by Madison N.
Originally airing in 2017, the Netflix series Big Mouth, created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett, has continued to make waves and attract controversy. While some sing praises of the show’s raunchy approach at sex, gender and all things puberty, others simply see the show as a crude attempt at cheap jokes. Those that make this assumption, however, are missing the entire premise and goal of the series.
The series follows a group of teenagers as they navigate the ups and downs of pubescent life. From periods, to sex and sexuality, and even how to pleasure ones self, the show does not hold back. Over the course of five seasons we see the teens grow into themselves and their relationships change; because of this, individuals have found the show particularly easy to relate to; despite the fictional hormone monsters, love bugs, and anxiety mosquitoes.
So what makes Big Mouth any different from other adult humor series? What makes it worth your time and why should you watch it? Well, if you attended a public school during the Middle School or High School sex education talks, you might learn a thing or two, or twenty.
Whether it was from an uninvested gym teacher who might as well have preached to not have sex “because you will get pregnant and die,” much like in Mean Girls, or just another student in your class, who learned everything they know from an older sibling, and was passed through a ten person grapevine before making its way to you, you likely never received the sex education you really needed.
Sex education in school systems has never set up students for true sexual preparedness, or successful understanding of their own bodies. Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that provides reproductive health care to individuals in the United States, has completed mounds of research on the negative effects of poor sexual education in schools. While only 34 states mandate HIV education, even less require sex education- only 24. School districts a majority of the time left to their own devices when it comes to deciding when, how, and what information is shared. Planned Parenthood continually works to advocate to increase these numbers and raise funding for effective sex education in shcools.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended a total of 16 topics regarding sex education (including STI prevention, HIV awareness, consent, and much more) that should be taught in schools, however in 2014, it was reported that less than 50% of high schools, and only ⅕ of middle schools taught all topics. The result of these jarring statistics is increased sexual transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy.