January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and in honor of this, we post an article that asks this important question. The author makes practical suggestions that we support on the Get R.E.A.L. blog, like emphasising a comprehensive sexual education curriculum for all students, and ending the stigma that surrounds cervical cancer, and that also colors the way we think, feel and talk about sexuality, our bodies and our genitals . The article also addressed the importance of bringing everyone to the table, since we all have a role to play in ending cervical cancer: parents, friends, boyfriends and husbands, cervical cancer survivors, lesbian, gay and transgender individuals, doctors, nurses, immigrants, young people and students, older people, low-income communities, communities of color, public health officials, teachers, and politicians.
What do you think, readers?
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Happy New Year All!
Here is the best article of the year we have seen so far on the topic of young people, their sexuality and why these issues will be so important in the coming year. We love it. Here is an excerpt:
The radical shift from an abstinence-only framework to a comprehensive one loses its transformative potential if our previous generation is still setting the rules. This is why we desperately need a youth-centered and youth-led struggle for comprehensive sex education. Young people have to lead the way in shaping sex education policy. Otherwise, we’re destined to replicate the same morally bankrupt narrative that youth sexuality is an epidemic of global proportions.We have to change the very way we think about sex and sexuality. Instead of treating it as a social parasite, we should embrace it. We need to teach young folks that when treated with maturity, reciprocity and awareness, sex can be an exciting, fulfilling, and even empowering aspect of our lives. Learning to love our bodies is one of the most radical things we can do in a culture sustained by oppressive power structures. However, as long as we’re taught to feel shameful about our bodies, and denied the right to sex-positive comprehensive sex education, we’re doomed to replicate the very systems of domination that thrive on our ignorance and complacency.
The radical shift from an abstinence-only framework to a comprehensive one loses its transformative potential if our previous generation is still setting the rules. This is why we desperately need a youth-centered and youth-led struggle for comprehensive sex education. Young people have to lead the way in shaping sex education policy. Otherwise, we’re destined to replicate the same morally bankrupt narrative that youth sexuality is an epidemic of global proportions.We have to change the very way we think about sex and sexuality. Instead of treating it as a social parasite, we should embrace it. We need to teach young folks that when treated with maturity, reciprocity and awareness, sex can be an exciting, fulfilling, and even empowering aspect of our lives. Learning to love our bodies is one of the most radical things we can do in a culture sustained by oppressive power structures. However, as long as we’re taught to feel shameful about our bodies, and denied the right to sex-positive comprehensive sex education, we’re doomed to replicate the very systems of domination that thrive on our ignorance and complacency.
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