I've long been the lecturing friend.  Or at least that's what they consider me until someone comes up with a problem.  The cashier at CVS told them they couldn't buy condoms under 18, they weren't sure how to go about getting on the pill, or wondering if you really couldn't get pregnant from being on top.  Then I was the life saver.  It's a dual role I'm well acquainted with.  When I turned 18, I still had younger friends who were completely clueless about their rights as a minor, what they could and couldn't do.  Wonderful sites like Scarleteen, SIECUS' Community Action Kit among countless others were great resources to them.  

Growing up in Georgia, and attending private schools for a time, I was frustrated with sex ed.  I only ever had one sex ed class (which didn't even really qualify), which I remember vividly because of it's stupidity.  I was in 4th grade, I had no interest in sex, no one in the room had an interest in it, because we were all told at the time it was immoral and evil.  After fighting with the VCR, we watched a video in black and white.  It was easily older then the ages of all the girls in the room combined, vintage '50s or so.  We saw a diagram of a uterus and ovaries, and were taught about our period.  The "sex ed" part of it consisted of being told via diagram that one day the uterus would hold our "babies."  It was mostly about periods, and was so not informative that it was ridiculous.  They had brought mothers of some girls in the room, thinking somehow this would make things less awkward.  I remember thinking, "I love adults, they're so cute, thinking that their very presence would instantly explain and make us understand."  The video ended, there was no discussion, and we went back to putting blocks up our noses, or whatever we did in 4th grade.  Keep in mind, this is public school.  I didn't ask my mom, she's extremely ab-only and I've never in my 18 years heard her refer to female anatomy by name.

My entire sexual education started when I was introduced to the internet.  Because my family is about as computer savvy as a ground squirrel, I had access to whatever I could get into.  Luckily, I found strong feminists early.  I wish I could remember the writers that started me, but it was he farthest thing from my mind.  Four years ago I found Feministing, and your link page.  There simply was no going back.  I refused to let my state, county and city govt keep me from being educated about my body, and took it upon myself to keep others out of that same dark.  After surviving a few years of Christian private, kinda secular private, and public, I ended up homeschooled because of my health.

In the fall I am going to the University of Louisville.  So far, I've been impressed by them, but I can also see areas I hope to work to change.  That, however, is another post entirely!

What I've been leading up to here with my long-windedness is, as a young woman looking to take feminism, sex education, positive body image and awareness into a more proactive realm, where do I go from here?  I was very fortunate to get into a Gender & Public Dialogue course for my first semester, the only WGS course available to incoming freshman, and I'm hoping to use that as a platform for future work.  I'm an equine business major, and with such a woman-dominated field, I plan on continuing it into my professional life.

All comments are welcome!  Thank you all so much for reading this.  And a thank you to the Feministing crew, you've helped me get to where I am today.

1

You recommended