How Sex Education Has Failed Us
April Davis founded the Vagina Blog in February of 2018 after retiring from her work as a doula, birth assistant and birth photographer so that she could dedicate her time to teaching others what she had learned over the years. We were lucky enough, at My Sex Bio, to be able to speak with April and gain a bit of this wisdom for ourselves. This is what she said:
MSB: What has been the overall response from readers, followers, friends and family since starting the Vagina Blog?
AD: My followers are incredible. I receive messages often from people who are so happy they finally switched to a menstrual cup, or figured out how to talk to their partner about sex or just needed to hear that it’s ok to love their body just as it is. I love validating some of the concerns and/or problems that so many of us suffer from and offering solutions! It’s so rewarding.
MSB: I can definitely understand that. It would seem that, while you’re receiving fabulous feedback and support, it still takes a lot of work to run your platform. What or who is your inspiration to keep you going?
AD: Oprah. She and her team did an amazing job of getting the people, the books, the information that we all needed to hear out there in front of us and I want to do the same.
MSB: Can you share some of the most common questions you’ve been receiving in relation to reproductive health?
AD: I receive a lot of questions about how to orgasm, about hormonal birth control and alternative period products.
MSB: Yes, I can see how that might be a pointer to the areas in which there are gaps in our reproductive education. In what ways have you noticed sex and/or reproductive health education failing the general public?
AD: We need to learn how to talk about it so we can turn around and do a better job teaching about it. I’ve been surprised at how many people don’t know how to even approach talking about sex with their partner — we just weren’t given the language and most of us haven’t seen an example of what that looks like so it leaves us unable AND THEN we’re supposed to talk to our kids about sex? There’s a lot to fix. Our kids need to know so much more not only about the mechanics of sex, but about being in relationships, pregnancy prevention, STI prevention, CONSENT, pornography and everything in between. It’s our job as parents to teach all of that, we can’t rely on schools to do this for us. All of this begins with learning ourselves and getting comfortable talking about it!
MSD: That’s truly enlightening, and definitely feels to ring true for myself and those I’ve spoken to. I would also add that we need empowerment in our sex education. What does sexual empowerment mean to you?
AD: It means knowing and loving your body and finding that vulnerable, safe place within yourself to experience pleasure.
MSB: I love that. For myself, loving and knowing my body allows me to understand what it needs from me and to develop my own sexual self-care rituals. What kinds of sexual self-care do you practice?
AD: Meditation, self-massage, reading books and learning more about sex, attending marriage counseling with my husband to improve our sex life (This was a GAME CHANGER in our early marriage) and masturbation!
