Meet-Up Group 7Azeem DhukkaReeve CooperMichaela MontezAzeem: Like Michaela, my parents never had any kind of talk with me, so I learned the majority of what I know through health class and through others. Being Muslim, talking about sex can be kind of taboo or it could be that it’s just a tough conversation to have since most people in our community are conservative. In Sugar Land, the area of Houston that I am from, the schools, tried their best to keep students on the right track for success but didn’t invest time in the social growth of their students, specifically in the contexts of sex. Even then, most of what I was taughtonly mentioned abstinence, STD’s, and puberty. Those conversations never really felt fully educational, but instead to convince us to remain abstinent. It wasn’t until I was older, that I understood more about sex in our society. In media, sex is portrayed as something fun, passionate, and even casual. Media outlets like music, movies, tv shows, and even radio showsinfluence the youth and their perception of what sex really is, so I also think this can drastically affect people’s expectations and cause them more confusion as they try to navigate sex in society. After moving out for college, I realized that sex is very natural and everything is entirely decided between the people involved. I wouldn’t change the way I learned about sex however. I feel as though I learned what I needed to when I needed to know it.Reeve: I think it’s weird, but I can’t remember exactly when I learned about sex. I’ve gone to a private, religious school my whole life before coming to UT, so my parents left it up to the schoolto teach us. When the school did teach us, we had abstinence seminars, they explained that sex before marriage was wrong, etc. My parents weren't very strict because they let us consume any media that we really wanted. Because of this, I learned a lot about sex through TV, movies, music, and other pop culture resources. Sex in most media outlets is super idealized. Whenever you watch a romantic movie or anything of the sort, sex is portrayed as something fun, romantic, and special. Most of the time, it’s shown as something positive and normal like any other facet of human interaction. I can’t think of a specific movie off the top of my head, but all romantic movies have a similar plot, and they most often end in sex. Sex isn’t always how it looks in the movies though of course. I think my idea of sex could be a lot more conservative given how I was raised. I had a lot of access to movies TV and music that sometimes-had sexual content, and some kids aren’t allowed to be around that kind of thing at all. Maybe those kids are more sheltered or conservative about sex or talking about sex in general. I don’t think I would change the way I learned about sex though.Michaela: My parents never had “the talk” with me, so I mostly learned about sex through healthclass at school and through peers. I grew up in West Texas which is typically conservative. My school had a small student body which was conservative as well, so when the education came to us it was still very sparse. On the contrary, there were a lot of details given about STD’s probably in hopes to scare us into staying abstinent. Since I lacked a reliable source for all the facts, I was fed a lot of false information by my peers. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I really understood what sex was. I grew up in a strict, Christian household and was taught from my parents that sex was sacred and meant to be saved for marriage, and other than that, we didn’t really talk about it. However, sex in popular culture gave me a different perspective on the topic. I’ve never seen a movie where the characters wait until marriage to have sex. A lot of the sexual content in movies is either extremely passionate or a hookup kind of situation. There’s not a whole lot in between. I see a lot of movies in which sex is this magical, amazing thing between someone you’re madly in love with. Because of this, I think a lot of people get theirhopes up when it comes to real life. Now I view sex as a natural human thing. I think because I grew up in such a strict household, I really challenged by beliefs when I moved out, and this is atopic that changed dramatically for me. I don’t think sex or the number of partners someone has is something that anyone should be shamed