I recently submitted some commentary for a query regarding “What Your Gynecologist Wishes You Knew About Sexual Health” for Kinkly.

There was apparently some mix up with dates, because the publication date of the article (June 11, here) is listed as earlier than the submission deadline date I received, which was June 12.

Copied below is some lost commentary for the site, submitted in response to this request:

June is National Adult Sexual Educational Month. I’m working on an article on things your gynecologist/doctor wishes you knew about sexual health and looking for medical professionals to chime in.

Enjoy the following insights from me:

One of the most important things anyone needs from an information-seeking exchange is, to the best of one’s ability, accuracy. Your best recollection of what happened, the facts – that sort of thing. Unfortunately, in a world that’s fairly sex phobic, judgey, and lacking in quality sex education, relating accuracy in your gyno’s office, for instance, can be challenging. For kinky people, this may present even more unique challenges as kinks are often perceived to be outside the vanilla norm of, for instance, urgent care.

Though we have taken many steps towards unpacking sex phobia and judgments about sex behavior, the fact remains that on a social level we still hang on to many normative ideas about sex. As a consequence, when detailing intimate details about our lives, we may shy away from really laying all the details out there.

Now, navigating social forces of this nature is an issue in any data gathering circumstance. Be it to a sociologist or to a health care professional, it can be uncomfortable to share facts with the specter of social norms in your periphery. But we need provide accurate information (in context, obviously) in order to be able to formulate some sort of effective assessment via respective professional lenses.

I would expect that medical professionals wish people in their care knew to be as accurate as possible. As a sociologist, I wish people felt freer to do so.

What do you think?

(pictured: I mean, this guy is a little bit scary…)

* * *

Got a sociology question? Need some social justice informed life advice? Contact Dr. Chauntelle right here.

Get your copy of Exposure: A Sociologist Explores Sex, Society, and Adult Entertainment on Amazon here.

Image via Carlos Paes.