Influence of the “sex talk” on sexual perceptions

Sex education is a controversial topic, and many schools have their own idea of what sex education should look like. Often, parents will rely on the school system to educate their children about sex or abstinence. This study sought to understand how “the talk” influenced women’s sexual experiences and perceptions. Snowball sampling methods and convenience sampling methods were used to recruit eleven undergraduate women to participate in hour-long, semi-structured interviews. During the interviews, women discussed learning about sex through school, parents, and media. Using feminist theory, a thematic analysis of the interview data was conducted. The various ways women learned about sex in school communicated a lack of a standard curriculum. Some women had a more comprehensive approach; whereas, other women received either abstinence-only or virtually no form of sex education. Not only were schools lacking in how they educated about sex, parental communication about sex was deficient, forcing women to rely on peers and various forms of media to learn about sex. For one woman the influence of religion on "the talk" influenced her perceptions about sex. A few women expressed thinking sex was awkward, repulsive, or shameful because of the way sex was portrayed to them. Given the different ways women are educated about sex, college sexual health programs should focus more on re-educating college women about sexual behaviors and the ways they can protect themselves from disease and unplanned pregnancies. Furthermore, future interventions should focus on encouraging women to be comfortable discussing safer sexual practices.