Dads.. its time to be real superheros.

In Indian society, where discussions around topics like sex education and menstruation are often cloaked in silence or discomfort, I was exposed to it for the first time when I was around 10 by my best friend. She just asked me a direct question “Do you know what a condom is?” She asked this question to a naive girl, who didn’t have any idea about her own body. But then after I went to my dad asking this question. He answered me with whatever actual information he knew about what a condom was, how it was used, what it was for, and when it was used.

I’ve seen many parents who don’t want to talk about it, neither do they let their kids talk about it. We’re exposed to sex education by many other means but our family or just parents. And we’re often mistaken, misguided and misinformed. It may be exposed to some by their friends, through or through social media. Why is menstrual education given only to girls, why do they exclude boys from being a part of it in our schools, family, and everywhere?

 I remember I was told about menstruation by my dad and not by my mother. This doesn’t happen in many households, but in mine… when I got my first period, my dad was the one who taught me how to use a sanitary napkin because that time my mom was out for work. He told me it was okay when the bed sheet was soaking in blood.

Why can't we normalize talking about or talking to our fathers about menstruation? Why can't we normalise including boys in the conversation about it? Why can't we normalise saying the word period in society? Is it that big of a deal? I don't think so. Periods are not impure, it’s a biological process which every girl has as soon as they hit puberty. It’s blood which is needed by the baby in the womb when women are pregnant, it’s the blood which is inside the newborn. Periods, and sex education, are some of the basic things that we should talk about and not stigmatize.

TANISHKA

17