"an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away"

From the Times Online article:

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A National Health Service leaflet is advising school pupils that they have a "right" to an enjoyable sex life and that regular intercourse can be good for their cardiovascular health.

Hooray! So happy to hear positive info is going out there. Even though it's across the pond, it's such good news for anyone who works with youth.

I need to say that the close-up image of a young woman biting her lip is from the blog linked in the OP and not in the article. This image is, sorry, sexist crap, and it's sad that it's now associated with a brave and empowering piece of sex ed for youth.

Wow, that is great!  I can't imagine it happening here.  It's pretty common sense though, sex is good for you!  It relieves stress which is harmful to the body.  It's also the best hangover cure by far. :P

I am reminded in reading this of Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's first Surgeon General, who was hounded from office for speculating that masterbation could be part of a healthy sex life.

Oops.

I can't wait for the follow up lessons: Getting Kicked in the Balls Hurts; Breathing Underwater Difficult; Jumping Off Cliffs Leads to Falling.

Hey guys, yuks are cheap, but are you at all aware of the dismal condition of sex education in your own school district? While you are male-bonding over "ain't-getting-enough" quips, kids are going without vital information and being groomed for rapists, pornographers and priests. Do you even have an idea of how you would go about insisting on realistic positive sex education in school?

Here is a resource people may want to check out and seek common cause with: SHEPP:

From their Facebook page: The Sexual Health Education and Pleasure Project (SHEPP) is a new not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide free pleasure based sexual health education workshops to youth and other marginalized communities*. These workshops are available throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

We come to your organization or group to provide information on a wide spectrum of issues regarding sex, sexuality, health and pleasure. This includes topics such as healthy relationships HIV/AIDS and other STI preventions, pregnancy, sexuality, communication and all kinds of different sex.

It aims to challenge conventional methods of sex education and look at empowering people with practical pleasure-based information.

*Not exactly sure what that means? Get in touch with us and we can give you more information.

Profile picture created by the Black Queer Youth Initiative (BQY) http://www.soytoronto.org/current/bqy.html

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Hey guys, yuks are cheap, but are you at all aware of the dismal condition of sex education in your own school district? While you are male-bonding over "ain't-getting-enough" quips, kids are going without vital information and being groomed for rapists, pornographers and priests. Do you even have an idea of how you would go about insisting on realistic positive sex education in school?

Thus sayeth Pere Dufresne.

What's our penance, O Holy One?

al-Qa'bong wrote:

Thus sayeth Pere Dufresne.

 

What's our penance, O Holy One?

I am going to go spank myself for several hours for my penance.

[url=http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/07/14/safe_sex/index.ht... Clark-Flory at Salon.com[/url]

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I guess the more acceptable approach would be to tell kids that masturbation kills kittens and makes you go blind, and that sex is a painful experience that always results in pregnancy?

The outrage is absurd on many levels, the most practical of which is that most teenagers are already well aware that there is pleasure to be had in doing the horizontal tango; it isn't exactly a nationally guarded secret. Acknowledging that forehead-slapper of a fact adds basic legitimacy to sex ed classes and parental "birds and the bees" chats, which so often send kids' eyes rolling. Teenagers know what's up, and I don't just mean this generation of know-it-all Googlers and porn-watchers -- kids have always been keen social observers.  So, when they're sat down and told that sex is a dirty and shameful act, they recognize adults' doublespeak.

If we're not telling them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, why should they trust any of what we say about sex? If we're not to be trusted on the topic, they're simply going to toss aside our directions and embark on their own sexual odyssey. That's not only useless but enormously counterproductive sex "education." This pamphlet, on the other hand, seems like an attempt to come clean with teens, and to acknowledge and respect their sexuality. Instead of strapping them into that faulty chastity belt of fear and repression, it's suggesting that there is no contradiction in teaching safe sex and smart choices while also delivering a fist-pumping (so to speak) ode to orgasms.

The guide also celebrates enthusiastic consent. Instead of promoting sex as something that you must resist "giving up," if you're a girl, it's framed as something that you do because it feels right and you actively want to -- it isn't a bargaining chip, an operatic act that is performed to keep a guy around. "Far from promoting teenage sex," says Steve Slack, director of the Sheffield Centre for HIV and Sexual Health, which published the handout for NHS, "it is designed to encourage young people to delay losing their virginity until they are sure they will enjoy the experience."

It doesn't at all surprise me that people are scandalized by such a statement -- adults are expected to turn sex into a big bad boogey monster in hopes that kids will stay away. In 7th grade, apropos of nothing, my militaristic history teacher announced to the class that sex would bring us some of the most painful, devastating and humiliating experiences of our lives. In my memory, I've embellished his declaration to be accompanied by a portentous clap of thunder, because he had effectively taken from us this beautiful, sparkly gem of a thing and tossed it down a deep, dark well, where it suddenly became grotesque and frightening. Some consider that a successful sex talk, and that's nothing short of tragic.

martin dufresne wrote:

Hey guys, yuks are cheap, but are you at all aware of the dismal condition of sex education in your own school district? While you are male-bonding over "ain't-getting-enough" quips, kids are going without vital information and being groomed for rapists, pornographers and priests. Do you even have an idea of how you would go about insisting on realistic positive sex education in school?

Whoa, deja vu, this is just like the teacher getting mad at us in sex ed class, because Cowper's glands weren't funny, they were serious fucking business.  I think the lesson in both instances is, Never joke.  What makes you think that the state of sex education in my own school district is dismal? 

I would find it tremendously lovely if the thread could stay on topic.

Thanks.

I am okay with them promoting masturbation to teens, but in the current climate that teen girls exist it is not a good message otherwise. Girls feel enormous pressure to "put out" and live in a extremely sexualized environment with misogynist hip hop videos, Cosmo, YM etc. mags telling them continually how to "please their man", etc. What teen girls need to know is that they have the right, the power and the confidence to say no and that it is okay to say no. As if teenage girls do not have enough pressure out there. This is wonderful message for adults.

Also to answer martin's question, I think NB approaches sex ed better than it did when I was a student.

Sex seems to also be being discussed at EnMasse.

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Yes, I do think the problem is serious. And much as I like to joke, including around sex, I can tell evasive maneuvering and pressure politics when I smell it.

Evasive shmevasive. There's a line that describes you in "Good Morning Vietnam." Since you're so brilliant I'm sure you can figure it out.