Chapter Highlights for My Body, My Life: Sex Ed Made Easy - The Male Body

Welcome to the next blog in the series - Chapter Highlights for My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy. This blog is about the fifth chapter - The Male Body.

In this chapter, we take a deep dive into the male body. This chapter is broken down into four subject areas: anatomy, cleaning, function and masturbation.

Anatomy

We start with looking at the outside anatomy, with clear pictures and arrows pointing to specific body parts. Then we look at the inside of male anatomy. People need to know what is inside their body, just as much as the outside. When we know what our body parts are and how they work, we can have a deeper understanding of what is happening in our body and can ask for help easier.

To continue on with the private parts chapter and for ease of understanding, in the eBook, anatomy is referred to as private parts. It links both anatomy with the word private parts and the boundary that private parts must remain private. Yes, there are adults that do not know this.

What we also know is that so often anatomical names are not used and instead nicknames are used for body parts. This is very common in society and the worst part is that the use of nicknames rather than anatomical names allow sexual predators to minimise their abuse.

The eBook then describes what the penis looks like and feels like when it is in a flaccid state. It normalises that penis’ come in different sizes and spend most of the time doing nothing.

Up next is brief introduction to erections and when they can happen. More on this in the section about function.

Cleaning

The eBook takes you through step by step how and when to clean the penis and scrotum. It includes information for both circumcised and uncircumcised penises. Again, pictures and arrows are used to make it easy and clear to understand.

The cleaning section also takes you through what can happen if you do not clean enough and if you have any discharge or pain, to see your doctor. Discharge and ejaculate are distinguished as different.

Function

The first part of function looks at the testicles and what they do. It describes how to look for lumps in the testes and what to do if you come across one. Testicular cancer is the second most common cancer for men aged 20 - 39.

While teaching the function of the testes, hormones are also explained and what they are useful for.

Here is where semen and ejaculation is introduced. Explaining in Easy English what it looks like, it’s purpose and how it comes out of the body.

Then we move onto the function of the penis, what the penis is made up of (surprise, no bones!) and how it can become so hard when there are no bones in the penis.

We look at the function of the brain in conjunction with the penis and how our thoughts and feelings can affect our sexual feelings and functioning.

Orgasm is introduced in an easy to understand format. Explaining when it can happen and what it feels like. Pre-cum and ejaculation also form part of this section.

Masturbation

Now that we have learnt about the male body and how it works, we learn about masturbation. We learn what masturbation is, when it is appropriate to masturbate, where we can masturbate, how we can masturbate and what tools we can use to make it feel nicer. The main takeaway from this section is that masturbation is normal, it needs to feel good (pleasure focused), must be done safely, privately and hygienically. Step by step instructions are given to promote safe practices of masturbation.

While you might be thinking, why is there not a book for males and a separate one for females; or why do females need to learn about male bodies and/or vice versa, it poses a great question that we don’t often discuss.

Because more knowledge is not harmful. It helps us be understanding of others. It helps us to help others because we have the knowledge to do so. If we are in a heterosexual relationship then our relationships become better because we understand how our partners body works and what could be happening when it doesn’t work properly.

It helps to identify abuse because we understand the accurate names for anatomy and what must be kept private and not touched by others without our consent.

Where people are being supported with their care, it makes it easier to identify issues and provide direction when asking for consent to provide care.

My life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy is available now to download onto a phone, iPad or tablet device.

Not only does it make comprehensive sexual health education easy, it also supports the reader to have privacy while learning.