Anyone who went to a Catholic secondary school would have heard this at some point, whether by teachers, a nun, priest, at dutrina or even by friends and family.

To tell young people that sex is a sin is when the seeds of shame are planted – a dangerous idea that should be burnt forever.

2. That masturbation is bad for you… and could kill you

One in every four responses revolved around self-pleasure. Here are some note-worthy responses:

Some people believed that beating your meat/flicking your bean can cause:

• blindness
• your dick to fall off
• increase penis size
• cancer
• infertility
• “virginity loss”
• runout of sperm
• prevent you from entering heaven because God is watching you
• prevent you from finding a partner
• criminality

In case no one told you, masturbation is actually healthy. It’s the safest sex there is, its free, and there’s no risk of pregnancy, heartbreak and STDs. Plus, orgasms make you feel good.

3. That there are a lot of (extremely inaccurate) ways to get pregnant

A lot of respondents believed in very creative and inaccurate ways that you could get pregnant.

Some favourites include:

• Sitting on a toilet
• Sitting on someone with your clothes on
• Having a bath after someone ejaculated in it
• Giving a blowjob
• kissing-hugging
• “laying the penis on a vagina like a hotdog”
• touching cum
• “having a breeding license”
• pushing the belly button

4. And a whole lot of myths about how not to get pregnant

These come to no surprise considering sex education is so scathingly scarce. However here are some myths about avoiding pregnancy:

That the “pullout method” works every time

That two condoms are better than one

That masturbating before having sex makes you less to ejaculate inside

That cowgirl position doesn’t get you pregnant because of gravity

Bonus: Here is a good article to read about contraceptives in Malta.

5. A lot of the myths were unfortunately racist and sexist

Without going into too much detail, no, vaginas don’t loosen if you have too much sex and the biology of vaginal anatomy does not change according to race.

While the sex myths received were varied, one thing was evident: nearly every single survey respondent believed that the sex education they received at school was insufficient.

Myths can be harmless but can be very damaging without solid sex education to counter them. This is why Malta urgently needs to step up and update its bone-dry sexual health policy which hasn’t been updated in over 10 years.

This is why Lovin Malta is pushing for sex health policy updates that the island deserves. Happy sexing folks!

Tag someone who believed these myths!