The British Accent On Sex Ed
Posted by meredith on 07-16-2009
Remember that painfully awkward scene in "American Pie" where Jim's dad attempts to explain how masturbation is "perfectly normal" and ends up just oversharing? Well, this is sort of like that. The National Health Service of Britain recently sparked up controversy and a lot of media attention by circulating a sex education pamphlet to parents, teachers and youth workers suggesting ways to promote the pleasurable side of sex to students. From the Times Online:
Alongside the slogan "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away," it says: "Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes' physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?"
I couldn't really see a government-funded campaign like this happening in the United States, but the push to shift the tone of classroom discussions away from the traditional sex ed slant certainly does come at a time when change is in high demand — both in the U.K. and the U.S.with the second highest and highest rates of teen pregnancies in developed countries. Granted, the wording of this particular attempt is a little troublesome, and it's hard to imagine students taking the advice seriously (or comfortably) if there was an educator brave(?) enough to repeat them verbatim, but the overarching effort to incorporate the positive aspects of sex along with information about sexually transmitted diseases and contraception (an issue for a whole other post) does resonate as a welcome change from the norm.
Critics are apparently voicing their concerns that the approach would encourage promiscuity and contribute to an even higher rate of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. But we already live in a culture where teens are constantly confronted with the sexier side of sex. What are the chances that hearing a teacher tell them "intercourse is a healthy physical activity" will kick their hormones into overdrive? Seems unlikely. If anything, by incorporating the positive with the cautionary, teens might see less of a disconnect between sex as defined by the media and sex as defined by their health class.
On that note, it should be an interesting experiment to see what happens when teens who might not otherwise seek outside resources are exposed to the "Midwest Teen Sex Show" on Comedy Central, and episodes with themes like "Birth control," "HPV" and "Prom." Not that one television show could replace comprehensive sex education, but using humor as a way to help to demystify certain aspects of sexuality might help facilitate a more informed and lighter conversation amongst teens and their peers or even with mom and dad.
Categorized under: Education, TV
