Coming from Oprah it must be right - "Mums buy your teenage daughters vibrators!"

Let’s talk.

Who better to back up what Mia Muse is all about other than Oprah? Yes! Bring it on! A recent episode of Oprah was wonderfully progressive. In the episode Oprah and Dr. Berman discuss the importance of teenage girls (aged 14, 15 or 16) understanding their sexuality and sexual beings, suggesting that one way to do this was for mothers to buy their daughters a vibrator, said Dr. Berman. The idea of such a purchase is met by Gayle’s distaste who believed that teenage girls already have too much information hence their sexual promiscuity. In argument to Gayle, Oprah and Dr. B say that this is exactly why young women should masturbate in order to understand their own bodies, needs and desires first before they explore this with teenage boys. Too often Dr. Berman works with older women who do not understand their own sexual response, feel badly about their bodies, feel badly about their sexual beings- hence, there is no such thing as too much information in this day and age.

From Jezebel - Dr. Berman's argument to scared moms is that it's important that girls not only know about their own bodies but understand what it means to reach an orgasm. Because if they know what an orgasm is, and that they can do it for themselves, then they can own it and they will know that they never have to depend on another person to make them feel that way.

Overall the episode insightfully suggests that at age 10 or 11 parents should discuss the male and female anatomies with their children and then at 14 or 15 parents should have an in-depth conversation about self-stimulation and mention that one option includes vibrators.

I was always taught that it was best to communicate everything that generally was a fear or unknown. This taught me to speak my mind and feelings – which I believe now allows for honesty and understanding with myself. When I was about a 11 I read my neighbours Dolly Dr. this is where I found out what masturbating was- or that this ‘innate desire to touch yourself’ had a name. I think I laughed and couldn’t breathe properly for about 10 minutes. The Dolly Dr. in hindsight was actually quite sad, a girl had been caught masturbating in the toilet by her dad – he then insisted on going to the bathroom with her every time she went. I went home later and asked my parents if they masturbated? My mum in the foreground said, “umm, yes! Everyone does at least once in their life.” My dad in the background, looked a little freaked out and said, “ah, yea, I guess…” I remember thinking oh, okay-cool.

WATCH THE OPRAH VIDEO ON JEZEBEL HERE