Sex education has been shown to help people understand their bodies, make responsible choices, develop healthy relationships, and prevent unplanned pregnancies and STIs.
Traditional sex ed curricula often promote harmful gender roles that contribute to rape culture and victim blaming.
They may teach boys to "take control" during sex while girls are encouraged to be passive, or to see women's physical appearance as sexual objects. This creates a cycle of objectification and violence that contributes to the normalization of abuse and victim blaming. To break this cycle, sex education programs must be designed to challenge these narratives and promote healthy attitudes towards sexuality.
1. Start by teaching students about consent from an early age. Consent is a critical part of any healthy sexual relationship and should be explicitly taught in sex ed classes. Teachers can explain what it means to give and receive consent, and how to respect others' boundaries. They can also discuss ways to communicate desires and negotiate boundaries within relationships. By emphasizing mutual respect, teachers can encourage students to question assumptions about gender roles and power dynamics.
2. Emphasize affirmative consent. Affirmative consent is the idea that all parties involved in a sexual encounter must express clear enthusiasm for each step of the activity. This requires active participation, verbal communication, and explicit consent at every stage. Teachers can ask questions like: How do you know if someone consents? What happens when someone doesn't want to proceed with sex? How do you check in with your partner(s)? Incorporating these conversations into lessons helps students understand their own agency and autonomy in sexual encounters, challenging traditional notions of who initiates sex and why.
3. Talk about healthy sexual exploration. Sex ed often focuses on prevention of unwanted pregnancy or disease but neglects the fact that many people enjoy engaging in sexual activities outside of intercourse. Healthy sexual experimentation includes masturbation, mutual touching, kissing, oral sex, anal play, and more. It involves taking time to explore one another's bodies, communicating preferences, and prioritizing pleasure. Teaching students about healthy sexuality promotes self-confidence and body positivity, while countering harmful messages about female "purity" and male "virility."
4. Discuss the role of pornography in our culture. Porn has become increasingly mainstream and accessible online, leading to distorted expectations about what constitutes normal sexual behavior. Many people feel pressured to perform acts they don't actually desire or enjoy out of fear of being seen as "unattractive" or "frigid." Teachers can help students deconstruct the narratives promoted by porn, which may be very different from real life experiences. They can also discuss how media representation affects attitudes towards gender roles, power dynamics, and sexuality.
5. Address relationship abuse. Roughly half of all women and a third of men experience some form of intimate partner violence during their lives. This includes physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse, as well as psychological manipulation. Sex education programs can teach strategies for recognizing and responding to abusive behaviors, including red flags, safe ways to leave an abuser, and resources available for victims. By normalizing conversations about abuse, teachers can challenge victim blaming narratives that often suggest survivors were asking for it or deserved it.
Sex ed curricula should reflect a holistic understanding of human sexuality, exploring a variety of identities, orientations, and expressions. By challenging traditional notions of masculinity and femininity, promoting consent and communication, and acknowledging the complexity of relationships, we can reduce victim blaming narratives and create healthier attitudes towards sex and intimacy.
How can sex education programs reduce victim-blaming narratives?
The psychological effects of victim-blaming narratives include feelings of guilt, shame, and self-doubt. Victim-blaming narratives also have social consequences, such as reduced support from friends and family members who may believe that victims deserved their abuse. Furthermore, victim-blaming narratives can perpetuate harmful gender roles, which contribute to sexual violence and discrimination against women and other marginalized groups.