There is genuinely nothing more uncomfortable than learning about puberty in school.
Sitting in a sweaty, aircon-less demountable in the middle of Summer while a middle-aged PE teacher gives you ‘the talk’, all while you’re raging on your hormones, is the embodiment of stress.
I went to an all-girls catholic school, and any small talk of the birds and bees was outlawed, so my education around puberty and basic sex-education was straight-up bad. The gaps in knowledge my school (and parents) left were filled with the glory days of Tumblr porn GIFs and Beverly Hills: 90210. The fact we were literally spun lies and had crucial info missed made the whole classroom situation even worse than it already was.
Unfortunately, I feel like my experience wasn’t exclusive to my classmates and I. There has to be a reason why 3 in 5 Aussie women still think periods are taboo. Or that 78% of women still believe there’s a stigma attached to their period.
So, I decided to revisit the booklet on puberty I had to complete in Year 7 PE class. Since I’m not a hoarder, I didn’t have it entirely on hand – luckily, I have a sister in Year 9 at the same school, and much to my shock (and luck), she had completed THE EXACT SAME booklet two years ago.
There’s an 8-year gap between my sister and I doing this work, and I cannot believe they hadn’t bothered to update any of the info.
Anyway, here it is.
Let’s start – this is not relating to the content of the booklet itself, but my god – the putrid use of Comic Sans, the cringe-laden name ‘Time To Blossom’ and that Stock photo of a flower, it all speaks for itself really.
Did they even try to make this entertaining or slightly relatable? Seriously, it’s already got a -0.1 for production value.
Alright, second and third pages seem to be smooth sailing so far – nothing too un-kosher here. Just your run-of-the-mill, ‘life journey’ vibe going on here.
And there we have it – BAM. Do I hear a siren? It must be the Fake News Police because there’s a heinous crime scene that needs investigating.
“Wet Dreams are an experience that only occur to the man.”
Well, this is just a straight-up lie. I’m actually flabbergasted.
For some reason, completely erasing the existence of women’s pleasure is okay to teach to a class of 13-year-old girls, but the prominence of male arousal is…normal? Sure Jan.
It’s stuff like this that leads to slut-shaming, as well as moulding young girls to believe that their value to men is to be an object of lust. Yuck.
“It happens during an erection occurred by a dream of feelings for the opposite sex.”
Holy moly, now this is kind of gross. The fact that we were being taught that attraction to only the opposite sex exists honestly conjures up the most ridiculous level of anger and boils my blood.
Considering the last few pages, I’m actually quite surprised they even outlined where the clitoris is (obviously, there’s no explanation as to what the heck it does, but anyway). This ‘progressiveness’ all comes crumbling down when the PMS-talk comes into the equation.
Problematic? Yes. Factually incorrect? Yes. Radiating with 50’s housewife magazine vibes? Big Yes.
There’s zero mention of common conditions such as PCOS, endometriosis or even how pre-existing mental health conditions can impact the whole situation.
It literally just boils the complex and at times painful process of PMS down to, “you might be a bit cranky and want lots of chocolate, but don’t eat too much!”
Grrr.
Now, looking at this in an age where most Year 7 girls have probably consumed more skincare related content online than they have assessment tasks, it’s pretty funny to think of a teacher explaining the role ‘cleanser’ plays in dealing with teenage-skin.
Like, hun, ever heard of Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin mist? I think not.
Also, ‘moisteriser’ – I can’t.
And lastly, this acrostic poem spelling out ‘Pimples’ was really the icing on the LOL-cake for me.
I guess the moral of the story here is that schools need to do better in teaching young women about the critical role hormones and periods play in the development of their body and mind.
I wish I’d learnt more of what I know now in high school, as it would’ve saved years of self-hatred and confusion around things that were happening to my body. So many women face health problems or suffer in silence because they didn’t gain the vocab or understanding around how important the simplest bodily functions are to their wellbeing when they were young.
We’ve come so far as a society, yet there’s still so much BS stigma around the natural and normal bodily functions women encounter daily, and judging by the fact that an all-girls high school hasn’t even jumped on board yet, there’s still a long way to go.
