INFOBUS: Keeping it safe in summer

[deepbreath]

Hahahaaaaaaa Leethal! Touche

[bethechange]

I thought the 'banana' education was only in American movies!? Clearly not.

[Ali818]

Did anyone ever teach you what consent means? What does consent mean to you?

---

I learnt what consent meant pretty much from my parents and hearing about things from police from time to time.

Consent to me means that you have said that it is okay, as long as the other person feels comfortable as well. Also, I believe that both parties need to make a good judgement on if they are both consenting with a decent head, not drunk or under the influence of drugs or peer pressure.

[deepbreath]

Bethechange - I've heard this great story about sex education in an African country where the Educator was showing the women how to put the condom on the banana, but there were cultural barriers. The women in the community ended up putting condoms on bananas and then going off and having unprotected sex with their partners, thinking that the banana-condom-combo would prevent them from having an unplanned pregnancy.

[Kimbo]

How would you describe the sex-ed you got at school? Helpful or not? Where else have you learnt about sex and relationships?

At school? Not that helpful. As I've seen other detail, we got a lot more of the details in primary school, and not much more in high school. I attended a Catholic high school, so there was emphasis on family planning; other methods of safe sex were skimmed over. It wasn't really until I studied Sexology at Curtin University that I learnt a lot about sex, and realised how much information was out there for schools to use. Obviously I'd already learnt a fair bit from Mum and Dad, and was given a book called Secret Men's Business, which outlined most of it quite aptly.
As for relationships, I think for the most part we learn about those from media - whether it be Home and Away or what we read in celebrity gossip/men's/women's magazines. Actually being in a relationship is seldom similar in my opinion, and you learn that everyone and each relationship is different.

[Magga]

Did anyone ever teach you what consent means? What does consent mean to you?

I was never taught too much about this through school (although we did do a few classes where males were shown how to be mature and respectful men, which in a roundabout way covered it). My mum was the biggest influence in terms of the morals of sex, she brought me up to know not to ever do anything that the girl wasn't comfortable with. Good ol' mum!

[mischiefmanaged]

How would you describe the sex-ed you got at school? Helpful or not? Where else have you learnt about sex and relationships?

I went to a Catholic school. From my understanding Catholic schools don't have as comprehensive sex-ed classes and I can definitely vouch for that!

In year 8, we had a talk on "female issues" - mainly periods (why we had it in year 8, I'm not entirely sure as I'm sure a large percentage of us had our periods by that point!). Funnily enough that discussion occured during Religion class!!! Strange place for it, if you ask me. I don't think we discussed ANYTHING about sex in that class.

Our sex ed class happened in year 10 (we were 15 by that stage and I'm sure plenty were sexually active). It occurred in science class. I had an awesome teacher, young, "hip" and really easygoing. So it was pretty good. But it was definitely very technical. I don't think we learnt ANYTHING about oral sex. And it was definitely much more about "sex is for creating babies". We briefly went over contraception - there was 2 pages dedicated to it in the textbook. Abstinence was spoken about extensively! We never even SAW a condom. I remember that I was really curious about what a condom actually looked like but I don't think they even had a picture in the textbook. So no, we didn't do the banana thing. We watched a video of a lady giving birth but unfortunately I was sick that day! So never got to see it! So yeah, our sex ed lacked a lot! I am fairly sure we were given pamphlets and little booklets that had a bit more info though! 

I found out the majority of my information from magazines (girlfriend and dolly). 

[deepbreath]

Ali818, you make a great point, which leads me to ask -

What are some ways that alcohol and other drugs might affect your ability to give consent? On the flipside- how might drugs/alcohol impact the ways you know you have got consent from the other person?

[Magga]

mischiefmanaged - how accurate are Dolly magazines when it comes to sex stuff? In my experience (although I'm hardly an avid Dolly reader...) it's really hyped up, 'how to please your man!' type stuff...not a lot on the what, how, and why of it. 

@kimbo - just realised, this question applies to you too! Magazines...accurate?

[LicheeMerlin]

mischiefmanaged - I found out most things from girlfriend and dolly as well!

The boys loved reading the dolly doctor too. It's a shame they didn't really have a resource like that for teenage boys. The closest thing they got was ZOO magazine...