Real Conversations about Real Bodies

by DAISY THOMAS

In the Land of Free Speech, there’s certainly much we don’t talk about and some things we talk too much about. Women make up half our population, yet public discussion around women's health issues tend to focus solely on abortion and not on our actual bodies and selves. There is a 100% guarantee women have health issues beyond contemplating conception continuation conundrums, complications, concerns, and care, and the constant questioning community conversation. 

It begins at home, of course, but as a society we must stop making girls and boys, non-binary, non-gender conforming, and transyouths feel different or weird for changing body odors and sprouting body hair, when boobs bud or grow differently, when normally soft body parts are suddenly standing attention, or when they bleed or otherwise find something odd in their undies, etc. And they need to know that it’s normal and so are they.

While this recommendation isn’t about or advocating for discussing bodily fluids at the dinner table, it is about continually creating an environment for all of us to thrive. Although our world has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, we do have a chance to plant new seeds and try out new techniques to help us better operate both individually and as a community at large. 

But first we must build a foundation of age-appropriate, fact-based, honesty so that collectively we can learn from previous mistakes and missteps, and communicate a willingness to be vulnerable. Taboo topics leave children confused and annoyed or worse, mortified and alone, unable to discuss their feelings or what’s on their minds, and for some, seek treatment for related issues. Ostriches may have the biggest eyes of any land vertebrae but they can’t see with their heads in the sand -- jk that’s a myth, but whatever it works. We deserve to have honest, respectful discussion. 

Men and boys must also be a part of the conversation; Utah women make up 49.7% of the population and more than 40% of the workforce, and probably more if you consider that Utah women are the largest percentage of part-time workers in the nation. The more we understand about our collective bodies, our healthcare needs, the more efficiently and effectively we can function, both in school and at work. 

We are at a point in society where we should be ready, willing, and able to discuss once controversial issues -- not just from a scientific point of view to a gaggle of giggling 5th graders, but in an every day, non-embarrassing way. Learning from one another is how we evolve, how we grow into our potential as better humans. And we can have these once unheard of conversations while also acknowledging the gross / funny / miraculousness of the human body and all its functions. 

Maybe then we will escape our private-parts obsessive, sexually oppressed, rape culture, now with added universal coercion thanks in-part to internet searches, deep web debauchery, and tips and tutorials on anything and unfortunately, everything.