Fireside Chat: Broaching the Uncomfortable, but Necessary

For my fireside chat presentation, I decided to raise awareness of sexual health.  The topic I chose was newborn circumcision.  In retrospect, I think I should have done more on the basics than I did.  I had a number of students come up to me afterwards asking for clarification on some of the things I presented on.

The main topic of misunderstanding was what an STI was.  I told them it was politically correct as Sexually Transmitted Infection aka STD (sexually transmitted disease).  I made a rookie mistake and forgot to focus on my audience.  The information I present was what I thought a good adaptation of a research presentation I did for my nursing class.  What I didn't realize/remember is that I was speaking to an audience who has none of the in-depth education I do about human health, and especially as it relates to human sexual health.

If I were to do it over, I would focus more on the basics, like fetal development and how that creates the situation after birth for the decision of circumcision.  That, or I would just go over basic human sexual organs and how it relates to sexual health as children and adults.  My weaknesses aside, I thought the presentation went well.  I was able to present the information I wanted to in a timely manner and I was able to gauge audience reaction to my slides.

It's fun, sometimes, to watch people squirm a little in their seat as I talk about subjects that are largely taboo.  They shouldn't be, though.  People should be comfortable to talk about sexual health in safe environs such as the fireside chat, home, or the classroom.  That's basically what the LDS Church's Gospel Principle's manual states.

I do believe that if children don't feel safe to bring this topic to their parents, then they will just google it.  And I, for one, will not entrust the sexual education of my children to Google.  I do find it odd that in Mormon culture we place so much emphasis on our bodies being temples and that we should keep them sacred that we miss entirely the discussions on haow to keep our bodies clean in other ways beside the spiritual.  We definitely need more help with the physical, mental, and emotional health of our earthly temples.

And that is my personal quest: to help those who wish to educate themselves and their families in safe environments have the tools to do so.  There is little in our LDS literature that can be used as a good guide, with enough and appropriately detailed information to be useful in educating about how to take care of our mental, sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.