I’m not sure if anyone else can relate to this but school
had a way of tangling my brain like a kitten in a yarn shop, especially
regarding sex and the opposite sex. My example has less to do with the how and
more to do with why.
In history class, the teacher said that tribes broke into
warfare to protect the women and children. Basically, war was about courtship, security
and sex? Saints preserve us!! Guess that explained the Sunday night movies
where adults kissed and suddenly there was a family to protect. Okay... but why?
During English class the teacher said most poetry was part of the
oral tradition used to lure unsuspecting virgins into bed. Naughty boys like
Chaucer and Shakespeare, committed some of those stories to writing and the
tales are full of corset-busting sexy scenes but the only thing my
inquisitive, adolescent mind wanted to know was why? (We studied homophones too—which made sense--Why and Y?)
In biology class, the teacher told us that the factors determining
whether a person becomes a boy or a girl depended on the XX or XY chromosomes.
The double XX for girls held the attention of the boys in the class but
something told me I was being hornswoggled, because there was nothing sexy in his
discussion about conception and zygotes. In fact, if it related to sex, the
teacher made it sound gross.
Algebra!!! Where do I start? Especially, when they asked
about X+ Y. The previous class they had taught us that Y is a male chromosome
and here they were asking what happens when Y is missing from the equation. Didn't the teachers talk in the
lounge? Why did they expect innocent students to tell the math teachers the
dirty truth! Why was the Y missing
anyway? More importantly, why would anyone care?
I took my homework home and asked my dad about it. He was an
engineer and was willing to help. He sat me down and began somewhere after the
Stone Age. There was the wheel and then some pulleys, gears and finally ball
bearings. He told me ball bearings worked a lot like my joints. I yawned and
yawned and after four hours, my math homework was still blank. He told me to go
brush my teeth and said I was adorable before saying goodnight.
I had one more
question. “Dad, is the missing Y a boy?” “A boy?” He asked, looking surprised.
He smiled and searched the room for my mother’s eyes. “I think she’s ready for
the talk,” he said, sounding serious. Mom laughed and told him she wasn't up to
it and asked him why he thought it
was time?
That night as I slipped into my pajamas I thought about what
he meant by ‘the talk’—and in my heart I mistakenly knew-- I knew it had to do
with sex, chromosomes, wars, poetry and lots of kissing. Which proved my
inconclusive theory that Y stood for
various boys and as a member of the X crowd, I would always be asking why!
How about you--does any of this sound familiar?
