Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Confess Which Sexual Misconceptions They Held For Way Too Long

People Confess Which Sexual Misconceptions They Held For Way Too Long

Sex talk is still considered a taboo subject in many households. And I don't mean going into detail about your bedroom conquests at the dinner table.


Overprotective parents tend to be evasive about discussing the birds and the bees with their kids because they feel it's not up to them to have that conversation.

Remember Carrie White's religious mom who refused to talk about intimacy with her 16-year-old?

We all know how that turned out in the classic Stephen King novel.

Anyway, parents turning down an opportunity to have the uncomfortable convo or having their kids miss out on sex education can lead a child to potentially develop damaging misunderstandings about their body and puberty.

The effects of which were explored when Redditor sparklingshanaya asked:

"What’s a sexual misconception you had for way too long?"

It helps to have an earlier understanding about your body when you're younger.

Sex Education

"As a girl, I had no real idea of where/what the vagina was until I was like 11 or 12. My mom didn't give me a real sex talk, just a puberty/body book that said 'the vagina is between the woman's legs' and just had a full frontal diagram (legs closed) of a woman with an arrow pointing to her pelvic region. I also didn't know a period lasted longer than a day until I got mine at 14, and then wondered why it was still going on the next day."

"When my mom realized how abysmal my sex education was, her solution was to rent a video from the library about it and make me watch it on the big family TV in the living room at like 3pm. Granted— it was a very educational video but I won't ever forget one of the educators (a 50 year old woman) talking about how to give a satisfactory blow job."

– ash-on-fire

Hard Epiphany

"Ok so I grew up in a VERY conservative household. Was not allowed to take sex ed in middle school and they helicoptered in high school. Any internet access they had access to view so I never watched porn/looked at pics. Absolutely nothing. So for a long time I thought penises were shaped like a smaller pringles can. I thought it was just like...a straight up cylinder. Moved out at 17 and googled some things and man I had men's anatomy SO wrong."

– WholeLottaIntrovert

Wrong End Of The Stick

"Friend of mine has a similar background and I just about lost my mind when she said the balls are the END of the penis. Like she had seen those doodles and had it upside down so they just dangle off the end of the shaft lmaooo."

– xchakrumx

Let's get verbal about getting oral.

Satisfy A Woman

"Learn to go down on a woman, like become a master at it. Do this."

– ecallawsamoht

Excuse For Supper

"I second this. Been married for 20 years and it's something I'm happy to do."

"Get involved, people."

"Edit: thanks for the medals and upvotes, people! Be assured that I'll be celebrating tonight."

– AhabVanCleef

Semantics

"Friend of a friend thought it meant kissing. And they were like 19. So glad they found out through a conversation and not through a dude asking for it, or her talking about it. That would've been extremely confusing for everyone."

– SilverWaters793

Pucker Up

"My friend back in middle school thought a blowjob meant to literally blow on it. I still tease her about it to this day."

– Ashurii_desu

Failed Expectations

"Man, I thought I was gonna get so many blow jobs. That’s just not true."

– Studying_Politics

As young adolescents, these Redditors got these terminologies mixed up.

Dirty Talk

"When I was around middle school age I thought that oral sex meant talking dirty :’)"

– strawbrykat

"I used to sext with my girlfriend in high school. When we broke up, she just went crazy and told everyone in our grade that I was great at 'oral sex' (she meant sexting💀) School hasn’t been the same since then."

– Particular-Ad4356

Learning By Example

"I was kind of sheltered growing up, and like most sheltered kids, I learned a lot about sex through porn. I kept seeing 'blowjob' videos, and (i had no idea what a blowjob) assumed it was some kind of sex blooper. Like, something got messed up and the director said 'Oh darn, you blew it! Let’s take it from the top.'”

– Danny_my_boy

Pucker Up

"That a blow job is like blowing up a balloon."

– LizzieJeanPeters

A Redditor recalled how one child was majorly misled thanks to religion.

Immaculate Conception

"A kid (very devout Muslim) in sex ed was being taught how sex works. He boldly stood up and claimed the teacher may be right about non Muslim babies, but Muslim babies are not made via sex, god delivers them in a white robe to parents who are married and good Muslim."

"It’s been almost 14 years and I still laugh about that."

"Edit: just in case this is interpreted wrong, I myself am from a Muslim background and this is not about Islam or religion, just a 13 year old who was still fairly innocent."

– Kip_zonder_kop

Eye-Opener

"Muslim here. When I was 10, my Christian friend said something about sex (can’t remember what) when I said 'I wouldn’t know, I’ll never have sex' and that’s when he told me even Muslims have sex. 10 year old me googled some interesting things that night."

– MyMissingNugget

Nuts Into Holes

"I knew a very devout Muslim too, once asked him how sex worked (just out of curiosity for his answer) and he paused for a moment before saying 'You put the nuts in her hole.' He was 16 at the time. I tried to explain how it actually worked but they guy would not have it."

– tommypseudo

I had sex education in sixth grade after my parents gave the school permission for me to attend the special assembly centering on the topic.

But I remember how vague the instructor was. By the time I eventually had my first nocturnal emission, I remember being terrified, yet simultaneously elated. It was very confusing, and I didn't know what happened.

I remember reflecting back to sixth grade and thinking the school must've skipped that part in sex ed.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

hantavirus illustration
Joao Luiz Bulcao/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Infectious Diseases Expert Speaks Out After MAGA Makes Predictably Unfounded Claim About Hantavirus

For those unaware, ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic medication used to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms as well as external parasites like lice.

Parasites are organisms that depend on a host to both survive and spread. There are three main types of parasites that call humans home—the endoparasites protozoa and helminths (worms), which cause infection inside the body, and ectoparasites, which cause infection superficially within or on the skin.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hayden Panettiere
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Hayden Panettiere Just Publicly Came Out As Bisexual—And She Explained Why She Waited So Long

Scream and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is soon releasing her memoir This is Me: A Reckoning, and according to an interview with US Weekly, she almost didn't write it.

Despite many of her characters being confident, kind, and often bubbly in nature, Panettiere's life at home was riddled with dark moments, including tremendous public pressure, abuse, drug addiction, and tragic loss.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brian Niccol
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company

The CEO Of Starbucks Just Gave A Mind-Numbing Defense For Charging $9 For Coffee 'Experience'—And People Aren't Having It

What's the absolute most you'd ever agree to pay for a coffee? If you said the absurd amount of $9, you're apparently Starbucks' ideal customer.

The coffee chain's CEO Brian Niccol is getting dragged on the internet for insisting that $9 is a perfectly reasonable price for a cup of joe.

Keep ReadingShow less
Zohran Mamdani
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani Praised For His Post About Fashion Industry's Unsung Heroes After Skipping Met Gala

Each year, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—dubbed just The Met—hosts an invite-only fundraising gala in New York City, currently boasting a $100,000-a-ticket price tag.

The Met Gala has been called "fashion’s biggest night" with icons of fashion and entertainment rubbing elbows with the uber-wealthy in The Met's Fifth Avenue location on Manhattan's Upper East Side. This year's theme was "Fashion is Art."

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Massie; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Ilhan Omar
Heather Diehl/Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

'Satirical' MAGA Attack Ad Slammed For Using AI To Claim GOP Rep Is In 'Throuple' With AOC And Ilhan Omar

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie and his ex-colleague, former George Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticized a "satirical" attack ad running in Kentucky that claims Massie is in a "throuple" with New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar.

The ad opens with the line, “Thomas Massie caught in a throuple! In Washington, he’s cheating with the Squad on the America First movement,” before showing AI-generated images of Massie holding hands with Omar and sharing dinners with her and Ocasio-Cortez in staged scenes.

Keep ReadingShow less