Sex education in schools is imperfect, at best. But a recent Refinery29 survey of 1,425 people in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada make clear exactly how broken it is: While 80% of respondents said they sat through sex ed classes in middle or high school, just 5% said their education actually prepared them for the real world. That's pretty dismal.
The people Refinery29 surveyed describe leaving sex ed feeling afraid and embarrassed, with unanswered questions about anatomy, STIs, pregnancy, and sexuality. They felt frustrated by the lack of LGBTQ+ representation in their sex education. Over half said their lessons didn't cover the nuances of consent, and nearly three in four respondents said they didn't learn about pleasure, especially women's pleasure.
When people don't learn about these topics in school, they may seek out the information on their own—or they may just do their best without it. As we learned from our survey, that can lead to tangible consequences. People may not know how to have safe sex, or how to ask for or give consent. They may feel shame and confusion around their sexuality that persists for years.
Sex education is worth saving, and in Sex Re-Education, Refinery29 is attempting to bridge the gap between what people want to know, and what they've been taught. The hub includes realistic, expert-backed answers to people's most common sex-related questions, as well as the empathetic and road-tested advice that people wish they'd been given when they were younger.
Our understanding of sexuality is always changing, and with that in mind, we designed our Sex Re-Education package to be flexible. After all, sex education is something that happens over the course of a lifetime, and our hope is that this hub can grow along with the people it's trying to reach. But our core values will remain the same, and that is to deliver information that allows people to feel informed, empowered, and confident as they move through their lives.
Mirel Zaman
Deputy Director of Life, Wellbeing, & Social Issues
No comments:
Post a Comment