Let's Talk About Sex (Ed)
In which we unfasten a chastity belt and think of the children
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Last month, something happened in Belgium (the home country) that made me facepalm. Repeatedly.
The southern part of the country - Wallonia - introduced a new sex education decree. The Evras decree (for the French ‘éducation à la vie relationnelle, affective & sexuelle’, which roughly translates as ‘education on relational, emotional, and sexual life’) stipulates that children would get two hours of sex ed in the last year of primary school (~12 years), and two hours at around age 16 in secondary school. Something like sixth and tenth grade for you Americans, I think, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Yes, you read that right. Four hours in total. And that was an improvement.
*facepalm 1*
A tiny step in the right direction. Surely, people would appreciate it?
Guess again. Protests broke out. Four schools in the city of Charleroi were even the target of arson.
*facepalm 2*
Are. You. Kidding me.
Angry parents took to the streets to protest against the decree on the doorstep of the parliament of the French community in Brussels (don’t ask, Belgian politics make Kafka’s The Trial look like a carefree walk in the park).
*facepalm 3*
It was, on the other hand, the first time in a while that devout Catholics and Muslims stood side by side in their outrage; an outrage amplified by a fake news campaign that suggested kids would learn to masturbate or watch porn in class.
Wait. Let’s actually think of the children.
Kids are going to masturbate and - very likely - watch porn anyway. Why not open those topics for conversation rather than (once again) shuffle them into the taboo closet?
Why not tell kids and teens that it’s okay to explore what their bodies like, what feels good? Why not teach them about the vital importance of consent and contrast the messy but fun reality of sex with the stylized and airbrushed images in porn? Why not tell young girls that their pleasure very much matters too and young boys that being an ultra-dominant abusive asshole is not the way to go, no matter what some deluded influencer tries to tell and sell them? By talking about sex we might, at long last, start trying to close the orgasm gap.
By keeping conversations about sex behind closed doors (or often simply silenced to death), dysfunctional sex is exactly what we’re going to get. Young women, men, and nonbinary people will think that they have a certain role to play, or that they have to perform certain acts even if they don’t want to.
So, dear outraged parents, it took me exactly 6.9 (*wink*) seconds to find a comprehensive review that includes evidence from three decades of research into the effects of sex education. The conclusion is as clear as it is (or should be) obvious:
Review of the literature of the past three decades provides strong support for comprehensive sex education across a range of topics and grade levels. Results provide evidence for the effectiveness of approaches that address a broad definition of sexual health and take positive, affirming, inclusive approaches to human sexuality.
Sex education should be an integral part of primary and secondary school curricula. Four hours in total? A joke. It should be far, far more.
The only correct word to conclude this little rant is fuck.
Related thoughts:
Excellent post ! Very true.
Great post, Gunnar. As someone raised in the ‘50’s, I can attest that there was no sex education at home, so we assumed there was no fun in it for women, just childbearing. Some realistic guidance would have helped.
Is it possible the fears and outrage of parents these days has to do with, for example, California’s push to challenge gender identification?