Are We Accomplices?

Two seemingly unrelated stories caught my eye recently.  One story, by a lifestyle editor for Salon, focused on what she considered to be the sad state of sexual education in our country.  The other was a UPI story about a former marine who was given a life sentence for sexually abusing his two toddler children . . . with the full cooperation and participation of his wife, the mother of the young boy and girl.

The common thread in these two stories is the underlying attitude about sex.  The main characters in both articles—the so-called sex experts in the Salon article, and the former marine and his wife in the UPI article—view sex solely and amorally as an opportunity for self-gratification, for physical pleasure.

Writing for Salon, Katie McDonough rips into the failure of schools to teach what she considers to be basic sex education to public school students.  She points both to non-existent sex education in some jurisdictions and faulty sex education in others.  In her mind, counselling abstinence is particularly contemptible.

Searching for a solution for these defects, McDonough sought tips from Salon’s “favorite sex writers and sex educators.”  She sought the advice of Ruth Neustifter, sexuality educator and Assistant Professor of Couple & Family Therapy at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Joshua Rosenberger, assistant professor of global and community health at George Mason University; Rich Juzwiak, staff writer at Gawker; and Feminista Jones, sex-positive Black feminist, social worker and blogger (I’m not making this up).

Instead of leaving sex education to parents, or teaching abstinence in school, this body of experts came up with some better suggestions of what should be taught, presumably suggestions they have been promoting in other venues.  (more...)

Are We Accomplices?