I learned about menstruation and birth control from Seventeen magazine. Good old Seventeen.

Also, eyeliner.

Thank god for the home medical guide stashed in a corner of the family book shelf and its surprisingly clear, if overly romantic, section of sexuality.

I think it was 5th grade that we saw the movie --girls only -- and there was a book. Details were just enough for me to be baffled by why ANYONSE would do that.

I'd guess 8 to 10 is a good age to have some basic info even if they don't ask.

my favorite story was from a co-worker . her daughter and friend were in the back seat -- talking about how -- and they were so wrong that she couldn't help it -- she stop gave them the brief details. They were appalled and ten she realized she gave the Talk to a child that was not her own, so she was appalled. But they were just so wrong

Details were just enough for me to be baffled by why ANYONSE would do that.

That was pretty much my reaction too. I got my learnin' from a book, as usual. I was all, well that's really interesting, but I'm never gonna do it! Didn't want kids anyway, so that's cool. Aaaand back to the dinosaurs.

High school sex-ed talk was mortifying, and also really offensive, since I was at an all-female school, and the talk was given by the school priest. It basically boiled down to, "If you get a boy aroused to a certain point, he can't be held responsible for his actions because of some biological bullshit, so DON'T DO IT, LADIES."

Conversely, my parents had a friend whose daughter went to an all-female school and had the talk given by a young and bitter nun, whose talk boiled down to, "Here are all the lines boys will feed you to try to get laid. All the lines that are basically about getting laid are true. Most of the lines about how much they love you or how you need to prove how much you love them are lies, or bits of true mixed with a whole lot of being willing to say anything to get laid. Any line that denies their own responsibility for their actions because of some biological bullshit is bullshit, so DON'T DO IT, LADIES."

I wonder what kind of horrifying explosive vortex would be created if her sex-ed talk and the priest's sex-ed talk ever somehow collided.

I know my mom gave me The Talk when I was a kid (it was, of course, kid-appropriate and not peppered with phrases like "pulling a train"), but I honestly don't think it sunk in that it was supposed to apply to ME, at some point in the future. I was like, "Okay, babies, cool."

(And -- this is as picture-perfect an example of my utter naivete as I can think of [and honestly, I am still this naive, in a wow-I-really-miss-the-obvious-don't-I kind of way] -- when I was maybe 10 or 11, it occurred to me that I always heard the phrase "the birds and the bees," and that it related to something a parent was supposed to talk to you about. So I went to my mom and asked, "Are you going to tell me about the birds and the bees?" And she was all, "Honey, remember the book? With the husband and wife and the baby?" "Yeah, of course." "That's the birds and the bees." "It IS? ... That makes NO sense! What do birds and bees have to do with THAT?!?")

And I believe I've posted before about sex-ed in an all-girls' Catholic school. It consisted of DON'T, but there may have been a state-mandated section on Okay, We Have To Tell You About STDs, So Here's What Happens If You Do What We Told You Not To. And it was 1985, so the section on AIDS was basically, yeah, about 20% of people who get infected actually get AIDS. (Ah, the 80s.)

And we watched the movie "When, Jenny, When?", which starred Marcia Brady as the class slut who slept with everyone but none of the guys respected. And so she decided to NOT sleep with a dude and found out that they had a super-duper fulfilling relationship and he respected her enough to keep dating her!

Actuallly, as I'm typing this, I think the STD stuff was in health class, and the sex stuff (DON'T) was in religion class. I know the movie was in religion class. Although I do specifically remember the day in health we covered masturbation, and everyone did the cough-shuffle feet-look at desk thing for the whole hour, while the teacher told us that it's cool, it's okay to do it, it's natural, etc. Which, now that I think about it, is directly against the teachings of the Catholic church. Hmmm. Maybe I'm misremembering it. But I swear I don't remember being told it was a sin to choke it.

But I swear I don't remember being told it was a sin to choke it.

I thought masturbation was a sin on account of trying to read the Bible cover to cover. I didn't get very far, but I got to the thing where God smites Onan for spilling his seed upon the ground.

Then a few years later I discovered masturbation by accident.

this is as picture-perfect an example of my utter naivete as I can think of [and honestly, I am still this naive, in a wow-I-really-miss-the-obvious-don't-I kind of way]

Steph, I used to think the vagina was the space between a woman's breasts. I thought sex involved rubbing your penis on that space.

I'm not entirely sure how or when I figured out how sex actually worked. I discovered late-night premium channel programming in junior high, so I had a better idea then.

I never got any sort of sex talk from my parents. Of course, we weren't allowed to date, so I guess they figured they had nothing to worry about.

Then a few years later I discovered masturbation by accident.

I think I discovered masturbation from some drawing someone did making fun of a guy whose mom caught him masturbating in the tub. I didn't really know what he was doing in the cartoon, but I tried it out one night and heeeeeey would you look at that what the fuck wow.

We had the film in fifth grade, girls only, in the gym, with a pamphlet. But I got my period later that year (?!) so Mom and I had a little more discussion about that. That was pretty much as far as it went, although I also had the most awesome book about how babies were made (very '70s, and all the illustrations were paper cutouts, so cool), that I actually kept and used with the kids.

High school health I remember being mostly about STDs and AIDS, too, Tep, but that's it. So most of what I heard was either about reproduction or nasty diseases, too.

I wonder what kind of horrifying explosive vortex would be created if her sex-ed talk and the priest's sex-ed talk ever somehow collided.

I want to see that happen. Unless of course it would cause a black hole that would kill me. But STILL.

OMG! I forgot about "When Jenny When"!!!! They TOTALLY showed that to us in 5th grade! Hahahaha!

I don't remember ever learning about STDs or masturbation in Catholic school, but I do remember this hilarious curriculum about drugs in health class in 7th grade, where they taught us all the "street" names for drugs: blow, smack, etc. So that we could better communicate with our future dealers?