Glenda Simms, Contributor
THE HEALTH section in The Gleaner of April 28, 2004 carried two very important discussions. One was the issues raised by Sidney McGill in his article: 'Teaching your child about sex' and the other was the serious concerns raised by Yasmin Williams around the realities of the lives of teenagers and their vulnerability to the HIV pandemic.
In his article, McGill emphasised the importance of teaching children about their bodies and their sexuality. He underlined the need for children to be given age appropriate information and to be educated about their body parts and their functions. Furthermore, McGill reminds adults that children should know the correct names for body parts, and they should be given the message that "all parts of the body and bodily functions are normal and nothing to be ashamed of."
THE PR0PER NAMES
If we heed McGill's message, then many homes, schools and churches will have to reconsider the unhealthy messages that are passed on to human beings about the role of their sexuality and the meaning of their body parts. Those parents who continue to use terms such as 'penky', 'poonu', 'pum pum', 'tea pot' and 'tea leaf' will have to learn to say 'vagina' and 'penis' at the same time that they try to get children to say 'mama' and 'papa'.
In the same vein, churches that tell young girls that their sexual urges are related to demons that have invaded their bodies will have to revisit the basis of their belief system. And certainly, those who have been telling children that it is a sin to touch their own genitalia will have to go back to the drawing board. In fact, such adults will need to deconstruct their attitudes to their own sexuality. Far too often the very adults who are given the responsibility to teach children about their sexuality are adults who are sexually dysfunctional and are far too uncomfortable with the full range of human sexuality.
Education about human sexuality must be focused and must be designed to deal with the historical and traditional attitudes towards the over-emphasis on one particular body part the genitalia.
This is particularly important to how women (young and old) must begin to see themselves. Indeed, the identity of women and their womanhood has been so linked to their vagina that generations of the women of the world had to confront the reality that their value or lack of value is linked to their reproductive function. In fact, women's productive role has been undermined in all world systems (politics, religion and the economy).
THE DEFINITION OF MAN
On the other hand, while some social scientists have argued that some groups of men are also defined by their penises, by and large, the men of the world have traditionally seen their definition linked to other body parts such as the brain. That is why all the major institutions have had to be forced to remove the systematic barriers that have kept women out of the mainstream of development and the highest levels of decision-making.
A regime of sex education that informs young children of their right to know their body parts and to value each part as important to their physical, emotional and psychological wholeness, will be a regime that allows the girl child to become the teenager who will not be prone to risky sexual behaviours. Such a teenager will value her body and will know that no one has the right to touch any of her body parts without her permission. She will also know that she has the freedom to touch her body parts when she feels like it. Within this mode, she will develop a freedom and a path to her body's integrity and the right, as a human being, to define whether or not she should be sexually active.
The same outcome will accrue for the boy child who is given the right information about his body parts and his right to touch himself. He too will learn the difference between what some child psychologists term 'the bad touch' and 'the good touch'.
Within this mode both boys and girls will be protected from the over-sexualisation of our culture and they will define themselves outside of the limits of 'one body part'.
Dr. Glenda Simms is the executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
