I knew I was going to enjoy Channel 4’s Sex in Class programme as soon as I saw the trailers. I was not wrong. That programme had me facepalming with despair at the start and clapping with glee by the end.
Us Brits are doing a pretty shoddy job at stopping our teens getting pregnant and giving each other all manner of STIs, aren’t we? Evidently, we need a new approach, because getting terribly embarrassed and sticking our heads in the sand doesn’t really seem to be making the problem go away.
Enter Goedele Liekens, a Belgian Sexologist and UN goodwill ambassador for sexual health. She’s come to show us how to do sex education properly, and the woman is just brilliant.
Starting in Ackrington, in a school brave enough to try something different (albeit in a slightly worried and befuddled manner), Goedele started the first of her four classes as frankly as she intended to continue. She waltzed in with an array of fanny photos, mounted on display boards and asked the boys to pick their faves. It was at this point that it hit me. The extent to which pornography is informing the sexual attitudes of today’s teenagers. I mean, I knew this was a thing. If questioned as to how pressing an issue this was, I’d previously have said ‘very’. Nothing quite hits you though, like hearing a teenage boy presented with an image of a neat and tidy, but present (i.e. not shaven off) bush and responding ‘I’d dump her’.
It didn’t get any better in the few minutes after that. It became apparent that the same lad expected to be able to cum in any girl’s face without prior consent (or even warning). It’s apparently his god given right. I don’t know if he’s been watching The Inbetweeners, and modelled himself on Jay, but he’d got it down to a tee. Never been near a girl and recycling the porn scenarios he’s seen as first hand accounts. He was showing off, of course. Would he actually behave like that if a real life girl showed any interest in sleeping with him? I doubt it. That wouldn’t have been much comfort though, to the quietly horrified girls in his class, who appeared to acquiesce to this point of view as the current consensus, and that they risked all manner of ridicule and rejection should they object.
That was the horrifying truth of it all. That both genders were taking what they saw in porn as an education in sexual relationships. Consent and respect are not an integral part of that syllabus.
It was the difference in their attitudes by the time Goedele had finished with them, that had me clapping with glee. The boys were more respectful. The girls were empowered. It was a wonder to behold.
Goedele has submitted a GCSE in sex education to an exam board for consideration. After seeing the effects of those four classes (and the state of play before them), I can’t help thinking it would be a catastrophe for our young people (that’s our future adults, there) and gender equality if it wasn’t at least introduced as a compulsory element to personal and social education syllabuses.
goodisms 