No matter how many optional ways I\u2019ve considered for starting this piece, I keep returning to \u2018hot\u2019 and \u2018masala\u2019. I\u2019ve been reviewing sites online to understand the meaning of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and cannot get a video posted on YouTube out of my head. Oddly enough, I didn\u2019t note down the URL though I am normally very thorough about jotting down all sources reviewed for anything I write. This particular video leapt out when I searched for CSE and sexuality education for children. Aunty gives boy a bath. (There are many hot and sexy, even educational bath videos but I can\u2019t find this one again.) The video was about a teenage boy with an intellectual disability and showed his routine \u2013 gets ready, gets fed and gets dropped off to special education class by his mother. It\u2019s a longish video. The high point comes at the end of it \u2013 a bath scene where the boy doesn\u2019t want to bathe so his mother bathes him. He reaches out and touches her sari-and-blouse covered breast. She shrieks, slaps him and leaps out of the bathroom. There are many things to think about in this video, but I wouldn\u2019t put sexy, or hot aunty or hot bathing scene as top of the mind thoughts. However \u2013 that was how it got sold and received many hits and some comments. I recall staring at the screen for a while wondering why life gets viewed the way it does, or bought and sold the way it does, in the underbelly of the online beast.<\/p>\n
No URL, sorry, no have. I think my fuse blew.<\/p>\n
Some more things I think about:<\/p>\n
Becoming \u2018feelings centered\u2019 indicates moving away from the needs of boys? Anyway, while you answer that I\u2019ll wrap up the abstinence education point simply by saying that it does not take into account many things, in particular, unequal power relationships (across age, sex, gender roles, family relationships, socio-economic class). A big causal factor for the creation of inequality is unequal access to, and processing of, information.<\/p>\n
This is why Comprehensive Sexuality Education is so important. ‘Comprehensive’ implies a framework that helps you explore and understand all aspects of a subject, while implementation of CSE would require age-appropriate communication and content.<\/p>\n
I began with the strange problem of the hot bath scene (which to me has nothing to do with a hot bath scene by temperature or turn-on value) and in my head it is strongly connected to the matter of CSE. I think one reason perhaps is because many people across age groups may need to understand what classifies as hot and what does not. What is a positive experience and expression of sexuality in an individual or between people \u2013 and what is not. It\u2019s a bit like humour. Some things are funny, some things are offensive and harmful. Until you know what is funny and why, you can end up laughing at the offensive and the harmful because the people you\u2019re with are doing so.<\/p>\n
Early this January, the Pune Mirror carried an article on the front page titled \u2018Time to bring sex back on campus?<\/a>\u2019 \u2026 exciting as that may sound, it dealt with the alarming findings of a study conducted by doctors (from DY Patil Medical College and Hospital<\/a>) to \u2018assess the knowledge about sexual health among male students of junior colleges of an urban area\u2019. Some of what the doctors discovered:<\/p>\n In another part of the world, somebody asked \u201cCould Comprehensive, Accurate Sex Education Curtail the War on Women?<\/a>\u201d The writer says, \u201cWhat we need is\u00a0not only for schools to accurately educate students<\/a>, but for the conversations to continue at home from a young age through adulthood.\u201d<\/p>\n So for the benefit of my friends with 10-year old children who can access the net on their smart phones \u2013 as much as for the 30-year old teaching the co-ed class something about the body and puberty \u2013 the reason we need CSE is because the world is full of information, online and offline, with newspapers at the doorstep every morning where columnists devote a considerable amount of time to discussing sexual harassment and child abuse in schools, and a wide variety of Chinese whisper versions of secret words and taboos are doing the rounds of the playground where everyone ages six through sixteen are part of the chain.<\/p>\n (A short story. Ten years ago I shared a lift ride up five floors with a neighbour who giggled and told me she thought her male baby help was abusing her baby boy but she wasn\u2019t sure and help was so hard to find. She walked out of the lift and I forgot which floor I was to get off at so I ascended and descended a couple of times. So that\u2019s a 10-year old kid out there somewhere playing Chinese whispers too. <\/em>)<\/p>\n On the net you will find some lovely resources such as these:-<\/p>\n The Hormone Factory: <\/strong><\/a>Visually cheerful and attractive site, lots of information on sex and sexuality communicated in an easy, simple, friendly way.<\/p>\n KidsHealth: <\/strong><\/a>Child friendly site with health facts and advice for kids.<\/p>\n BodiMojo: <\/strong><\/a>Teen friendly, direct communication about relationships, disorders, substance abuse etc.<\/p>\n Center for Young Women’s Health: <\/strong><\/a>A comprehensive website from the Center for Young Women’s Health, Boston Children’s Hospital.<\/p>\n My body belongs to me: <\/strong>An animated short film that addresses the issue of CSA, speaks to children in an easy to understand, simple style. Filmmaker Jill Starishevsky<\/a> is an Assistant District Attorney (New York City).<\/p>\n\n