Children should be taught about 'sexual pleasure', say comprehensive sex education proponents
Educating children about sexual pleasure is reportedly now included in the language of medically accurate sex education, according to multiple tweets being shared on social media on #SexEdForAll month, May.
"#SexEdForAll Month is a good time to remember that too often, sex education teaches young people about their changing bodies, but not about much else. @LeslieKantor & I argue that sex ed should include info re: pleasure & relationships," Laura Lindberg, Ph.D, a principal research scientist at Guttmacher Institute tweeted.
The American Journal of Public Health published an article in February titled, “Pleasure and Sex Education: The Need for Broadening Both Content and Measurement," authored by Lindberg and Leslie Kantor, Ph.D., chair of Rutgers’ Urban-Global Public Health Department and former vice president of education for Planned Parenthood. The duo, in the article, noted that public health policy concerning sex ed in schools should include “content related to sexual pleasure.”
"Young people express frustration about the lack of information on sexuality and sexual behavior that is included in sex education programs; sexual and gender minority youths, in particular, feel overlooked by current approaches," they wrote, pointing that most sex-ed curricula in educational institutions focus on avoiding pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.
The authors also praised the guidance by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on children's sex education that "suggests numerous learning objectives related to the topic of ‘friendship, love, and romantic relationships’” for children aged five to 18 years.
UNESCO’s recommendations for children’s instruction include: "[D]escribe ways that human beings feel pleasure from physical contact (e.g. kissing, touching, caressing, sexual contact) throughout their life,” which is a learning objective for children aged 9 to 12 years; “state that sexual feelings, fantasies and desires are natural and not shameful, and occur throughout life,” which is a learning objective for those aged 12 to 15 years; “understand that sexual stimulation involves physical and psychological aspects, and people respond in different ways, at different times,” which is a learning objective for those aged 12 to 15 years."
A senior fellow and director of human dignity at Family Research Council, Cathy Ruse, took to Twitter to write: "The ‘facts of life’ have not changed, but ‘inclusivity’ and ‘sex positivity’ and other popular buzz-word concepts have changed sex education." The author of a new brochure titled "Sex Education in Public Schools: Sexualization of Children and LGBT Indoctrination," Ruse observed that although multiple studies have demonstrated comprehensive sex education “fails to achieve its stated goals and results in increased student sexual activity, school systems are devoting up to 70 hours of classroom time per child to sex education."
Irma Garcia, a certified sex educator, in a coversation with Austin Chronicle this month, said that she is providing “medically accurate, pleasure-based” sex ed information in Austin, Texas, to black people and others of color.
“I was always interested in sex, but never really had language to figure out the curiosities that I was feeling in order to be able to transfer that information over to others,” Garcia says. Schooling and professional experience changed that. The educator said that she believes emphasizing sexual pleasure is key in the process to reduce “trauma” in the world.