Sex and the Collegiate Experience
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American society prior to the 20th century had considered the topic of sex (sexuality) as being Ðtaboo and not necessary to talk about, let alone taught in schools . In recent years however, sex-education has proved to be useful in providing information to the masses about disease prevention, child prevention, and other benefits. Elementary school programs that are designed to teach young adults about the perils of having sex or committing sexual acts with one another focus primarily on the consequences, and rarely on the benefits, in order to instill this Ðsex-negative ideology favored by parents. Yet, every fall, parents drop their Ðyoung adults off at colleges across the country where most are given a crash course early on in what sex is all about. Rather than the Ðtaboo topic it is commonly thought of as, the topic of sex in college is embraced rather than shied away from. Students, in recent years, have been given free reign to choose courses and topics that range from “Death and Sexuality” to “Sex in Politics”. Almost everyone is having sex in college, most for the first time, so why cant they learn about the history or nature of sexuality? This paper will focus on why colleges across the nation are going about promoting Ðsex-positive education. This paper is divided into three parts; the first will examine a few founding parents of Ðsex-education. Followed by where the “sex-positive” idea came from. The last part will explain how/why it is good that colleges have moved to offer Ðsex-positive courses in their curriculum. The conclusion of the paper will rebut opposition arguments to promoting Ðsex-positive education and reiterate the point that knowledge truly is power.
Scholars often argue when exactly Ðsex-education in America emerged, but agree it came about in the early 20th century. Pioneers such as Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, and Mary Calderone have been hailed over the years for promoting Ðsex-education early on in American culture. Kinsey has been praised for revealing the truth about sexual behavior and human nature in his findings from what has been commonly known as the Kinsey Report [Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)]. Sanger became renowned and respected for founding the American birth control movement and, would later co-create the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Sanger later established the following principles as a means to promote Ðsex-education: womans right to control her body is the foundation of her human rights. Women are entitled to sexual pleasure and fulfillment. Every person should be able to decide when or whether to have a child. Every child should be wanted and loved. A follower of Sanger in the field of human sexuality was Dr. Mary Calderone. She was former co-founder/president of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), and Medical Director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “What SEICUS seeks” Calderone once said “is to establish sexuality as a necessary for good health and make it worthy by focusing on it more openly… with the best of intentions, which implicitly would teach that people must make well-formed and intelligent choices concerning a series of alternatives.” These pioneers led the thought on Ðsex-education and what would later lead to numerous other ideologies. The emergence of the AIDS epidemic and high teen pregnancy rates in the 1980s would later lead to an Ðabstinence-only sex-negative ideal that sex-positivism aims to correct in the future by getting more people, young and old, in the know.
Teenagers enter college these days with equal parts knowledge and ignorance when it comes to sex. Their elementary schools have caused them to think Ðsex negatively while the media berates them with the message that sex is dangerous and can be immoral. A teacher once told me that sex before marriage was like gambling. Either side of the die can lead to a tragic outcome (i.e. pregnancy, disease, or just heartache) that makes the act of Ðsex itself, just a risk. ÐSex however, is not merely an action, but a comprehensive topic that goes beyond mere intercourse. The ÐSex-positive movement, according to the article that sparked this essay, “seeks to undo the “damage” caused by years of abstinence-based sex education that focuses only on the consequences of sex, like pregnancy and disease, and to reverse negative stigma attached to do-as-you-like sexuality.” Sex positivism is considered to be a feminist ideal but I feel it can be considered more than that. ÐSex-positivism is not focused on comparing, nor berating, heterosexual or homosexual sex by any means. This movement that is appearing on college campuses across the country promotes sexuality as being a normal part of life. College is a time for a guy/girl to experience and explore their body while they mature into adulthood. By rejecting the dominant view of sex as being something shameful, and embracing all consensual sex practices between all people, Ðsex-positivism promotes humanity. The movement aims at using fact based accuracy when promoting its sex-education curriculum. Sex-positive believers consider it to be something that can be enjoyed, for many different reasons and in many different ways. Sexual practices whether homosexual, bisexual, transgender, heterosexual and so on are not thought of as immoral or wrong. Advocates for the movement travel around campuses, usually holding workshops on sex education, in order to teach about dos and dont of their particular field.