One of the strongest bonding experiences in female friendships is talking about our periods. Whether our menstrual cycles are synced or we’re just going through intense period cramps and need our friends to go buy us Advil because the pain is too much to bear, having a friend to talk to about this quintessential female experience is always comforting.
I went to Catholic school for 13 years of my life, the latter half of which was spent at an all-girls school. I vividly remember the first time I got my period: I was in a classroom of 15 girls with a male teacher. I suddenly felt a very intense pain near my thighs, and had to ask to go to the bathroom, where I discovered the pain I was experiencing was signaling my transition into formal womanhood. Luckily enough, I was able to get a sanitary pad from the school nurse’s office, and everything was OK after that. Nonetheless, I had to tell someone about it. So, I spent the entirety of my lunch period that day telling my best friend about what had happened earlier. In response to my anecdote, she offered several anecdotes of her own, which left me feeling validated. I was much more calm after understanding that no matter how uncomfortable that monthly period may be, all of my friends and female family members went through the same experience.
The comfort I felt around my female friends when talking about my period at school was indispensable as I grew up. I thought this was a universal experience that all girls would have the opportunity to go through, until news about a bill being considered by the Florida House to ban talk about menstrual cycles, sexually transmitted diseases and other sexuality topics in elementary schools made its way onto my newsfeed. If passed, the bill would also allow parents to object to specific books and general materials assigned in their children’s schools, and it enforces the instruction of sexual identity as biologically predetermined by birth.
Most girls get their periods between the ages of 10 and 15, two years of which still fall under elementary school jurisdiction, but some can get it as early as the age of 8. This means that, in Florida, if a girl under the age of 12 was to get her period during school hours, her friends and teachers would be legally prohibited from addressing the situation and guiding her through it. If young students aren’t taught about sexual health in school from a young age, they will likely seek out other mediums of information, like popular culture, to learn about these anatomical realities. Banning talk surrounding human sexuality would hinder social development and would cast it aside as a taboo subject.
Sexual education in America is known for its lackluster execution, and the justification is often based on the belief that educating children about sexuality fosters thoughts and actions considered too inappropriate for their young minds. It also varies among states and counties, so some might be getting quality sexual education, while others are unknowingly left in the dark. This has long led American children and teens to resort to popular culture to learn about and explore their sexuality, given that the information they are provided at school is close-to-none or otherwise inaccurate.
Contemporary society already largely uses popular culture as an informational source, to the point where digital literacy has become crucial to remain up to date and rightly-educated on different events. Though proper sexual education is constantly flagged as a result of cultural and religious beliefs that claim it will effectively tarnish young people’s minds, it can and should be used as a tool to properly inform kids and teenagers about the nature of their sexuality and how to handle instances surrounding it. Ironically and despite the education system’s reluctance to open up to sexual education, 21st-century media is largely “sex-obsessed.” Although this sex obsession has led to magazines like Cosmopolitan, which have a history of both informing but also exploiting human, especially female, sexuality, it has also positioned the media as a platform to utilize when in need of sexual guidance.
Although popular culture can give us false expectations about sex and romance, it does serve as a tool to learn how to become comfortable in our own bodies and the way we express ourselves sexually. This reliance on learning about sexuality through popular culture proves to be problematic, given that many on-screen portrayals of women in sexual situations position them as inferior to men and promote the idea that to be in touch with one’s female sexuality is to be subject to male desires.
There is also something to be said about the lack of sexual education available for those who aren’t heterosexual. The little sexual education that is provided in America is often heterosexually-coded, leaving those who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community outside of the equation. According to a 2007 study, sexual content featuring Queer folks on TV added up to a low 15%. Although these numbers have undeniably risen since the 2000s, as explained in a 2021 study, most people in the community still must look to popular culture to guide themselves sexually, given that they don’t have many resources at their disposal. While this may be helpful in giving them an outlet to turn to in the event that they find no other information on their sexual self-expression, it also lacks information on how to do so safely, which goes for both heterosexual and Queer members of society.
The regulation of sexual education is being approached from a standpoint that is totally unacceptable and completely unviable. Instead of banishing talk surrounding female menstrual cycles and thus conditioning girls to feel like natural processes their bodies endure are shameful and disgusting, I recommend the Florida House reevaluate their position. Resources for women on their period are already largely costly and inaccessible, and making it seem like something appalling places the future of sexual education in a horrible position. Moreover, it unconsciously leads young people to seek out this education elsewhere, so if it can be provided aptly by education systems, why not do so? And please, the next time you want to implement regulations on women’s bodies and self-expression, refrain from doing so during Women’s History Month.
Graciela Batlle Cestero is an Opinion Columnist from Puerto Rico writing about popular culture and its social consequences. She can be reached at gbatllec@umich.edu.