Thankfully, I don’t remember having any one-on-one interviews where I was asked explicit questions, but because of some of the shaming from the church, it has impacted me in my adult life. My parents never talked to me about sex-ed stuff, or just about my body in general. And the shame that the church projects, about things that are perfectly natural, have left me completely uncomfortable in my own skin. Because of years of shaming, and parents who refused to acknowledge or talk about anything regarding our bodies (and they felt that way because of the church), I have not even been able to go to the gynecologist. I’m not sexually active, but there’s other reasons to go to the gynecologist to ensure overall health for a woman, and I can’t get myself to go. My doctor is pushing me to make an appointment, I made one, and then had so many panic attacks in the weeks leading up to it that I didn’t go. I’m almost 30 and have never gone. I’m so uncomfortable, embarrassed and ashamed. If the church hadn’t done so much shaming (I remember trying to ask questions in Young Women’s and I was shut down and told it was inappropriate) and if they had encouraged parents to talk to their kids about this stuff in a healthy manner, instead of making us to feel like the perfectly natural things that happen with our bodies are “evil”, I feel like things would be different today.
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