LET’S MAKE LIFE REAL
On April 30th, the Georgia Chapter of WFWP held the second Real Talk forum. Real Talk is a discussion forum for teenage girls, young ladies, and women to discuss concepts and ideas from WFWP’s CLUE (Creating Love Uplifting Esteem) curriculum.
From my own personal experience, the topic of abstinence tends to be more sensitive for females. Although we have a prominently free-sex culture, young women still consider the appellation ‘slut’ shameful. It is undeniable that there is still a double standard between men and women when it comes to sexuality. This makes it hard for women to be honest about sex and they find it emotional to explore sexuality and its correlation with gender inequality. We also stress the correlation and emphasize that abstinence is not just a religious issue. If abstinence is accepted, it will improve our society as a whole. We do plan to expand the discussion beyond women as it is a valuable discussion for males also.
Before beginning the discussion, we had a moment of silent prayer and reflection. The time of reflection was to encourage the ladies to acknowledge life events, people, and circumstances that allowed them to become the people we are today. I also encouraged the ladies to dig deep and differentiate between what they have been thought to believe and what is actually true to them.
To begin, we briefly introduced WFWP, its purpose and ongoing projects. Georgia Chairwoman Mrs. Heyliger explained the recent and ongoing projects of the Georgia Chapter.
The first topic for discussion dealt with the social pressures on men versus women. In our discussion many significant points were brought up. Many ladies expressed their own body image issues and pressures to look a certain way while they were growing up. When exploring the social pressures on men, we discussed the pressure on boys and men to be masculine and the misconceptions of the meaning of masculinity.
“Men want the same thing women want, they want to love and be loved, they want monogamy and marriage. However they feel pressure to be overly sexual to prove their masculinity,” one of the ladies explained.
Another topic for discussion dealt with the question: can men and women be friends? In popular media shows that depict friendship between a group of men and women, inevitably they depicts a sexual or romantic relationship within their friendship; a classic example is the show “Friends.” These shows emphasize the widespread belief that men and women cannot build platonic relationships. “It is hard to befriend someone of the opposite sex because others will assume that we are not just friends.”
The final topic we discussed was gender inequality in the dating culture. In this discussion I emphasized the importance of abstinence to connect to point made previously. If children could grow up in a society that encourages brother/sister, platonic relationships instead of romantic relationships, those children would become adults that can respect and better relate to their spouses. Those children would be able to focus on other relationships--for example, relationships with parents, peers, brothers and sisters, relatives--instead of being overly consumed with romance. If we could identify the misconceptions of society and where they come from, we can then get past our insecurities and start making progress towards a healthier society.
We ended the discussion with a video from Joe Solomon about the value of abstinence. This is the link to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdliZooIhy8.
All in all, it was an informative and thought-provoking afternoon for all who participated, whatever the age. WFWP Georgia will continue Real Talk forums in the coming months and years.