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The Edmonton Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Clinic 11111 Jasper Avenue has STI testing available as well as condoms
The Ross Armstrong Centre/HIV Edmonton Office has STI testing available and has self testing kits for HIV
The Emergency Wards at the University of Alberta Hospital, Misericordia, Grey Nuns and Royal Alexandra Hospital all have rapid HIV testing available
The Birth Control Centre/Seventh Street Plaza has birth control methods, including condoms, as well as STI testing, pap testing, and HPV vaccines
There are plenty of pharmacies in the city I live in, most of which have plan b available. There are also plenty of medicentres in the city that offer STI testing, listing all of the pharmacies and medicentres on this particular forum may overcrowd it as in doing my research I managed to find over 20 pharmacies and over 50 medicentres in the city, but I am planning on keeping a list of them handy for myself.
I would probably try to say something similar to the following:
When someone gets pregnant, they may choose to terminate the pregnancy. This choice could be made for any variety of reasons. The idea of terminating a pregnancy on purpose can cause plenty of people to feel sad, or angry, or any other mix of emotions. While those emotions are valid, this class is meant to explain what can happen during pregnancy and what choices someone can make about their pregnancy, it’s not meant to discuss the emotional or ethical side of things. If you feel distress for any reason after this class, I strongly urge you to talk about it with a trusted person.
I would then go into explaining whatever aspects of abortion the class is meant to cover. If asked for my own opinion, I would simply say that my viewpoint is not relevant during a technical explanation.
I haven’t really had any personal experience with trying to get contraceptives, so I don’t have much I can say on that. But as for the challenges people can face when trying to get contraceptives there are things like where a person lives. Depending on where they live there may be very few places to go to get contraceptives. The cost can also be a factor, depending on where they live and what form of contraceptive they want to use, it may be difficult to find one that is low cost. Some people may also experience pretty bad side effects from certain contraceptives, which can cause them to feel uncomfortable using them.
It is important to be broad in the way we define abstinence because the definition can vary drastically from person to person, depending on their experiences, what their values are, etc. In order to properly account for different perspectives, the way we define it must not only be comprehensive, but also ever evolving as we learn more about how other people view it.
Some people might argue that it only counts as abstinence if they completely refrain from sexual activity. Some people may also argue that it’s a more religious or spiritual decision rather than a personal one. While these opinions are valid, ultimately they would be trying to make abstinence fit into the definition they feel suits it best, without fully taking into account why other people would define it differently.
Thank you for bringing that up! While it’s assumed that most people who are pregnant had sex with someone with a penis, that is not always the case. There are ways to introduce a sperm cell, which are created by people with penises to egg cells, which are created by people with vaginas, to each other in ways that differ from what is usually taught. To conceive in this way people will enlist the help of doctors to retrieve cells from one or both parties, and then introduce them to each other in a way that does not require sexual intercourse. These pregnancies still usually last 9 months if there are no complications.
Ages 4-6: When a person with a vagina and a person with a penis have sex, sometimes a baby can be made. The baby will grow inside the uterus of the person with a vaginas body, and usually takes about 9 months to grow before it is born.
Ages 6-11: When a person with a vagina and a person with a penis have sex where the penis is inserted inside the vagina, sometimes a baby can be made. The baby is fully formed inside the uterus of the person with a vagina’s body, and usually takes about 9 months to grow before it is born.
Ages 11-14: When a person with a vagina and a person with a penis have sex, sometimes a baby can be made if the person with a vagina has started menstruating. The chance of a baby being made depends on if the people are using contraceptives or barriers, and if the sperm from the person with a penis makes its way inside of the vagina. The penis does not necessarily have to be inserted into the vagina to accomplish this. If the fetus gets carried to full term, meaning there are no complications with the pregnancy, the baby will grow inside the uterus of the person with a vaginas body for about 9 months before it is born.
Ages 14 and up: When a person with a vagina and a person with a penis have sex, sometimes a baby can be made if the person with a vagina has started menstruating. The chance of a baby being made depends on if the people are using contraceptives or barriers, and if the sperm from the person with a penis makes its way inside of the vagina. The penis does not necessarily have to be inserted into the vagina to accomplish this, if semen accidentally drips down into the vagina it can also cause pregnancy, and can occur at any time in their menstrual cycle, even when on their period. Some people choose to get pregnant via things like IVF, which introduces a sperm cell to an egg cell without using sex. If the fetus gets carried to full term, meaning there are no complications with the pregnancy, the baby will grow inside the uterus of the person with a vaginas body for about 9 months before it is born.
These are rather rough examples, and the exact details and wording could change depending on the exact situation (time I have, how the question was phrased, etc) but they work as a kind of ‘skeleton script’ for how I’d answer different age groups.
I definitely agree with the articles statements about how terms for female anatomy are often much more sexualized than those for male anatomy. It is also important to point out the oftentimes sexist names for those body parts, and what types of misconceptions can be caused by those names. I think that renaming certain parts of the anatomy could be helpful in combatting these issues, as sexist and misleading naming can help to reinforce misconceptions and certain attitudes surrounding female anatomy.
The Sunrise ceremony in the Apache tribe is a way to celebrate the transition from childhood to adulthood for young woman. It is a way of gathering the whole community together to celebrate and support during the transition.
There is not a lot of information in this specific video that I believe is incorrect. There is one point however that I believe is either phrased poorly, or not quite correct, and that is the topic of masturbation. While puberty is going to be the start of masturbation for plenty of people, it is also not that uncommon for masturbation to start before puberty as well. As for the second part of this question, I don’t believe any of the topics that have been brought up so far shouldn’t be included, I think everything that has been touched on is important for people to understand the changes that can happen to their bodies and their minds as they grow. While not strictly to do with puberty, I do think that the topic of consent should be discussed more even with younger children. It doesn’t have to go quite as in depth as it might for an older audience, but I do think bodily autonomy is something that’s important for people to learn as early on as possible.
1.) I learned about puberty mostly from school. While I was lucky enough to have sex ed start in grade 4, before I’d hit puberty, I still find that it wasn’t quite comprehensive enough. I think it was good I got some education before I’d hit puberty, but it didn’t quite give me enough information to be fully prepared. For example, while the topic of menstruation and why it happens was touched on, I was not given any real information on how menstrual products worked (just that ‘pads’ and ‘tampons’ were things that existed) which meant that I was stuck trying to figure out how to use them mostly by myself at first. When I got a little older I was able to use the internet to research a bit more about the different types and how they work. While I know the internet is full of misinformation (about every topic, not just sex and puberty) I was lucky enough that I managed to find some resources that were genuinely helpful to me. The classes on puberty were also divided up by gender, which left me feeling curious about why we had to be put in different groups but also slightly guilty for having that curiosity, especially when factoring in the disgusted reactions from other kids during these classes.
2.) I don’t think puberty is inherently a bad or good experience, just a necessary change our bodies go through. For some people that change may be harder to cope with, and they may need more support to get through it. For other people, they may need very little support when going through it. I do think that the way different cultures perceive puberty has a lot of influence over how people are treated during it, not just by parents but by teachers, friends, etc, and that that can make a huge difference in the emotions tied to it. There are also some people who may need puberty blockers. Whether that’s because they’re transgender, or because they’re experiencing puberty at too young an age. In these cases puberty would be an immensely distressing thing for these people to go through, but not because it’s inherently bad. It would just be the wrong time, or the wrong type of puberty, which is what causes the distress.
I didn’t notice any change in my scores. While this unit does discuss topics that are not always explored by the average person, I found it didn’t really bring up any new information or points of view for me. I wasn’t too surprised by that though, as I do take an active interest in these topics and try to keep my information on them as up to date and as widely researched as possible. Regardless, I do think I will revisit these questions from time to time, just for personal self assessment.
I personally don’t believe there is any topic that should inherently be left out of sex education. However, as it is pretty impossible to cover every aspect of sex education in the amount of time an average curriculum permits, I do have some topics that I believe should be given a certain level of priority. The first one is consent, and what exactly a healthy understanding of that and relationship with that looks like. I also believe that most, if not all, options for contraceptives/sti preventatives should be discussed in every curriculum. I think at least some sort of introduction to different sexualities and gender should be included, as well as making sure that the discussion of contraceptives/sti preventatives is inclusive of those relationships and genders. Pregnancy should also be discussed, but that already tends to be highly prioritized in sex education. Lastly, while not a specific topic, I strongly believe that sex ed should not be segregated by gender. It can leave trans people feeling very awkward and out of place from the, and I think it’s important to know information about this topic that may not strictly apply to you and your body, as I believe it helps to increase understanding and break down barriers between different sexes. I also agree with points made previously in this module that any questions that come up should be answered honestly, if someone asks there’s almost certainly a reason, and even if there isn’t what’s the harm? The more people know, the safer they can be.
The article I have chosen to use is the following https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/#
People tend to look for sources that validate their own personal biases. Even if those sources aren’t all that accurate, if they make a person feel more secure in their currently held beliefs, they tend to listen to that source even over more proven or scientific sources. As such when you get people who are uncomfortable with trans people, or were raised to feel that way, they may ignore actual research showing how harmless trans people are in order to justify the beliefs they’ve held for most of their life. As transphobia worsens, articles that paint trans people as predatory, or sick, or anything else like that also increase, which increases the amount of articles people can use to justify their bigotry. Similar things can happen with just about any topic, and sex is far from an exception. Society perpetuates the idea that not being ashamed about sex makes you a pervert at best, and a predator at worst. And there’s plenty of articles that support these claims, although the majority of them have little to no actual research put into them.
In my opinion the genderbread handout is a good place to start learning about the nuances of gender and gender expression for people who are completely new to it, however I do think it’s limited in showing the full range of gender. While it does show how sex ≠ presentation ≠ identity, I think that measuring things strictly by how ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ they are and thinking all gender experiences have to fit somewhere on that spectrum reinforces the idea of a gender binary. I know that the way I present often makes people view me as a woman, because lots of physical traits I have are associated with femininity. The way I dress, while not the most feminine, still would count as feminine to most people. But those things don’t make me feel any real connection to the feminine side of the spectrum. Likewise, the fact that I prefer wearing cologne over perfume and prefer pants over skirts doesn’t make me feel any real connection to the masculine side of the spectrum. I also don’t feel a simple on/off switch is accurate either, as while I don’t feel a connection to masculinity or femininity, the associations other people draw between me and those binaries still exist. Attraction has been easy enough for me to describe, I identify as bisexual (some people have told me they think the pansexual label would fit me better, but I prefer to use this one) and find that I am especially attracted to other gender nonconforming people. I honestly don’t know how I’d identify if I was attracted strictly to one gender, as I do not view my attraction to either gender as being ‘straight’ or ‘gay’, rather I view my attraction as something inherently queer, no matter the gender of who I’m attracted to.
There weren’t really any questions in this video that made me uncomfortable. But when I encounter questions that challenge my biases and make me uncomfortable, both ones about sex and about other topics, I do my best to take a step back and examine why. I do my best both to think about why I hold the viewpoint I do, and why someone may hold a viewpoint that differs from mine.