
When did porn become sex ed? - kelukelugames
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/sunday/when-did-porn-become-sex-ed.html
======
Kristine1975
Lest this discussion devolve into "lel, US so prude": Outdated sex ed exists
or at least existed in Germany as well. Which is why over the past years
several federal states have updated theirs (sometimes much to the chagrin of
reactionaries who don't like that e.g. homosexuality is included in the
curriculum).

When I went to school in the 90s, sex ed at my school was "penis in vagina,
then pregnancy" plus contraception. No mention of consent, erogenous zones,
social pressure, different sex positions, homosexuality etc. or even the
simple fact that sex, when done correctly, feels good.

A few years later though there was a lecture by a doctor of a local hospital
about AIDS, which was much more in-depth: I recall us listening, rapt in our
attention, when he showed us various sex position on the overhead projector
and then asked about the risk of infection with HIV (we were wrong most of the
time). He was laid back, knowledgeable and funny.

~~~
bshoemaker
Too late

------
atemerev
As a European, I find it strange and amusing that Americans are so afraid of
sex.

Here (in Italy, in Spain, in Netherlands, in Sweden) sex is good, normal and
nothing of much interest, just a regular part of life.

~~~
0x4a42
sex != porn

EDIT: downvoting me for saying that porn is different than sex is like
downvoting me if i'd said Hollywood movies are different than reality...

~~~
atemerev
Except that this is the case when reality is so much better and sensual than
Hollywood movies.

~~~
0x4a42
Porn is sensual? Yeah ok... better visiting motherless.com than reading this
kind of bullshit.

// @TODO: fix this downvotable comment, might result in bad karma

~~~
true_religion
His comparison implied that actual sex is 'better' than pornography. It's more
sensual. Draws harder on the emotions, and involves more drama and mess than
is depicted in pornography.

If anything pornography is a whitewash of the rich tapestry of sex to make it
into something bland, banal, and utterly mechanical wherein you can slot the
entire act into single categories and stick them on a website.

------
lightlyused
Good article, but this curriculum needs mentioned: Our Whole lives -
[http://www.uua.org/re/owl](http://www.uua.org/re/owl) .

~~~
leejoramo
Having recently completed my first facilitation of the Adult OWL curriculum
and seen the impact it had on participants, I highly agree with you.

------
agumonkey
Is it true that Victorian era made pornography a thing ? it seems such an
absurdity (pornography that is, not the Victorian theory).

~~~
duaneb
Not at all. There were changes in public perception of sexual activity for the
upper class during the Victorian era, but much of "pornography" dates back to
earlier and a much more religious context—western pornography has been
evolving since the printing press, more or less.

Source:
[http://www.annalspornographie.com/](http://www.annalspornographie.com/)

EDIT: the word "pornography" itself may date to the time period (mid
nineteenth century).

------
bmm6o
It would be funny if it wasn't so sadly predictable. If you don't teach kids
about it, they'll learn from unrealistic depictions in the media.

------
silliconeheart
Fuck, I too have the same situation. Is there some online sex ed material?

~~~
daeken
I can't recommend this channel enough. Dr. Doe is knowledgable and fun to
watch.
[https://www.youtube.com/user/sexplanations](https://www.youtube.com/user/sexplanations)

------
john_peiffer
I don't understand how a liberal person can defend criticising how other
people chose to have sex.

Young American couples are choosing more frequently to have anal sex. Unless
it's rape, what business is that of yours?

This article presents the rise of some sexual practices such as anal and oral,
as somehow fundamentally problematic.

You have sex how you want to have sex, I'll have sex how I want to have sex,
and as long as nobody is being raped it's none of our business what the other
person is doing.

~~~
trowawee
That's a complete misrepresentation of the article's argument. It presents the
rise of those practices as problematic when they are performed under duress,
when the act is painful, or when there is a lack of reciprocity in sexual
relationships. All of those things are problematic, and the author draws a
link between those problems and the prevalence of porn-as-sex-ed. I don't
think there's anything wrong with porn, but I do think there's a problem with
this:

 _> Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer
than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teach all 16
components the agency recommends as essential to sex education. Only 23 states
mandate sex ed at all; 13 require it to be medically accurate._

That says to me that the problem isn't porn, it's a ridiculous refusal to
educate kids about sex, which leaves them to scrape together that education
from porn, internet sources, and peer knowledge, which is a recipe for
disaster.

