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taboos | family adages | conversations | personal history
Sex, Politics, and Religion
taboo topics of my youth
When I was younger, and I can’t recall at what age I first heard this, my mother told me:
“Nice people don't talk about sex, politics, or religion.”
I'm not sure she said nice, but what she meant was clear! Very clear!
What happened, as you can imagine, was that these were taboo topics at home — NOT among friends.
BTW — I grew up in New York City — where these topics were and probably still are top of the list.
My friends got similar messages so our chats were out of the hearing range of adults. Sex and religion were our most popular conversations. And our chats often included the boys we hung out with.
By the time I got to high school, my childhood friends and I parted ways for much of the week as we went to different schools, but politics got added — mostly by me as I had teachers who said it was a fine topic to discuss!!
I also had a part-time job where several I worked with, and got to be friends with, were college students — who talked politics!
Then I started college, going to a New York City public institution. There, sex…
