Sexual Socialization Sexual education is one of the most important aspects to understanding one’s sexuality. By learning and studying sex, people can discover the pleasures and precautions that must be taken when they choose to become sexually active. Sex is a topic that is mainly communicated to adolescence by their parents, the media, or educational institutions. How this topic is communicated greatly correlates with the future action one chooses to take regarding their personal sexuality. One’s understanding of sex can also can determine whether one has good or bad consequences from their sexual activity. The following looks at my personal experience with sexual education, taught by my family, school, and influence from media outlets. The …show more content…
This format taught a perspective from a comprehensive education approach “Comprehensive sex education treats abstinence as merely one option for youths in a curriculum that provides broad-based information about such topics as sexual maturation; contraception; abortion; strategies for effective decision making and for saying no to unwanted sex; STIs; relationship issues; and sexual orientation (Crooks and Bauer, 2014: p 370). This class gave resources and tools to promote safe sex such as, handing out condoms and demonstrating different methods of birth control for women. The course was taught from a male teacher, who at times, seemed to struggle with communicating sexual topics or answering student’s questions “Some contributing factors to the weak effect on sexual behavior of school-based sex-education programmes are: teachers not feeling capable of and adequately resourced to teach the students; teachers being uncomfortable in talking to children about sex; and the lack of community support (Peltzer, 2003)” as cited in (Born, Wolvaardt, and Mcintosh, 2015: p …show more content…
While in high school many expressions were used to describe sexual terms or parts of the body. Being surrounded by students who used these terms quickly educated me on the “slang” words for sex. Often, these were implemented from popular TV shows or movies that were currently on the network such as, “That 70s show” or “Friends”. The media outlets promoted sexual encounters and discovering ones sexual likes/dislikes as well as roles men and woman should fulfill during sex “For some young men, telling their peers about their sexual encounters is more important than the sexual act itself; Many girls face a dilemma. They may learn to appear sexy to attract males, yet they often experience ambivalence about overt sexual behavior” (Crooks and Bauer, 2014: p 352). Sex was also portrayed as a fun flirty act that everyone enjoyed. From this approach, sexual expression was deemed acceptable and almost necessary to practice and gain experience to become a good sex partner. These influences provided broader views about not only sex, but also the different sexual expressions and foreplay that often accompany
Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in the early 1980s the issue of sex education for American youth has had the attention of the nation. There are about 400,000 teen births every year in the U.S, with about 9 billion in associated public costs. STI contraction in general, as well as teen pregnancy, have put the subject even more so on the forefront of the nation’s leading issues. The approach and method for proper and effective sex education has been hotly debated. Some believe that teaching abstinence-only until marriage is the best method while others believe that a more comprehensive approach, which includes abstinence promotion as well as contraceptive information, is necessary. Abstinence-only program curriculums disregard medical ethics and scientific accuracy, and have been empirically proven to be ineffective; therefore, comprehensive sex education programs which are medically accurate, science-based and empirically proven should be the standard method of sex education for students/children in the U.S.
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
The reason I am writing this paper is to share the information I attained about human sexuality by learning about sexuality in a college setting and by exploring my sexuality through personal experiences. I do not consider myself to have experienced much exposure to sexual behavior but I do have a cultural bias to what I consider a heavy amount of exposure because the North American culture is considered more promiscuous and sexually active than other cultures.
In the past, sex was something that people tried to avoid talking about it, neither less teaching. Sex became a mystery, and a mystery would always trigger people’s nerves, especially teenager’s curious minds. That leads teenager at that time, who had no idea about sex, wanted to have sex to know about it. And when they had sex without any protection, they easily got STDs or HIV or even pregnancy. The case awakens society that sex education must be taught for students at the very first when they enter middle schools. But the way sex was taught those days was very much different from today. In the article “What the sex educators teach” posted on the Opposing View Point in Context website, Dana Mack has written about her experience when taking sex education class when she was a teen: “At the age of ten or eleven, girls and boys were herded into separate rooms - usually in the company of a parent. There, in industrial-gray pictures and solemn monotones, they were introduced to the world of gametes, ovaries, and menstruation. Not exactly titillating material, this reproductive information.” (Mack). Back in those days when sex was a newly revealed topic and sex education program had just been operated, people are still very shy to talk about sex and they often avoid having this kind of
Teenage sexual activity is a major problem confronting the nation and has led to a rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teenage pregnancy. The existence of HIV/AIDS has given a sense of urgency to the topic of sex education. The issue of sex education in schools especially in the formative years has been a subject of intense debate among parents, school officials, health scientists and religious authorities worldwide for a considerable period of time. The debate centers on comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only sex education in school. Abstinence only sex education is a sex education model that focuses on the virtue of abstinence from sexual activities; therefore, encouraging sexual abstinence until marriage. This form of sexual education completely ignores all other elements of comprehensive sexual education like safe sex and reproductive health education issues like the use of contraceptives and birth control methods. Comprehensive sex teaching encourages promiscuous sexual activity as “a natural part of life.” Proponents of abstinence only education activists cite several reasons why this type of education is the best. It focuses on the upholding of moral virtues. They also claim that sex outside marriage hat is “encouraged” by the comprehensive sex education which as a result, has some emotional and physical downfall especially when done at a very young age. They blame the comprehensive sex education for failing to discourage premarital sex especially at this time when the HIV pandemic is busy devouring young people in various parts of the world (Deborah 2). In fairness, both programs were designed to decrease the incidence of STDs...
Students should be informed about more than just “don’t have sex” because eventually it is going to happen and they need to be educated on the proper way to handle the situations. Because students are mostly taught abstinence it has created the situation to where researchers find” Abstinence-only education, instead of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, has made teenagers and young adults more vulnerable to ST...
From a young age, children are bombarded by images of the rich and the famous engaging in torrid public affairs or publicly discussing their increasingly active sex lives. No longer is sex education left to teachers and parents to explain, it is constantly in our faces at the forefront of our society. Regardless of sex education curriculums and debates about possible changes, children and teenagers are still learning everything they think there is to know about sex from very early on in their young lives. However, without responsible adults instructing them on the facts about sex, there are more likely to treat sex in a cavalier and offhanded fashion. According to Anna Quindlen’s essay Sex Ed, the responsibility of to education children about sex is evenly distributed between teachers and parents.
Sex education in public schools has been a controversial issue in the United States for over a decade. With the HIV and teen pregnancy crises growing, sex education is needed.
Strasburger conveys the message that there is a problem with sexual education and urges his readers to do something about it. Teens should be able to make educated decisions, so they can protect themselves and their partners from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and be able to maintain that safety from teenage years to adulthood. The bulk of sexual education programs within the United States are not assisting teens to achieve and uphold these standards. Sexual education curriculum in the United States needs to be examined on both a federal and state level, and comprehensive sexual education programs must be implemented.
Let’s talk about sex! Sex is primarily for the survival of our species. It satisfies our urge to reproduce and leave generational legacies on the world. Everyone does it; everyone is here because of it. Yet in society, it 's considered to be a taboo subject to discuss. Most people are uncomfortable openly talking about it, but those who do are often criticized because of their differences. As a result, the effects of the sex being such a private topic are more harmful than simply being open about it. However, in today’s society, it not that everyone cannot be open about their sexuality, it 's mostly unacceptable for women to be open, thus posing double standards on women. I wonder if the connotation of sex is a result of society’s morals
(1985) Sexual education and sexual experience among adolescents. American Journal of Public Health: Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 113-117. 75, No. 58, No.
“Sex sells.” This is a common phrase used very often in social media and entertainment industries. Today, the youth generation is highly exposed to social media and products of entertainment industries from music to movies on the big screen. Most of the products produced by these industries are sexually explicit, and they tend to send the wrong messages about sexual behavior. Adolescents almost spend the same amount of time watching television and engaging with social media as they do in an educational environment. Therefore, the best way to tackle the misconceptions of sex among adolescents is to provide sex education in school. Sex education should be taught in school in order to provide a mutual learning experience for adolescents among
“Contrary to some people of formal sex education, researchers couldn’t pull up any evidence that receipt of either type of sex education was combined with earlier signs of sex, greater risk taking a poor decision at sexual actions and healthy outcomes.” Further, what the teachers was consistently towards less healthy [sexual and reproductive health] actions, beliefs and outcomes among the younger youth who did not receive any of the directions or “sit down” on neither condoms for males or birth control for young ladies before their first experience with sexual thoughts or
Sex education in our schools has been a hot topic of debate for decades. The main point in question has been whether to utilize comprehensive sex education or abstinence-only curriculum to educate our youth. The popularity of abstinence-only curriculum over the last couple of decades has grown largely due to the United States government passing a law to give funding to states that teach the abstinence-only approach to sex education. But not teaching our children about sex and sexuality is not giving them the information they need to make well educated decisions. Sex education in our schools should teach more than just abstinence-only because these programs are not proven to prevent teens from having sex. Children need to be educated on how to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies and be given the knowledge to understand the changes to their bodies during puberty. According to the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten-12th Grade from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), comprehensive sex education “should be appropriate to age, developmental level, and cultural background of students and respect the diversity of values and beliefs represented in the community” (SIECUS).
Before moving on, one must know that sex education is about, but not limited to the discussion of sexual intercourse. As a Buzzle article states, it involves a multitude of topics that introduce human sexual behaviors such as puberty, sexual health, sexual reproduction, sexuality, and more (Iyer). If formally received in school, these topics are brought up and discussed at age-appropriate times over the course of children’s junior high and high school education. Moreover, as I have introduced earlier, the way sex education should be taught is divided into two approaches. It is between taking either a conservative, abstinence-only approach or a more liberal, comprehensive approach. Abstinence-only education, approaches students by stressing the importance of “no sex before marriage” as be...