Young sexual citizens: reimagining sex education as an essential form of civic engagement

Abstract

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a significant threat to the health and well-being of populations worldwide, and to young people in particular. Des]pite empirical evidence that comprehensive sex education is an important tool for prevention, the legitimacy and content of sex education in schools continue to be challenged by conservative narratives within society. This paper argues that sex education should be re-imagined as a form of civic training for children and recognised as an important corollary to public health efforts aimed at reducing the rate of STIs. The author's claim builds on notions of sexual citizenship, which consider sexuality to be an essential aspect of citizenship and a form of civic engagement. Sexual citizenship can make three important contributions to the advancement of sex education. First, the model can lead to greater acceptance of the idea of sex education by challenging conservative notions about children and sexuality, which are at the root of the classic objections to sex education. Second, it can help shape the content of sex education by eliciting parallels between civic participation and sex education. Finally, by emphasising how sex education can address some of the social phenomena underlying the spread of STIs, the model can be used to facilitate the incorporation of sex education into public health agendas. Although the author uses sex education in Canada as the principal case study, the paradigm may be equally helpful in other countries.

Keywords:

• young people; sexual citizenship; civic engagement; Canada; sex education; STIs

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Margaret Somerville, Lisa Trimble, and Kathleen Hadekel for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article, and to Eva Sholomon for her unwavering support.

Notes

^1. The term ‘sexually transmitted infections’ is now more widely in use than sexually transmitted diseases because it is broader in scope and is also used to designate asymptomatic infections.

^2. The study included students in Grades Seven, Nine, and 11 (approximately ages 12, 14, and 16) from all provinces and territories, with the exception of Nunavut.

^3. This lack of knowledge can be inferred from a vast amount of data relating to the safe-sex practices of younger adults (e.g. SOGC).

^4. See Jürgen Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989) for an authoritative treatment of the public–private divide.

^5. For a more favourable perspective on these programmes, see Kim and Rector (2010).

^6. See, for example, Pollard (2007). The author presents several research studies in her article according to which a small but promiscuous group of sexually active Americans may be primarily responsible for perpetuating STIs among the general population.

^7. According to the Zogby/MSNBC.com survey, which was developed with the assistance of famed sex therapist Ruth Westheimer, only 39% of people surveyed always ask whether a new partner is infected with HIV or other STIs and nearly one-third said they never check on a prospective partner's sexual health status.

^8. For example, in Ontario from 2004 to 2008, the rates of infection (per 100,000 people) among females increased from 23.5 to 24.9. For the same period in British Columbia, the rate more than tripled from 9.7 to 24.1. On Prince Edward Island, the rate doubled from 4.2 to 8.4.

^9. Another trend is youth trying to raise awareness and comprehension of the law in other youth, and the general population. See http://www.educaloi.qc.ca/en/.