Sex Education as Moral Education: teaching for pleasure, about fantasy, and against abuse

Abstract

This paper argues for an integration of moral education and sex education curricula. In such an integration, the primary values that would be taught would not be those relating to specific sexual behaviour but those relating to the general treatment of human beings, suggesting that sex that involves coercion or exploitation as well as sex that causes harm is wrong. Sex educators must take as their goal the prevention of abuse, not by placing responsibility on girls to avoid victimisation but by teaching boys how to express themselves sexually in moral‐‐that is, considerate and respectful‐‐ways. The paper discusses differential gender role socialisation and why integration of such material must be a part of every sex education curriculum. The paper also discusses how physical pleasure is not only a biological phenomenon but one that is culturally constructed, the discussion of which would be important to sex education. Finally, teaching about fantasy as well as sexual “deviance” (in terms of the moral behaviours discussed above) may be the most important aspect of sex education to prepare or retrain boys to be “good” sex partners rather than perpetrators of abuse.

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