The Sunday Mind: Sex for Minors?

If you've seen one of my fairly recent tweets (shameless plug here: follow me on Twitter!), you'll know that I really wish I could write incredible, thought provoking opinion pieces. It's not that I don't have the opinions, I just don't think I have the technical skill that many wonderful writers do, to write something that is worded wonderfully and gets people thinking.

Anyway, I've decided to write my thoughts out - no recipes or reviews, just general thoughts I had - in the hopes of figuring out a writing style for opinion pieces. *EDIT* After writing some thoughts out, I've realized what a rambly writer I am so I'm going to break it down, one thought at a time. Here's what's been on my mind lately:

The Ontario Sex-Ed Curriculum. If you live in Ontario (or maybe anywhere in Canada), you'll know there's been a huge fuss on the new sex-ed curriculum. The plan is to start sex-ed teachings from grade 1, a decision many parents think is unsuitable. Here's why I'm confused as to why parents oppose it (and correct me if I have any facts wrong):

1. The curriculum will be age appropriate. In grade 1 students will learn the correct names for body parts, grade 3 will teach students about sexual orientation and gender, etc. I don't understand what's inappropriate about that - they're not tossing Karma Sutra at the kids and telling them to figure it out.

2. I think it's great teaching kids about sexual orientation and transgendered people will make them more broad-minded and tolerant. I hope it reduces bullying and suicide of LGBTQ.

3. I also love the fact that consent will be a topic. A lot of people I've spoken to says consent and values like that should be taught at home from parents; the problem is consent isn't been spoken about at home. I think parents assume their sons and daughters understand consent and respecting others but it's not an easy assumption to make. While I'm sure most parents don't teach their kids to rape or assault, they're not teaching them to not do such things either. If consent was stressed at home, there would be fewer cases of rape and assault. But that's not the case and I don't blame parents for not explicitly teaching their children so, I just think it's time they start.

4. I've also heard that parents have the choice for their children to opt-out of the class so why can't people just do that? I personally think that people just don't understand what the curriculum offers and at which ages. I'm curious to see all opinions so comment below on why you're for or against the curriculum!

Have you heard about this curriculum change? What are your thoughts on it? What's been on your mind lately - comment below or tweet me @SundayWardrobe!

STWW: The "News"

Last week, three University of North Carolina students were murdered in their condo: Deah Barakat (23), Yusor Abu Salha (21) and Razan Abu Salha (19). Deah and Yusor were newly weds and dental students, only having been married six weeks prior. They often ran workshops that provided food and dental supplies to the homeless in Durham. Deah was raising money to visit Turkey and provide dental care to the Syrian Refugees - since his death, his online fundraiser has received over $400 000 in donations. These three, innocent people were shot in their condo a little after 5 pm on Tuesday, February 10th. 

When I heard about the shooting, so many emotions ran through me. I thought that it must have been a hate crime, how could it not? Three young Muslims, including two hijabis, shot execution-style in their own home. Then, why did I read both the American and Canadian versions of the Huffington Post and not have seen this story? Why did I only hear about it when I logged onto Twitter and saw my feed chock-full of shocked, horrified and enraged tweets?

Once I got over the initial shock, I was filled with hurt and anger. Hurt that when a "Muslim" gunman killed an RCMP officer in Ottawa, it was front page news for days. Hurt that when 12 journalists were cruelly massacred in Paris, there were marches of solidarity for the victims. Hurt that no one was Deah, Yusor or Razan but the world was Charlie.

Why is it that "Muslims" (and I use this term lightly because I don't consider people who kill innocent people to be part of the Islam I know) are only on the news when they're committing heinous attacks? Why isn't the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Burma and Sri Lanka on the news? Why wasn't this murder of three innocent souls, only 23, 21 and 19 years old, breaking news? They had only been reported on hours after their murders. I read the news multiple times a day and I hadn't seen a story on this till over 12 hours later.

I don't think any killing is more or less horrific than another. I don't think this story deserves more precedence than Charlie Hebdo, than the murders of Nathan Cirillo or Michael Brown, than the victims of ISIS. But I would think that word of a shooting would bring some attention, especially since these people were targeted for their religion. The media is still reporting this attack to be the result of a dispute over a parking space, not a hate crime - but who kills three young people over just a parking spot? Attacks by "Muslims" are so quick to be labelled as acts of terrorism and the religion is to blame while attacks by people belonging to any other religion (or none at all) are thought of as attacks by lone wolves, outliers, mentally ill individuals. Crimes in the name of religions and hate crimes are constantly highlighted in the media, why wasn't this? Don't all lives matter?

This STWW is to remind us all to be a little media savvy. This story hits close to home as I am a Muslim but it reminds me to check multiple news sources. Some of my favourites are Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, Vice, RT and Haaretz. Try to look for news sources that tend to report facts without clouding the meaning behind grammar and vocabulary (ex. using the word "died" rather than "killed" can lead to the assumption that the victim died of natural causes, rather than be a victim of murder), or present both sides of a story though articles and opinion pieces. It's important to be smart when it comes to the media to gain as much knowledge as you can, to know that the wool isn't being pulled over your eyes.

This story, like many others, make me wonder what is it that the "News" isn't reporting? What else is going on in the world that is being covered up or distorted by the media? What are we not being told?

What are your favourite news sources? Is there a story that affected you and that you feel hasn't gotten enough coverage? Post it here, I'd love to learn and read more!