My Health Teacher Told Me I Had The Perfect Body For Making Babies

I concealed my figure for years.

In ninth grade health class, when we were learning about sex and reproduction, my health teacher had me stand up. She told everyone I had the perfect body for making babies, probably in part due to my wide hips.

I felt strange and mortified. I didn’t know why. For most of high school, I wore big hoodies to conceal my body. I was uncomfortable with how quickly I went from being a child to a sex object. I wondered if something was wrong with me because I didn’t enjoy having tits and ass, and I was supposed to.

I’ve come to embrace my feminine curves. Now I realize that I didn’t hate my body. I hated the disrespect. The sexism. The racism — Would that white teacher have made a white girl stand up in a Texas school and made her feel like a breeding cow?

And my own awkwardness and helplessness. I should have spoken up. I should have refused to stand.

And she was also wrong. The right body to have a baby can be any body and no body. Plenty of people who cannot have biological children are still the perfect bodies to have children — if they want children. Plenty of people who can physically reproduce still have the perfect bodies to not have children — if they don’t want them.

What does pointing to my body in front of a class prove? Shouldn’t I be learning? Figuring out what I want to do with my life…instead of having a teacher publicly declare that my body is made for babies?

Because fuck my dreams, talents, and aspirations, right?

She’s also wrong medically. I’ve never had a child, but I’ve heard from two different doctors that natural childbirth might be difficult, even dangerous, for me.

Just more evidence that people should shut the fuck up before telling a child what their body is for, should do, and would be good at doing.

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