The Talk After the Talk: What Your Daughter Is Learning About Masturbation and Pornography. Article 2/ 5
- Right to Know
- Aug 13
- 6 min read
As a speaker, I often have the opportunity to stand before rooms full of young people, usually middle school & high school girls, and talk about the awkward topics: sex, birth control, period cramps, pornography, masturbation, and all the other things they desperately want answers about but are afraid to say out loud.
Our culture has attempted to overcome the awkwardness surrounding these subjects by turning them into animated videos, casual conversations, and constant jokes. But I sometimes wonder whether we have lost something important in the process.
Perhaps it is time for a man to feel a little awkward joking about sex in front of a woman again. Perhaps there is something tender and beautiful about a woman blushing, or a man stumbling over his words when speaking about something sexual in her presence. Not because she is ignorant of these matters, or because sex itself is crass or shameful, but because sexuality is intimate and mysterious. A healthy sense of reverence challenges a man to recognize a woman’s dignity rather than reducing her to an object for his pleasure. It reminds him that she is a person to know, honor, and protect.
Of all the subjects I address, masturbation is easily the most uncomfortable. As soon as I say the word, I lose eye contact with about 80 percent of the room. There truly may be nothing more awkward to discuss.
But then I begin sharing my own story.
