There has been an argument for sometime about whether sex education should be taught in schools, who should teach it, what age students should become knowledgeable about sex, and what should be taught, along with what should not be taught. I can personally remember the tabooness around sex education while in school. The article I have chosen talks about pleasure within the curriculum surrounding sexual education. ‘The use and misuse of pleasure in sexual education curricula’ written by Sharon Lamb, Kara Lustig, and Kelly Graling. They go into depth about the sex education curricula in the USA, as well and the negative discourse surrounding the possibility of pleasure in the curricula. As their research of the topics indicates “discourse of desire is not missing, but that this discourse was often situated as part of a discourse on safe practice and there, continues to equate pleasure with danger.”(Lamb, Lustig, Graling 2013). It was found in the USA curricula that pleasure was talked about under the umbrella of abstinence, mainly in part of the Abstinence Only Till Marriage (AOTM) curricula used for the past decade. In summary, this article points out how the negative discourse surrounding pleasure within the curricula is proof that pleasure is considered something harmful, or taboo. They found that when educators base sex education in a ‘fear-based’ tone, rather than ‘pleasure-based’ tone, sexual desire and control of body become reason for stereotypes for girls and the oppressive effects it has on young black women as well. AOTM furthers this stereotype by only including (small) discourse in the after marriage, allowing the null curriculum to take effect by shaping the students to believe that pleasure before marriage is bad.
As well, they explain that there is concern amongst students and teachers around pleasure in the curriculum. Students want it but also believe that it is to personal, and teachers found difficulty making it inclusive. The study found in the article that when teachers used pleasure to strengthen the learning on safety there was a general comfort amongst the classroom (Harrison, Hillier, and Walsh 1996). They also include the pros that could come out of teaching pleasure, saying “Teaching an ‘ethics of pleasure’ … could open up ‘new possibilities for understanding sexual subjects’ (Lamb, Lustig, Graling 2013), meaning talk around LGBTQ+ pleasure which has been considered “unthinkable” within sex education, could change the stereotypes around non-hetrosexual relationships. They explain that LGBTQ+ sex education should not be focused on fighting homophobia, but rather implementing it for pleasure sake. And by talking about pleasure without including members can push stereotypes that we as teachers fight to protect students from. The pros of teaching pleasure can fight the stereotypes that are directly harmful to students within their life now.
Following my future assignment, once I started researching about this topic I found myself become very passionate about this subject. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, this could have personally saved me a lot of harmful negative thoughts and stereotypes I faced including the negative discourse surrounding female sexuality and ownership of myself. For the assignment I believe I will dive further into this article, as well as what this article was a response too. I will research further into the discussion of how to make this accessible for schools under certain religions, because I believe it is important that although there are different views, we must understand that to make serious change towards a group oppressed for many years there must be a discussion of sex through a ‘pleasure-based’ tone, not in ‘pleasure’ content but rather in a sex positive tone. By not instilling fear onto our students around the ownership of their bodies there are many pros to how this can branch out and effect those in communities oppressed for generations.
Works Cited
Lamb, S., Lustig, K., & Graling, K. (2013). The use and misuse of pleasure in sex education curricula. Sex Education, 13(3), 305–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2012.738604
I admire your passion towards the subject and how informative your blog post is so far, I believe you will create a very strong essay. In regards to format, I would watch out for spelling mistakes and repetition (to be concise). I am glad you’ve been able to draw out personal connections and relate this back to your own experiences in sex education, or perhaps, your lack of positive sex education. I too agree that this shouldn’t be a neglected or taboo topic. Best of luck with your essay.