Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human lifeBigelow, Maurice A. (Maurice Alpheus)
Science
Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human life
Bigelow, Maurice A. (Maurice Alpheus)
Sex instruction
I discussed first the problem of selecting scientific facts for boys
because there is little dispute as to the advisability of giving them
as much scientific information as may possibly replace the vulgar
knowledge that the average boy is likely to possess. I know that there
are a few men and many women who will disagree with this because they
believe in the absolute ignorance of their boys; but I doubt whether
one healthy adolescent boy in a hundred belongs in the "innocent"
class. So we need not worry much concerning any supposed danger of
treating facts too frankly, provided that they are given a dignified,
scientific setting. In the case of numerous adolescent girls there is
certainly dense ignorance, and so there must be more difficulty in
getting approval of parents and teachers concerning facts proposed for
girls. Often when talking with groups of parents I have heard them say
that they would like to have their boys learn the scientific truth
regarding certain facts, but they feel that it would be too startling
and unnecessary for their daughters. Such is the widespread feeling
which must be seriously considered in all planning of advanced
sex-instruction for girls. No doubt there will be much honest
disagreement with the suggestions here offered.
The biological introduction based on plants and animals should be the
same as for boys (Sec. 27).
[Sidenote: Structure and names.]
An adolescent girl of fourteen to sixteen should know the general plan
of her own sexual structure. She should know the scientific names of
her organs, not because there are many vulgar names as in the case of
boys, but because dignified names help attitude. Ovaries, uterus
(womb), vagina, Fallopian tubes, and vulva will be sufficient. Detailed
description of the external organs (vulva) might arouse curiosity that
leads to exploration and irritation, and hence many women physicians
think that a girl under sixteen or possibly eighteen needs only the
name vulva for the external parts surrounding the entrance to the
vagina.
[Sidenote: An ancient belief.]
Some books for girls perpetuate the ancient but absurd emphasis on the
virginal significance of the hymen; and a recent book from a prominent
publisher goes so far as to try to frighten girls into remaining chaste
by stating that a physician could discover if they have been unchaste.
This is far from being always true, for the structure may be
congenitally absent, may sometimes remain after sexual union, or may be
accidentally destroyed in childhood; and reliable physicians have
stated that proving unchastity by the hymen is by no means easy. Hence,
the less said about the ancient belief, the better for young women. The
truth is that the hymen is a worse-than-useless relic of embryological
development, and it is neither an indicator nor a dictator of morality.
[Sidenote: Physiology of women.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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