An engaging exposé on first sexual experiences was recently published in Costa Rica’s northern regional bilingual news source, La Voz de Guanacaste – The Voice of Guanacaste.

The story consists of short, poignant vignettes with sensual photos from a range of voices, including a elderly woman, a rape survivor, a gay man, and others who discuss the sexual taboos they grew up with, and their experiences with sex and sexuality.

“I went to a religious school where sex and pleasure were taboo. I got a basic sexual education at home and in school, but the heternormative theories didn’t apply to me. I liked boys and I knew it…I experimented with what I saw in movies, but well, I realized that real life wasn’t that easy,” said one man interviewed in the story.

And another person interviewed relates the following:

“I missed having a father near, because the chauvinism dictated that girls asked their mothers and boys asked their fathers. So I never asked… I realized that real life is a little different from the illusion that I had about my ideal woman…but I still believe that there is an ideal person for me.”

Most of the six people interviewed concur that sex was never discussed at home during their childhoods and youth, and the activity was laced with fear, shame and secrecy.

By allowing people to speak freely on their experiences, the Voz de Guanacaste report is a step in the right direction towards breaking down the discomfort that the subject of sex can cause when it arises in daily conversation.