank him, but no one cared to know how dangerous, ridiculous, time-backward this behavior was. Intellectually, in cognitive function, and intelligence-vice, there is no difference between people with different sexual orientations and gender identity and, it was true, this person went on to pursue a master's in the US as opposed to the peers who bullied him. Yet, with a lack of proper sex education, we as humans who parochially only experienced binary genders, unconsciously or consciously create stigma and biases based on lack of information. This not only affects us on being callous and inhuman but more so affects the person at whom it is targeted. It is likely that they develop an inferiority complex based on this and might have self-doubts about themselves.

There has never been more need for Sex Education amongst the youth and in society than today. It is imperative then if that need has not been fulfilled by your education system, the youth take the initiative themselves and educate themselves about this topic by seeking guidance in the form of talking to certified educators or reading scientifically written books on sex education. As we all know, and it is applicable to all the fields, there are two types of learning - structured and unstructured. Unstructured learning is where we are guided by our curiosity and learn things by searching/ googling about topics and explore the topic in depth as required by us. The one benefit of this method is that we really get to know the topic in depth and get a really good understanding of it. The only downside is that it is highly likely we will completely miss out some of the other, equally essential topics that are needed . For example, let's say we decided to study about the Female Reproductive System. It is likely that we will study the topic in complete details, study about pregnancy, menstruation but in the mean time also miss out few important topics such as puberty and hormonal changes. That is when Structured Learning comes into picture. Structured Learning is when we learn something that is in an orderly structured fashion, taught by a certified instructor and likely gives us all the essential information needed by us to cover the topic to a sufficient level of depth. That is why, the best way to learn things is to use a combination of Structured and Unstructured learning so that we cover all the essential topics and cover the topics to a level of depth as needed and guided by our own intellectual curiosity about the subject.

It is time that we treat this subject with maturity whilst giving it its due importance and how it affects our lives. Men should not be too selfish as to ignore the whole topic itself or to study only the opposite gender or his own gender only. Women too should not be too selfish and naive about learning this subject. This subject needs to be dealt in a proper unbiased, informative learning to get the best out of it. So, that we, as citizens of the word create a society, where people are not stigmatized out of ignorance and anyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity can live a respectful and meaningful life just as anyone else.

That's it from my side, though on a side note, if this blog really influenced you to learn about sex education; do read this book The Complete Book of Sex Education as it has just the things you want and is written in an Indian context which you will find totally relatable. I hope you enjoy reading it too and continue exploring your curiosity.