Gnothi Seauton

I have just watched the most interesting show on Sex Education on YouTube. It is a six-part drama series that "follows the personal lives of eight very different college students who enrol in a general education course called "Sexuality Today." What seems to be a cake course turns into something unusual in the hands of Professor Alison Trevase, starting with her first assignment: to pair up and make clay sculptures of each other's genitals." I am very excited after seeing it at this particular moment. Why? [Because] for the past few weeks, I have been trying to figure out some of the questions we will never manage to answer in our human life. I have been trying to understand what are the topics that we should never spend time thinking on, as they do not have any answers. One of questions is; what does it feel like to see yourself? I will not indulge you so much into that topic, but I will say the reason why I ask that. I ask that because we have never seen ourselves like we see others. We have only ever seen our reflections. What if our reflections are a lie? Well, enough of that.

Back to the topic, I realised today that Sex Ed was never made a serious topic in high school or grade school because of the bias of religion. All the teachers who 'taught' my Sex Ed classes (the few times they were taught), were religiously biased. There is a huge taboo or conversational barrier around human sexuality and the Christian upbringing. We were raised in an environment which exposed us to many social and mental stresses, such as the art of socialisation and  the cultural norms. We were however, not taught what our bodies are. We never had classes or conversations which put us in a situation to understand our biological selves. We know how to articulate ourselves, we expose ourselves to different emotional situations, we consume a lot of information, but not enough on our own bodies.

In the second season of the amazing series, Orange is the New Black, I especially appreciated the writing in episode 4 which introduced the vagina's biology. There were more viewers who learnt during that episode that females have three 'holes'. Ignorance of our bodies is not only observed in young girls, but it is observed in our women. Where does religious bias come about? Well, it is simple;

People of good character, based on the respective religious perspectives, do not indulge in sexual activities before marriage. They are sexually pure and abide by the grounds of chastity. That is nice, do not get me wrong. Having individual values that determine a human being's sexual activity is not a bad thing. The only bad thing is the indulgence of ignorance with our bodies. We put ourselves in frequent situations where we know a lot of things. Sadly, we do not know how our body looks like, feels like and reacts. We do not know the strengths and weaknesses of our bodies. We do not know our bodies' capabilities. Now tell me, isn't that sad?


This discussion is of course around the topic of human sexuality. Therefore, the discussed connection in this topic is between human beings and the pith of sexuality; which clearly revolves around the human genitalia. What do things down there do? How do things work? What goes where, and what comes out from where? Kindly note my lack of apology of style of language.  We cannot not be vague. We cannot fluently speak in Klingon and write in hieroglyphics. 

It is my regret that I have not known myself as much as I know about the intricacies of the Chinese dynasties. I know more about what the Pope has done in the past 2 months, than how my body works in the past twenty-one years. Why does religion scare us from knowing ourselves? I am in no way advocating for promiscuity. I am for individual exploration: mentally, emotionally and physically. It should be respectable to know how your body works. It should be acceptable for people to know how they like their 'machinery' handled. If we are ignorant of ourselves, we make it easy for other people to be careless with our bodies. If we know our bodies, we contemplate on the powers of our bodies. We appreciate our bodies and treat them with high esteem. High enough esteem that no one can treat them in other ways  than we allow. Therefore, every human body becomes much more unique than another. Therefore, knowing other people's bodies will always be a new adventure.

Our bodies have been made an unknown adventure by the cultural norms that we subscribe to. Let the norms that you follow be sensible. Let them lead you to understand the science and art of your being. Let your mind encompass the idea that your body is not a sin. The knowledge of your body is not a evil. It is a gift. I believe that we do not have what we have to never be curious or learn about it. It all begins by knowing yourself. Let no one's beliefs, misconceptions or faith make you feel inadequate for knowing yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. It is nice to know your emotional limits as much as it is to know your sexual pleasures.

Let you not confuse purity with ignorance.

    pu·ri·ty

      noun \ˈpyu̇r-ə-tē\

: lack of dirty or harmful substances

: lack of guilt or evil thoughts

ig·no·rance

 noun \ˈig-n(ə-)rən(t)s\

: a lack of knowledge, understanding, or education : the state of being ignorant

c/o Merriam-Webster Dictionary