I still remember being in 10th grade and asking my teacher about the difference between the organs of a transgender person and that of a male or female. The teacher, who was not more than 27 years old, denied answering my question with a smug face. Well, I still had mates whom I had to explain that crossing of ‘x’ and ‘y’ chromosomes shaped biological sex, and that being a gay and a transgender person are two different things altogether.
Shouldn’t educational institutions be ashamed for real? Not while teaching “that” chapter of a biology textbook, but after knowing how their students come to really understand its meaning—the means through which they access this sensitive information. Just reading the text and skipping the teaching part of “that” chapter won’t automatically insert the practical meaning of it in their heads.
Showing a movie about the menstrual cycle and the demo only to the girls in a co-ed school didn’t help in overcoming the taboo either. Moreover, it only had the girls whispering about it, and the boys asking “what happened in your special lectures?”. There wasn’t anything we could say really. Because we were conditioned to be shush about it, to not let that bra-strap show anyhow. There’s none or very little that will change in efforts to normalize ‘everything’ now when what the schools are doing is just forcing a kid’s ears shut even to the mildest utterances of the ‘S’ word.
And NO, it is NOT okay. It’s not okay to have a preconceived notion that everything is understood eventually or that maturity teaches everything. No, it doesn’t. Because that one friend who got ‘porn’ for them didn’t voice out that increasing breast-size is as normal as them having newly-grown stubble. It’s high time we stop levying rules and barriers on girls and start questioning where are we going wrong in building a neutral society with thoughts that don’t question our morale.