Vaginas

So, vaginas are naturally an important part of feminism. Not to the extent that Caitlin Moran portrayed them in her book "How to be a Woman", but they are still important. And further, the education of women about their vagina is very important! I went to college in Texas, where the high school curriculum is abstinence only education for students. This, to me, was a complete and utter failure. I have friends who believed the many myths I scoffed at as a high schooler. "You can't get pregnant when it's your first time", "STDs are only transmitted if the guy ejaculates", and so many more. Some of them are partially  based in truth, STDs are much easier to pass when the male ejaculates, and the likelihood of getting pregnant on your first time is low (but not any lower than any other time! it's just that the actual chances of pregnancy depend on so many things there is a very low pregnancy rate for the number of sexual encounters).

However, one of the things that has shocked me the most is when one of my friends told me her parents told her she physically couldn't use a tampon until she had sex, so the mother refused to buy her tampons in high school. I'm not sure if the mother of this girl really believed this myth or not, and yes, if you wanted to TRY to keep your hymen intact, you probably shouldn't use a tampon before sex, but you CAN, and, I personally think you should (if you want to)! When my sister sent me a link to the new Kotex commercial about debunking myths about vaginas I naturally was interested in starting to participate in the movement. Further, some of the comments absolutely shocked me on that article too.

Overall, women just need to learn more about their vaginas! Starting with the absolute basics about actual microbial balance and stuff, we need to really explore the possibility that we can love our vaginas.  In order to get a full understanding about them, we need to research them, and learn what is healthy for them, as well as what is unhealthy. I have family members who suffer from regular yeast infections and have learned many ways to deal with and reduce the chances they will get another one. I also have many friends who have repeatedly gotten Urinary Tract Infections and have turned to me (their most educated friend on the topic, what?!) to help them figure out what to do. I did have two UTIs in my life.. one was absolutely horrendous, and the other one (mostly because I knew what was going on) was moderately bad. I always Google possible pain reduction and prevention methods as well as advise peeing often, etc, but I also insist that they call their doctor. The only thing that actually cured my UTIs were antibiotics. My friends will tell you, I am the last person to turn to medicine in any way, but sometimes that really is the BEST, and maybe only, way to deal with a situation. The longer you wait, the worse it gets. So I do think it is time to start removing these myths from people's ideas of truth, separating the true from the false and educating people about what their vaginas really mean.

Lack of good education is not only bad for women trying to take care of themselves, but for men who are currently in charge of many things women can use to get better education and more health care for sexual/vaginal related issues. Without good education all around we will continue to have men believe a woman cannot get pregnant from rape (it's the 21st century, you should know how a human body works to a good extent in order to pass legislation about how we can use our bodies, rapists should not be allowed to sue the raped victim) and will be forced to continue to contend with people of all age/race/gender/location trying to control free access to support for rape and other issues. Education may be the only cure to crazy things like labiaplasty and misuse of douching. So, forget about that extra study hall and sign everyone up for a comprehensive sexual education course that covers everything you ever needed to know about a vagina.