QotD: Fascinating Class

What is the most interesting class you have ever taken? 
Submitted by Melissa. 

The Anthropology of Sex

This course was life-altering for me.  And HARD.  How I pulled off an "A" I will never know.  I was in there with pre-med, pre-nursing and Anthropology students.  I had no idea what I was getting into.  I was a theater major and took a minor in Anthropology - this was my last course to seal the deal.  I took it in the same semester as Human Sexuality and Sex Roles - both of which were sociology courses.  It was heaven for me to have been taking 3 sexuality related courses all at once because all three came from different angels of study.  The Anthropology of Sex was an evolutionary theory class focused on all things biological and our need to reproduce.  Sex Roles was about just that - how we look at gender in regards to our "roles" in society.  And Human Sexuality covered all things sexual from a strictly societal perspective. 

What set apart The Anthropology of Sex from the others was the amount of science involved.  That was where being pre-med or pre-nursing would've come in handy.  Fortunately I had enough Biology under my belt to hold my own.  The things I learned about the human reproductive system went well beyond what the average bear gets out of a sex-ed class.  We learned about every biological detail of the reproductive systems, genetics, evolution, sexual selection, the biology of attraction, sexual response, lactation, birth, the wonders of the cervix, you name it.

All 3 classes were special to me since the study of human sexuality has always been a passion of mine.  I'm actually playing with the idea of going back to school to become a sex-educator or sex therapist.  I received some praise from my gynecologist about this last week.  He said you'd be surprised at the lack of really good sex therapists in the city who are open and honest....I'm really not sure what he meant by that since I'm relatively unfamiliar with the field of sex therapy but I'll take it.  Being able to reach out and help someone recognize the importance of their sexuality and how it has a say in most things we decide in our everyday lives would be greatly rewarding.   I feel as if our sexual revolution has been counter productive because of the immense lack of information people have about how their own bodies work.  And in this day and age the amount of sexual dysfunction which is staggeringly more prominent in women than in men is shameful.  I want to work for a change. 

I've been a sex-educator before, employed by Planned Parenthood as a teen educator in high school.  I was part of a theater troupe called "InterAct: teen-to-teen Theater" that traveled all over the state of Missouri performing small scenes about difficult issues teens face, many of which are related to sexuality.  This group still exists but, due to lack of funding, they are greatly limited with the amount of people they can reach out to.  I was in the group in it's glory days, sporting a $250,000 budget which allowed us to perform for a vast array of audiences.  We went to schools, all sorts of health conventions and churches.  I even got to perform for Dr. Jocelyn Elders which was an incredible honor.  In two years I performed for over 200,000 people. 

With all the training I received and witnessing the difference we helped to make for people it really is no wonder that the subject of human sexuality has stuck with me as a passion.  I hope I can find a good place to study and narrow down exactly which field I want because I feel it's my time to make a move.  And maybe one day I will be in a position to establish my own program like InterAct in order to work with teens out here in New York.  Believe me, they could use it.