Lakshmi Nakka shares why it’s important to clear up misconceptions on sexual health equity for young adults.
I crack a smile and fake a laugh as best as I can, pretending to understand what’s happening when I hear sexual innuendos flung across the lunch table. My thought process is almost the same every time: How come I’ve never heard of this? We were all forced to take the freshman health class … right? I find myself going down rabbit holes online, discovering thousands of words I’d never heard of.
Admittedly, I don’t think I should have been disappointed for not knowing a couple of them. Then, I wonder: Which words accurately describe real-life scenarios? And how do I find out? What else am I still missing? Clearly, school sex-ed wasn’t in depth enough, but it’s awkward to talk to parents (or any other adult for that matter), and I don’t have older siblings. So, the only place I had to turn was the internet.
In an attempt to educate myself, I spent hours digging through blogs written by doctors, read strange books that attempted to make sexual health relatable to teenagers, and filled in the gaps of my knowledge as best I could. I even worked up the courage to ask a couple trusted friends questions, to which they blankly stared at me and said “I don’t know I kinda just say it because it’s funny.”
I, like many young adults, live in the gray area between “sex is only a joke, not a serious discussion,” “sex is taboo” and “the only prevention is abstinence.” All these worlds clash, leaving me and countless others confused. Yet, with global STI rates rising, I knew it was unsafe for me and the communities around me to stay silent, and make uninformed choices based on inaccurate information. What once felt like a deep, dark secret, I now preach proudly, encouraging the communities and systems around me to “pull out” of their incorrect perceptions of sex, pushing reform to make talking about sexual health more comfortable, to build safer, healthier communities. With a Perspective, I’m Lakshmi Nakka.