Sex Education
Carole Vance, in “Pleasure and Danger: Toward a Politic of Sexuality”, argues, “feminism must be a movement that speaks to sexuality, that does not forfeit the field to reactionary groups who are more than willing to speak” (334). Such an argument, I believe, inherently supports comprehensive sex education. However, as Jessica Valenti points out in “The Cult of Virginity”, “the virginity movement is the new authority on sexuality” (31) and more than $178 million a year in federal funds is spent on abstinence-only education (32). As Leslie Kantor, the vice president of education for planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, “There is abstinence-only education, and there’s abstinence-based sex ed. There’s almost nothing else left in public schools” (see New York Times article, page 1). Such abstinence-only education can be as extreme as an instructional video which claims that premarital sex kills (see posted video).
Not only does abstinence-only education “tell young women that they’re somehow spoiled by sex”, but it fails to provide adolescents with the information and tools to engage in emotionally and physically healthy sex. In order to achieve Vance’s goal of a feminism which speaks to sexuality, one of the first steps seems to consist of promoting better dialogue around and instruction of sex and sexuality among adolescents, both male and female (and gender non-conforming, of course).
A New York Times article called “Teaching Good Sex” described a sex education course that I believe models how to structure such dialogue and instruction (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/magazine/teaching-good-sex.html?pagewanted=3&_r=3&ref=general&src=me). This class, taught at a Quaker prep school, is called ”Sexuality and Society”. The class “begins in the fall with a discussion of how to recognize and form your own values, then moves through topics like sexual orientation … safer sex; relationships; sexual health; and the emotional and physical terrain of sexual activity” (page 3). Its teacher has a master’s degree in human-sexuality, and his goal is to educate his students “to know their own minds, be clear about what they do and don’t want and use their self-knowledge to make choices” (page 5). He also attempts to examine gender bias in society’s perception and portrayal of sexuality (page 5).
I believe that more sex education based on this positive and informative model will help undermine what Valenti calls “the Cult of Virginity” by critically discussing sexuality in our society and providing an approach to female sexuality that is not restricted to the “sexy, but not sexual” (Levy 30) paradigm.
Questions:
1. Michelle Fine and Sara McClelland stated that abstinence-only education is “a betrayal of our next generation, which is desperately in need of knowledge, conversations and resources to negotiate the delicious and treacherous terrain of sexuality in the 21st century” (page 8). Do you agree? Why or why not? Based on their writing, do you think that Jessica Valenti and Carole Vance would agree with this?
2. One of the arguments against sex education is that it encourages adolescents to have sex. The teacher of the “Sexuality and Society” class responded to this argument by claiming, “I don’t think that I have the power to make sex sound so enticing that kids are going to break through their self-esteem issues or body stuff or parental pressures or whatever to just go do it” (page 5). Do you accept his argument? Or is the argument that sex education encourages adolescents to have sex valid?
3. I see sex education as inherently advocated by Vance’s argument that “feminism should support women’s experiments and analyses, encouraging the acquisition of knowledge” (334). Would you agree? Do you think that sex education could help undermine our society’s construction of women’s sexuality? What effects would positive and informative sex education have on the commodity and morality models of women’s sexuality (and virginity) (Valenti 30)? Would such education automatically destabilize these models or is another course of action also necessary?
