![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mar. 12th, 2010
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Sexual education
Mar. 12th, 2010 01:09 pm Clearly, Spring is in the air, because there's pretty much only one topic on my mind. Of course, it may also be due to certain friends' recent posts on the subject . . . you know who you are.
Anyway, my mind recently went back to a conversation in the car with Tua a few years ago, which we had while driving home from Ohio. I think we were trashing how sex ed is taught (if it's taught), though I can't remember what, specifically, prompted our outrage. Anyhow, I realized that I learned two basic things in public school sex ed: sex can get you pregnant, and it can make you very, very sick. Seriously, who shows films that portray a woman giving birth to sixth-graders? And why are people surprised when sexuality is so fraught in our culture, when generations of school-kids are basically taught only about sexually transmitted diseases, to the exclusion of anything else (except, of course, pregnancy).
Omissions of sex ed as currently taught: Anything about non-heteronormativity (I can't believe Mac's spellcheck recognized that word!), anything about love (!), mutuality, joy, pleasure, trust, experimentation, eros, commitment, feminism, etc.
So, if Tua and I were in charge of sex ed, things would change. Many parents, for one thing, would probably send us hate mail. But it would be awesome to foreground the joyous aspects of sex, to discuss various modes of sexuality and sexual fluidity, and, in a religious context, to discuss the relationship between sex and spirituality. Oh, and to contextualize it all with some history of the sexual revolution, various feminisms, and various religious traditions' teachings on sex and the body. It would be a better world if kids celebrated (or looked forward to celebrating) sex rather than merely lusting/fearing it. It would also be much healthier if folks understood that they don't have to engage in sex to be sexual human beings, or to explore their sexuality. I think that would be a better approach to the abstinence issue than, "For the love of Dog, don't do it!"
Other ideas?
Anyway, my mind recently went back to a conversation in the car with Tua a few years ago, which we had while driving home from Ohio. I think we were trashing how sex ed is taught (if it's taught), though I can't remember what, specifically, prompted our outrage. Anyhow, I realized that I learned two basic things in public school sex ed: sex can get you pregnant, and it can make you very, very sick. Seriously, who shows films that portray a woman giving birth to sixth-graders? And why are people surprised when sexuality is so fraught in our culture, when generations of school-kids are basically taught only about sexually transmitted diseases, to the exclusion of anything else (except, of course, pregnancy).
Omissions of sex ed as currently taught: Anything about non-heteronormativity (I can't believe Mac's spellcheck recognized that word!), anything about love (!), mutuality, joy, pleasure, trust, experimentation, eros, commitment, feminism, etc.
So, if Tua and I were in charge of sex ed, things would change. Many parents, for one thing, would probably send us hate mail. But it would be awesome to foreground the joyous aspects of sex, to discuss various modes of sexuality and sexual fluidity, and, in a religious context, to discuss the relationship between sex and spirituality. Oh, and to contextualize it all with some history of the sexual revolution, various feminisms, and various religious traditions' teachings on sex and the body. It would be a better world if kids celebrated (or looked forward to celebrating) sex rather than merely lusting/fearing it. It would also be much healthier if folks understood that they don't have to engage in sex to be sexual human beings, or to explore their sexuality. I think that would be a better approach to the abstinence issue than, "For the love of Dog, don't do it!"
Other ideas?
