Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers for Sex Education Season 2. Viewer desecration is advised as the content includes talks of triggering events and incidents. 

As I spend the entire weekend, glued to my laptop, binge-watching Sex Education’s second season in my pajamas, I was awestruck and obsessed with how the show gets everything right. 

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Somewhere between the drama-filled, informative sessions and shipping Maeve and Otis, I found an empowering and relatable episode, where teenage girls are bonding over their encounters with sexual harassment and being there for each other. And I have to admit, I was getting major Breakfast Club vibes. 

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The episode started with mayhem in the corridors of Moordale Academy when Jean (Otis’ mom), the official sex-ed counselor’s notes were leaked. Everybody’s bedroom talk was now the talk of the school.

Amidst the chaos, someone decided to blatantly slut-shame Moordale’s English teacher, Miss Sands, in the girl’s locker room. Olivia brought this into everyone’s attention and the girls who were on spotted on the ‘crime scene’, ended up in detention.

With an intention to identify the culprit, Ms. Sands assigned a task to Maeve, Ola, Aimee, Lilly, Viv and Olivia. Something that these girls–who didn’t get along very well–would find difficult. 

After realising that not everybody liked shopping, chocolates or cosplay, the girls were wrecking their brains, trying to find a middle ground, when Ola and Maeve got into a fight over Otis. Aimee screamed and broke into tears.

Aimee who had been silently dealing with the trauma of being sexually assaulted on a bus decided to open up about her feelings. And as soon as she spoke up about her assault and said that she wasn’t feeling safe, I could instantly relate to it. 

Aimee’s confession was like a domino effect that made us think about that one moment where we all were unfortunately robbed of our sense of security. All of the girls opened up about their assault experiences. 

While everybody in the group was sharing their scarring and unpleasant incidents one-by-one, the rest of the girls were supporting them through the emotional process. 

Soon after, these 5 different teenage girls realised that the one thing they all had in common and that bonded them as young-women was their shared trauma of being sexually assaulted.

The slut-shaming confusion was sorted when Ms. Sands found the culprit and realised that the girls were innocent. She, however, was interested to know the conclusion they came to.

The next day, these girls helped Aimee face her demons and as a means to extend their support and have her back, they boarded the bus with her. 

This powerful moment of young, non-judgmental girls having each others’ back elevated the episode.

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Also a special shout out to Mrs. Sands for the way she combated being slut-shamed. Instead of letting the teasing students get to her, she boldly handled the situation and called out the students for doing such a horrible thing. 

And let us not forget, she technically got the girls under one roof. 

This scene has stayed at the back of my head. It has also inspired me to open up about my traumas instead of bottling them up while teaching me that not everybody is going to be judgmental of them.