PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER, HEALTH, AND HUMAN RIGHTS
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sexual education and family, What does beauty means?

2/3/2020

16 Comments

 
​What type of sexual health education did you receive growing up? Did you feel it was adequate to prepare you for your adult life today? Why is access to sexual health education considered by the UN and others to be a human right? What strategies are in place locally (in WA) as well as outside the U.S. to improve sexual health education and "family planning" education for youth?
I spent most of my life and educated in Taiwan before I came to the U.S for college. As I remember, we had sexual health class once a week from the third grade of elementary school to the ninth grade. In the beginning, teachers taught us about the biological difference between boys and girls and the functions of reproductive organs, then we started to learn about reproduction, sexually transmitted diseases, and a little bit of female anatomy. However, there was not any content about being homosexual during the time, and many people in Taiwan still thought being gay or lesbian is the main reason of getting HIV, it is not right to full in love with the person of the same gender which is not right, and I think it is the government responsibility to educate the right information to the youth instead of ignoring the issue. I feel like the sexual education that I learned in school is not enough. But I am lucky to have my parents that keep educating me the knowledge of sexual health, they always tell me to be open mind and respectful to everyone because we all have the right to love and be loved no matter the partner is a boy or girl, and keep myself in a healthy sexual relationship physically and emotionally. 
Access to sexual health education not only helps prevent sexually transmitted diseases and reduce sexual health disparities among LGBTQ youth, but also the right for everyone in anywhere to receive the information of our health, the knowledge to be safe and how to protect ourselves and others. Many families are not willing to speak on the topic of sexual education, so it is critical for schools to educate the youth including gender stereotypes and violence, or the children may receive the wrong information on social media or the internet that could affect the lives of themselves and others. In Washington state, the department of health has a family planning program to educate the parents on the knowledge about having baby, clinical services for people to plan a healthy and safe pregnancy. Moreover, the Family Planning Program of King County provides clinical services, health education, and outreach, focusing on the low-income, uninsured population with clinic staff who can speak two or more languages in Family Planning Clinics. The outreach and Health Education strategies target clients of all races and cultures.
What does beauty mean to you?

Since I was young, I had been told the definition of beauty is a person or thing being attracted by the appearance, gives the pleasure of our minds. After getting older, I realize that real beauty is not just about the appearance but the mind and soul inside. To me, true beauty means the feeling of myself. I cannot change people’s minds about how they think about me, all I can do is focusing on myself, accept and cherish who I am. The dominant ideals of beauty in my country were affecting me a lot. When I was little, people making jokes about fat people because we thought being fat is not beautiful or not cool, so I joined the sports team to try to lose weight because I didn’t want people laughing at me. The narrow definition of beauty comes along with many negative impacts. The beauty standards different for men and women in the U.S are unfair to women. We see many people try very hard to be fit in the mainstream definition of beauty by make-up, work out, diet, hairstyle and color, or even plastic surgery and more. Women today have more physical requirements then being a man. The society places too much emphasis on appearance and neglects the inner, women who don’t meet the prevailing standard of beauty are expected to have a harder life.
 
Reference:
You and Your Family. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/FamilyPlanning
About the Family Planning Program. (n.d.). Retrieved fromhttps://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/locations/family-planning/about-us.aspx
​

By Yuta Chen
16 Comments
Aliyah Sop
2/4/2020 02:17:23 pm

Hello Yuta,
Thank you for sharing! It is amazing how even though your sexual education came was from another country, you did bring up a good point. I was taught sexual education here in the United States, but you bring up a great point that sexual information about same sex relations was not taught to me. I am curious to see if it is now implemented in the topics that come up when teaching sexual/reproductive health education. Thank you for sharing!

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Honey Cin
2/4/2020 11:31:35 pm

Hello Yuta,
After reading your post, I learned that Taiwan and my country have a common belief (or) culture similarity. It is not appropriate to talk about sexual or homosexual in my country, so we have health classes, which is about only cleanliness and biological differences between boys and girls and animals. I also think the government of every country has a responsibility to teach the right information to the youth to prevent sexual health disparities and sexually transmitted diseases.

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Christine Nguyen
2/5/2020 08:11:20 pm

Hi Yuta,
Thank you for sharing your blog post! I agree when you mentioned how having access to sexual health education can help prevent sexually transmitted diseases as well as reduce sexual health disparities. I understand that there are a lot of families especially the Asian community that dose verbally talk about sexual education and it's important to have people know about it at an early age to prevent disease.

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Erica Nguyen
2/6/2020 11:08:43 pm

Hey Yuta,
I appreciate how transparent you were with your blog post. The last two sentences summarized how I also feel about today's beauty ideals and how they impact women. I also agree that women are required and oftentimes pressured into looking a certain way. I'm not saying that men don't feel pressures either, but the pressure is more prevalent among women in my opinion. I think that pressure is often times intensified if you come from another country that has completely different body ideals then the U.S. and that can cause a lot of stress on the individual.

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Dezha S.
2/8/2020 04:27:35 pm

Yuta,
It is nice to hear about a different school system aside from what I was used to growing up. It is interesting that you guys had a sexual health class once a week starting in elementary school that's amazing and beneficial for when students start to get sexually active in middle and high school. It is also interesting how they would leave out information about same sex interactions being that treatment towards them is such a big problem that is going on the world today. I agree that school systems should be able to teach the right information in school even after 9th grade, creating more outside programs that help educate families on the importance of health, sex, diseases, access and next steps for those that currently have a disease, are already pregnant, after miscarriage and/or abortions and on so from there. Thank you for sharing!

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Marisol Bejarano
2/9/2020 08:17:33 pm

Hi Yuta,
I think that it's so easy to get wrapped up in beauty standards and the thoughts of others on the topic. The comments of others saying that if you don't loose weight you'll end up fat and alone forever. I remember I had a boyfriend that would always make snarky comments about me gaining weight and that I needed to loose it. It made me so insecure and depressed that it made me gain more weight. Now I know that our bodies are always changing and it doesn't matter what other people say, but I know that those comments can hurt, just remembering that you are more than just your body. Like you mentioned Yuta, what makes you beautiful is your soul.

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Kathy Luangrath
2/9/2020 10:01:22 pm

Hi Yuta! I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I found it very interesting to learn about another form of sexual education from an entirely different location other than the US! I also share a similar educational experience. Also, I truly found it very thoughtful and heart-warming of how your parents helped in educating you in sexual health. My parents and culture do not speak on such topic. I think it might just be a taboo topic, but I will definitely make sure my future children will be able to understand topics such as this as your parents did to you!

I also once believed that beauty mainly signified one's physical attributes. But as you also brought up, once I got older, I understood that beauty means much more than physical appearance. Further, I agree with your statement in which concerns the fact that women often have more physical requirements than men. However, I'm really glad the beauty standards are starting to slowly change as our society becomes more accepting of body shape.

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haley barton
2/11/2020 04:32:02 pm

The fact that sexual education was so prevent in your education is amazing in and of itself. Growing up I did not have any formal sexual education. I like how you pointed out the lack of education revolving homosexuality. Without this education, misconceptions such as the ones you have about homosexuality and HIV will persist. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in sexual education and adding the realities of homosexuality is one. I believe that in order to create a safe space for all members of the LGBT+ community, we need to start educating children about it. Not only would this reduce the stigma surrounding homosexuality, it would give members of this community the education they need to ensure their reproductive health.

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Gellila Solmon
2/12/2020 01:34:58 pm

Yuta,

Thanks for sharing your experience with learning about sexual and reproductive health. We don't realize how lucky we are to be able to learn about reproductive health. Even though, we are able to learn; some families don't accept the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health. Or don't allow their kids to learn about this type of issue. Which leaves those kids unaware of the risk with participation with sexual and reproductive health. In my culture, this topic is never talked about; everyone knows about it. But never discussed in my family.

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Lena Angelica Camacho
2/15/2020 12:56:19 pm

Hi Yuta,
I really liked how you brought up the fact about homosexual sexual health and that we tend to be brought up without talking about it. But in reality we shouldn't ignore it and act like it's not there because it is still very important especially to those are LGBTQ. They deserve the same treatment and education just like the rest of us no matter their sexual preference.

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Allie Boyer
2/15/2020 03:04:50 pm

Hi Yuta,
I think it is awesome that you had a long course in sex education. To have it from third grade to ninth grade is really beneficial. I like how your teachers narrowed down the topics and then as you got older molded these lessons into the bigger picture topics of sex ed. I would love to see this curriculum replicated in schools locally. I agree that beauty in the U.S. is a bit skewed and sexist towards the female body. Beauty cannot truly be captured with one definition, it is broad and I think it is important for everyone to remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Thank you for sharing!

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Danielle Lee
2/16/2020 11:55:06 am

Hi Yuta!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with me. I like how you brought up Washington state and what they are able to do for women. Taiwan having educated you all those years and realizing the gap of homosexual education is important. There’s this entire community of people who don’t have the luxury of learning specifically about their sexualities and identity. I loved how you explained beauty as “pleasure of our minds”. To wrap it all up in this statement is magic because beauty whether it be appearance, the mind or the soul it’s about the sensations we feel.

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Stephanie Cruz
2/16/2020 11:57:06 am

Hello Yuta,
I really liked your post. I especially liked when you mentioned that beauty isn’t just appearance but your mind and soul as well. I agree with that because I feel like someone’s mind/personality really makes someone beautiful. People can be cruel and rude and I feel like that is the most unattractive thing ever. What you said about society neglecting inner beauty is so true. I believe social media has a big influence on beauty standards and focuses on physical appearance.

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TJ Kapil
2/16/2020 07:19:45 pm

Hi Yuta,
I'm glad that you were able to receive sexual health education in Taiwan, because in many countries anything related to sex is almost a taboo. I feel Homosexuality is even more of a taboo in many countries, and a lot more work has to be done so that everyone feels comfortable talking about it. I really liked your thoughts on beauty and agree with them. I also feel that beauty is more internal then external and what truly matters is always on the inside.

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William Shaw
2/16/2020 07:48:21 pm

Yuta,
Thank you for sharing, I loved hearing about your post about beauty. You're right, societal perspectives of beauty is about the physical, external appearance but we should change that. We are constantly exposed to media which influence our perception of beauty. The media creates unrealistic standards for both men and women which can be detrimental to our mental health. Thankfully, we are in a time with more body positive and inclusivity when it comes to breaking the standard of just one kind of pretty. As we grow older, we are able to acknowledge and embrace the beauty we see in ourselves and in other's, not only the external beauty but the internal as well. Nice job and thanks for sharing your perspective!

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Raiye Abunie
3/7/2020 08:58:05 pm

Hello Yuta,

You wrote something that stood out to me and was very powerful - "to me, true beauty means the feeling of myself. I cannot change people’s minds about how they think about me, all I can do is focusing on myself, accept and cherish who I am." Being able to accept who you are and love yourself for you who are is the main and biggest first step in loving you. You are what beauty stands for. Social media and social platforms have a way of molding slim women with long straight hair as beauty. Each culture also defines beauty differently.

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