Why people shy to talk about sex in public?

The author of the blog post, Mike Beighley 

and a friend Aisha 

are both were featured in 

a Huffington Post’s article about “Why people shy to talk about sex in public?” 

. The article points out that according to a recent survey, over 75% of Americans feel that they have not discussed their sexual history with anyone since they started college. This is especially true for millennials who have been told from birth that it’s inappropriate or risky to discuss these topics openly in public spaces. They are told to keep their sexual experiences private in order to protect themselves from judgement or stigmatization by others. 

The survey was carried out by the University of Nebraska’s College Health Research Center 

and it surveyed over 2,000 people aged 18-22. 41% of these participants had never discussed their sexual history with another person since starting college while 26% admitted that they had not done so even once. According to the two authors, "it's almost impossible to have a conversation about sex without someone shooting you down." Aisha further adds that she constantly finds herself being judged for her sexuality and her experiences. She is scared of being stigmatized for her choices. Complicating matters further, she feels that the society has no room for sexuality outside of the heterosexual norm.

The authors stress that this attitude poses a big problem to the future sex and relationship education for all students who would benefit from open conversation on these issues. They understand that there are several reasons behind this attitude but they believe that it is ultimately counterproductive to force students to keep their sexual experiences private and not discuss them with others. Ultimately, they believe that this should be changed so that sex education can be truly effective and address real life situations.

Mike Beighley and Aisha are part of the “I want to talk about it” 

movement which aims to destigmatize sex-ed in public schools. The group supports open discussion and decision making on these topics so that students can explore sexual health and sexuality on their own terms. The movement aims to acknowledge the diversity of sexuality that exists in American society and prioritize an inclusive sex education program for all students. The blog post also points out that there is not much information available on this topic so  a lot of people don’t know how to talk about it or ask for help.