What regrets can adult sex education help avoid?
A 44-year-old woman committed suicide in anger and grief after being violated. Professor He Lante from Stanford University said in “The Comprehensive View on Sexology”: “Women who have unfortunately been raped should immediately contact the police and seek medical care, rather than showering, changing clothes, or cleaning the rape scene first… Rape victims carry an additional psychological burden of shame, and sometimes even guilt. It is not easy for a woman to undergo questioning, examination, and detailed scrutiny by a judge, where certain aspects of privacy are exposed. Describing the experience of rape is no easier than subjecting a male victim to a self-esteem-damaging beating.”
Some netizens have noticed that in Germany, sex education is divided into five stages, starting from 0-3 years old, 3-6 years old, and continuing into adulthood. The educational content not only includes knowledge about the body but also how to handle long-term partner relationships, discuss desires for having children, menopause, and even how to cope with separation and the death of a partner.
“Today, we are surrounded by information about Viagra and various guides, yet studies show that the prevalence of sexual functional disorders among adults is at the same level as in the 1950s. This suggests that many timeless issues related to human intimate relationships remain unresolved.”
An article in The Economist last year stated: “Surveys of men in the United States, Germany, and Spain found that roughly 20% of men have experienced erectile dysfunction. Almost half of women in the UK have encountered sexual problems. Awkwardness and ignorance lead many people to never seek treatment. Even in relatively open-minded Western European countries, sex education primarily focuses on preventing sexually transmitted infections or unintended pregnancies. Only 38% of men and 49% of women are satisfied with their sex lives. The consequences are serious. Sexual dissatisfaction is a major cause of divorce, with 20% to 50% of divorcing couples experiencing intimacy problems, whether physical or emotional. School sex education should cover health, pleasure, and potential issues. Adolescents need to be reminded that problems can occur even for young, healthy individuals, and it doesn’t mean that everything is over.”
In 2018, the United Nations published the “International Technical Guidance on Comprehensive Sexuality Education” advocating for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), stating that sexuality education typically begins at the age of 5 but is a lifelong process. The topics covered in CSE include, but are not limited to: family and relationships, respect, consent, and bodily autonomy; anatomy, puberty, and menstruation; contraception and pregnancy; and sexual transmitted infections including HIV.
“Sexuality cuts across a person’s life, manifesting differently at different stages, and is closely related to an individual’s physiological, emotional, and cognitive maturity. Regardless of the stage of life, education is the primary tool to enhance an individual’s well-being related to sex and promote the development of healthy and responsible interpersonal relationships for children and young people.”
The UN document states that the concept of sexuality is highly complex. In addition to the physiological aspect, sexuality includes the meaning of interpersonal and sexual relationships on an individual and societal level. It is an important component of human intimate and private needs, and involves emotional attachment and love, biological sex, gender identity, gender roles, gender identity, sexual pleasure, etc.
Sex education teaches children about respect, consent, and where to seek help, which can reduce the risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse. In comprehensive sexuality education, the learning objectives for the 9-12 age group include cultivating the idea that everyone has a responsibility to overcome social gender inequalities; for 12-15-year-olds, emphasizing that gender equality is a part of healthy sexual relationships.
After publishing their research findings on sexology, American sexologists Masters and Johnson wrote a book emphasizing love and helping couples balance various factors in their marital relationships, stressing that sexual performance is not everything. They discovered that people desire emotional commitment beyond mere sexual impulses. “Without recognizing the multidimensional nature of sex, understanding it is impossible: it has personal, public, historical, socio-psychological, behavioral, clinical, and cultural dimensions.” The book concluded by emphasizing the importance of long-term relationships.
“Dealing with sexual harassment is a difficult and delicate issue. Sex education can increase students’ awareness of sexual harassment. When two individuals are in an unequal position
