Born and raised in Texas, Ive experience little to no sexual education.

Regardless of my incredible healthy relationship with my mother and

constant access to tools filled with information, I didnt know how urine
passed from my own body until I was 17 years old. I knew more about the
culturally assigned sexual purpose and misogynist stigmas attached to my
body parts than I did about the general anatomy of an excretory system that
I use about 10 times a day. I knew to make sure my breasts were concealed
and my bodily functions were masked before I knew what I was hiding from.
The scariest part about this is that I never really cared to think about it. It
never occurred to me to question why my nipples were considered risqu
and inappropriate while at the same time I was stuffing toilet paper into my
push-up bra when I was 12 years old and idolizing over-sexualized fallacies of
the female body forced on me by every advertisement I saw. Growing up a
cis-gender female in a conservative state, subjected to the contradictions of
a patriarchal nation, my formative years were consumed by insecurity and
ignorance. I aim to have a career in sexual education and guidance to
prevent others from wasting their lives with the same.
Growing up I never fit in. I had a speech impediment that prevented
me from pronouncing my own name. To say the least, I never had a very
healthy relationship with myself. At the age of of 11, the only man who had
ever made me feel beautiful, an 18-year-old predator who preyed on my
insecurity sexually assaulted me. My healing process was full of self-doubt
and confusion, similar to other young sexual assault victims. A young person
who is taken advantage of is threatened with sexual and mental distress for
years, if not the rest of their life. I was threatened with a similar fate but
rescued by therapy and medication shortly after my rapists conviction.
Although a long and challenging journey, as an 18-year-old girl, I am proud to
say that I intend on living a healthy lifestyle to the best of my ability, and
regularly maintaining a relationship with a counselor.
Although coming from the perspective of a person who underwent a
serious trauma, I recognize that cultural expectations cause similar
insecurities and self-hate. The contradiction that I refer to is a popular topic
of discussion in the feminist community. The over-sexualizing of women and
the simultaneous shaming of them for having a sexuality is dehumanizing
and tragic. Betty Friedan, a famous writer and feminist, when interviewed by
Playboy magazine editor, David Sheff, stated, A celebration of womens
bodies is all right with me so long as there is no denial of the personhood of
women. To celebrate the human form, sexually or not, should be done with
respect to the personhood of the individual being portrayed, and with respect
to the audience by understanding how the message could be conceived.
Through personal experience and my love for cultural studies, I want to
empower young people to overcome the outside forces that pressure them to
betray their individual needs and identities. My experiences with therapy
have enlightened me to the reality that self-understanding and knowledge
are important factors toward mental health and personal identity, not to
mention my experience everyday discovering new information that Im

disappointed to know has been neglected from the education of peers and
myself. For this reason, I will be focusing my education on gender/queer
studies, aiming to work in the field of counselling or sex education, and
working in my community through support groups and youth centers. Arming
young people with self-esteem, guidance, and knowledge would ensure a
strong community of supportive and liberated individuals.