| |
An Invitation   |
|
| |
HELLO,
WOMEN OF THE WORLD.
If you have ever uttered the words: "IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW" -
please take five minutes out of your day to read this.
My name is Rose Cooper. I am a freelance writer and mother of three sons.
My experience of my emerging sexuality was a confusing and occasionally
scary ordeal. In 1972, I was taught about the fundamentals of reproduction
in year six, but it did not produce any answers to the questions my growing
body had been asking me for years. The boys in my class were told they
would experience wet dreams and spontaneous, uninvited erections. In other
words, they were informed that their reproductive maturity would be accompanied
by their emerging sexuality, which would in turn be exciting and unpredictable.
The girls were informed we would grow breasts for the future nurturing
of offspring and as visual confirmation of our sexual maturity and that
we would menstruate. Then, after intercourse, we would carry a baby for
nine months and then give birth. It sounded very predictable and not the
least bit exciting.
The rest was left for us to figure out for ourselves.
Looking back, I am very angry that I was not informed that I would also
have orgasms in my sleep intermittently from the age of about eight, or
that I would experience spontaneous, uninvited sexual arousal ˆ which
would at times fill me with inexplicable urges. If I had been properly
informed, I have no doubt that I would have avoided the inappropriate behaviours
and dangerous situations I experienced growing up.
In 1998, I sat in a sexuality education class with my 11 year old son,
and discovered that not much has changed. Boys leave the class feeling
like sexual beings, girls leave the class feeling like baby incubators
and sexual objects.
This simply is not good enough. Recent studies have revealed that teenagers
are having sex earlier, and teenage abortion rates continue to rise. Sexual
abuse is as prevalent as ever.
Considering the saturation of sex in the media, young people should be
more aware and better prepared, but they aren't. There clearly isn't nearly
enough informative dialogue happening between mothers and daughters.
The media has latched onto these statistics highlighting their sensational
aspects, without offering any solutions. I strongly believe there is still
such a profound fear of female sexuality in our society that information
is being subconsciously suppressed on purpose as a means of maintaining
the patriachal status quo. Women are meant to discover their sexuality
at the hands of men ˆ to perpetuate the power imbalance. Women will
therefore remain sex objects (which grow younger by the day) and will continue
to be abused and assaulted until someone decides it's safe to tell girls
how to operate their own bodies, and to clearly define how to avoid being
abused or pressured into unwanted sexual activity.
Think about it, what swear word is universally deemed to be the most severe
and disgusting? Think about why people fear and loathe the "C word" so
much, and what the implications of that hatred may mean.
Ask yourself how your experiences and self-image might have been different,
if you knew more about your sexual boundaries at a younger age?
I would like to give you the opportunity to contribute to the future awareness
of the sisterhood, by participating in a detailed survey about your memories
of your emerging sexuality. What was it like for you to grow up inside
female skin and what did your discoveries teach you?
Passing on what we have learned, candidly and frankly could well prevent
our daughters from making the mistakes that we made. It will contribute
to their respect for themselves, their responsible ownership of their own
bodies, their healthier self-images and deeper spiritual understanding
of love. While ever female sexuality remains such a big mystery - sex will
always play too-important a part in our lives and relationships.
HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THE
WAY YOUNG FEMALES OF THE FUTURE VIEW THEIR SEXUAL RESPONSIBILITIES.
The answers to this survey will be compiled in a book - a legacy to growing
women everywhere. There is much out there that is still not known about
female sexuality ˆ and while the "experts" debate about
which orgasms are the best, why don't we simply just share our unique experiences
in the meantime? Perhaps the whole concept of the female orgasm being "difficult
to attain" is actually a self-fulfilling myth, resulting directly
from the fact that most women grow up completely clueless about their own
anatomy and sexual responsiveness.
If you would like to participate in this COMPLETELY
CONFIDENTIAL survey, please
with the words "YES to the Sexuality Survey" in the subject line.
If you feel you know someone who might like to participate in this survey,
please forward this page.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
Regards,
Rose Cooper.
PS: Please allow a few weeks for the survey to be sent to you - I hope
to gather most of the YES responses first, and then I will send the surveys
out all out at once.
PPS: Any media person who has an interest in helping
me publicise this survey, please feel free to email
me for either an interview, or to commission an article on my preliminary
findings.
|
|
|
