'Teach teens about pleasure in sex'

[DesDownunder]

'Teach teens about pleasure in sex'

This is too good not post in it's entirety.

Original report here.

(And people wonder why I get cynical about academics.)

A sex education expert says it is time Australian schools start teaching teenagers about the pleasure they can get from sex.

(I'm already ROFLMAO The expert thinks they don't already know?)

In Britain, a National Health Service leaflet is being distributed that advises school students they have a "right" to enjoy sex and that regular intercourse can be good for their cardiovascular health.

The controversial advice - being circulated to parents, teachers and youth workers - carries the slogan "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away", British media reports.

(And the guys in the third row think they are the apple in each other's eyes.)

"Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes' physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?" the pamphlet called Pleasure reads.

Dr Lynne Hillier, a senior research fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society at La Trobe University, does not think it is such a bad idea.

"What they're trying to do is normalise sex," she told ABC News Online.

"Talking about sex with young people and not talking about pleasure is the strangest thing that has happened historically in sex education in schools.

"It's sort of like the elephant in the lounge room.

"We don't like to think of young people as being sexually active and them being sexually active and having pleasure is the limit for a lot of people."

Dr Hillier, who has studied sex education for almost 16 years, does not agree with the criticism the leaflet has copped.

"It's interesting. It's a little bit confronting but that's one way of doing it," she said.

"It's a really gutsy thing to do. We can't do anything in schools about sex unless we have parental permission."

But Dr Hillier has some ideas if a similar brochure ever hit Australian schools.

"I'd be suggesting that, because young men find their penises very easily, that young women explore their bodies and work out what gives them pleasure," she said.

"Rather than saying 'have an orgasm a day', I've being saying 'spend time with yourself and learning how wonderful your body is'."

She says society has never been comfortable with young people enjoying sex.

"Young people can be sexual from very young and we need to stop being frightened of this," she said.

"Sexuality and adolescence and sex education is the last taboo in the way.

"We need to lighten up and accept that being sexual is an incredibly important part of being human and that young people don't just become sexual at 18."

Safer sex

She also thinks teens would be more likely to practise safe sex if they knew more about pleasure in sex.

"Once young women know about their bodies and explore their bodies it gives them power and authority and they'd be much more likely to guide a sexual encounter ... which would include safe sex," she said.

"And they'd also be more assertive in terms of whether they want it or don't want it."

And Dr Hillier believes women are suffering the most from the current shortfalls in sex education.

"Research into sexuality shows quite a few women in Australia never achieve an orgasm in their sexual lives," she said.

"Young women don't know about their bodies. They know that they're something that people look at but women don't know very often about the pleasure it can give them and that just seems outrageous.

"I think if young people know what pleasures them, they will become much less passive in a sexual encounter."

[Sir Galahad]

I'm not being funny, but this sounds like it was written at the turn of the last century!

This is my favourite line:

What about sex or masturbation twice a week?

ROFL, we are talking about teenagers here aren't we? I think they may need to multiply that figure by about 15 & they might be closer to the mark!

[blue]

That doctor clearly is not clear on a great deal about her area of study, both in what actually happens among teens and among parents/adults. What actually happens, versus what would be nice if it happened, versus what is believed or accepted....

It's probably a wonder any of us got here, gay, straight, in between, both, neither, unspecified... with all the wackiness people put around what happens between their brains and their shorts.

Uh... Trust us, doc, any male is going to know how to find that easily. It's *right there.* He might take a while to figure out all the operational modes, but he'll figure it out. Hopefully, he'll have somebody nice to help with the, uh, test drives. If that somebody nice happens to have the same equipment, they can compare all the working parameters.

Hah, many of us probably wish we'd had another "lab partner" or so, to figure out how the darn things worked.

[Cole Parker]

Hah, many of us probably wish we'd had another "lab partner" or so, to figure out how the darn things worked.

And run repeated experiments with!

C

[DesDownunder]

And run repeated experiments with!

C

Quite so Cole.

Scientific method demands that experiments be validated by repeatability of the results. When variations have no significant affect on the results then the theory behind the experiment, (or in front of the experiment if such is your desire) can be considered satisfactorily proven or at least inviting to explore the depths further.

At this stage a more permanent investigation can be entered into with a lab partner, for longer and more intense examination of, as blue puts it, 'operational modes'.

Group experiments are another matter, but double blind testing in darkened rooms with large numbers of experimenters have been shown to yield somewhat messy results leading only to further need for prolonged activities and analysis, and of course employment for cleaners.

It is an interesting observation by many research workers that the field remains wide open for participants, in this line of investigation.

Testing at least 50% of the population seems to be the objective of many dedicated scientists. Sadly, many collapse from exhaustion before realising their goals and spend their remaining years writing about their experiences or posing theories in the form of stories that they hope will inspire the efforts of future generations to continue the endless need to verify satisfaction or at least stimulate discussion on these matters so important to the human condition.

Isn't science wonderful?

[Cole Parker]

Testing at least 50% of the population seems to be the objective of many dedicated scientists. Sadly, many collapse from exhaustion before realising their goals and spend their remaining years writing about their experiences

And some lose much of their hair, become wan and wrinkled, and perform only replica performances, merely an ephemeral memory of the verve and glory of their younger years.

Ah, be it so.

And Des, spoken like one who knows. You are always a great source for such information.

[DesDownunder]

And some lose much of their hair, become wan and wrinkled, and perform only replica performances, merely an ephemeral memory of the verve and glory of their younger years.

Ah, be it so.

And Des, spoken like one who knows. You are always a great source for such information.

Anything to help promote the scientific cause.

[Cole Parker]

I have a somewhat different view, Brit18uk. At least in this country, and probably yours, girls were brought up back when I was young with very Victorian attitudes about sex and their bodies. They were taught that sex was somehow dirty, it was something males initiated, and it was not something nice girls thought about much or did for personal pleasure.

Every survey I've seen on masturbation shows almost all boys do this, and many girls do not. You could be right, of course, that they're too embarrassed to admit it, even on confidential and anonymous polls, but the similarity of the findings at least is suggestive that there is a great difference between the number of males and females who engage in pleasuring themselves.

And if a vast number of females don't take this elementary step, then it certainly makes sense that they've accepted their early instruction and imbued attitudes about sex. If that is indeed the case, that these same females take sex with their hubbies as a matter of duty is easy to imagine, and lack of orgasm is just as easy to surmise.

C

[DesDownunder]

My view also differs. While it is very common for Australian boys to masturbate, I am aware that the practice is very much subject to the way the child is raised and also the region, country and customs of the local community. I know of a Greek gentlemen who cannot enjoy such pleasures because of his religious upbringing that sex of any kind should not occur outside his relationship with his wife. (He's straight.) He is somewhat uncomfortable because he has been divorced for some years. My Chinese herbal doctor cannot even admit that homosexuality is possible, but is quite happy to provide herbs for 'self satisfaction' as he puts it.

There is also some medical opinion that masturbation alleviates prostatitis, but research is slow in this area.

As for females, I know of women who have been horrified to learn what their husband's penis is for, let alone that they are the receptacle for it. Hysteria is not uncommon in such women, and psychological treatment has often failed to address their mental torment.

I will say that today's teens seem to be better informed and the Net has helped them to accept the joys that should be available to all without guilt or recrimination from any source.

The days of women being advised to lay quietly and think of Britannia while her husband has his way with her are hopefully a thing of the past. I am told that women are capable of enjoying sex as much as men. Who knew? I must admit to not having researched this with any fervour.

Sex in all its variations, hasn't always been a subject to deny in polite company. Many cultures of olde were outspoken about sexual pleasures and indeed made jokes about it. The Dark ages, the Inquisition, and Victorian attitudes have had an enormous restrictive effect from which many cultures are still trying to recover. It is our duty to inform all peoples of Earth, that pleasuring the self, the boyfriend or the wench is natural and not in the least harmful, provided the proper precautions are taken for safer sex, and respect for consent and the age of consent is practiced.

[Cole Parker]

Right on, Des, as usual. Right on!

C

[blue]

There is also some medical opinion that masturbation alleviates prostatitis, but research is slow in this area.

Well, they're being thorough, you know.

Slow Hand, it is.

Ah, sorry, couldn't resist the humo(u)r.

-----

My dad's only comment, the one time he walked in on me (solo), as a quite embarrassed early teen? "Put that away and go to bed." -- No discussion before or after about it.

Absolutely no discussion of the possibility of boys with other boys or men with other men.

Heck, the only talk about the facts of life (heterosexual sex) when I was around 12 was... less than enlightening and involved farm terms. Pleasure? It wasn't mentioned, although I know my mom and dad loved each other very much, and tried to have kids many times, so presumably, they liked it. My dad, like most of his age group, didn't know much of the facts behind any of it, to tell his young son some of the things about life he most needed to know.

I wish that parents would make sure their kids grow up learning their bodies are good and lovable, and learning that sex (hetero, homo, or solo) can be a good thing, when it's with the right person and when you're being loving, smart, and healthy/safe about it.

-----

Attitudes about sex? Attitudes about being gay or bi? -- I'm from a major city in Texas. There's some progress, and I think today's teens are probably better informed and adjusted about it all, but there's clearly so far to go.

[Cole Parker]

The major change between today and fifty years ago that I see is that kids today have had sex education in the schools and their attitudes about sex and each other are much more enlightened. They talk about things we'd never talk about back then because they'd talked about them in class. The taboo over it being polite society and we not talking about things like that, are absent. When I've been with a group of teenagers, I've been shocked to hear some of the frank discussions between boys and girls, all of them realizing I was within earshot. They aren't embarrassed with being sexual beings and letting everyone else know it. They realize everyone else does know it and they aren't embarrassed. They don't find sex dirty like we were often taught, or as least as it was often suggested it was. To them, it's part of life and nothing to make any sort of big deal about.

What an extremely healthy attitude.

C