Childhood is less awkward now, apparently

must... hide...tampon!

It’s a snow day!  All the children in New York City get to spend the day playing in the snow, hopefully fashioning sleds out of bodega bags, trash can lids, or whatever else they can find.  And all the teachers are getting very, very drunk.  Then maybe going sledding.  I hope.

So, I’m an after-school teacher, which means I get to be way more laid back with the kids than a normal teacher.  Yesterday, the 5th graders all had these matching little plastic bags that said “Girl power,” and anyone who was once a 5th grade girl knows what that means– they had gotten the sex talk, and the plastic goodie bags were full of the new, mysterious products they would soon need as they become women.

My memories of the day we all got those goodie bags is marked by a profound feeling of public humiliation.  They made the girls and the boys stay in the same room and watch the boys’ video and the girls’ video together, which could not have been more uncomfortable.  Then they gave us these bags, full of deodorant and pads and little booklets with drawings of ovaries.  It seems odd now that I was embarrassed by deodorant, but when you’re that young and uncomfortable with your own body, even acknowledging the existence of armpit sweat felt humiliating.

But yesterday, these kids were having a blast!  They were excitedly opening up the pads, competing to have the most knowledge about periods, smelling the deoderant.  It was awesome.  They weren’t embarrassed to ask me questions.  They weren’t weirded out when I explained to them what your period actually is.  Even the boys sitting at the same table didn’t seem to care what the girls were playing with, and the girls certainly weren’t ashamed to show off their new toys.

I don’t know whether my Bronx kids are just especially badass, but it was uplifting to see how sex-positive these kids naturally were.  They didn’t really know anything (I could tell the word “egg” was really confusing them), but they were receptive to my clumsy-but-scientific explanations.  That makes me think that if they get a decent education, their attitude toward sex and their own bodies will be leagues ahead of the generations immediately before them.  I’m in my early twenties, and I couldn’t even say the word “period” without blushing until a few years ago.  Girls my age are really, really good at the ultra-covert tampon hand-off, lest any male in the room be made aware that women have periods.  These 5th graders were passing pads around the cafeteria table.  What a step in the right direction.