After launching a campaign to make Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in schools compulsory, The Everyday Sexism Project asked its Twitter followers what their experience of sex education at school was like.
What were your experiences of school sex & relationships education? Share your story using #SREnow
The replies were pretty bleak.
1. Many said they had no conversation about consent.
"Relationships," consent, and healthy sexuality were no part of any curriculum I heard of. #SREnow
2.
All girls' school, no one ever mentioned consent to us or that we had a right to say no. We got taught how to put a condom on. #SREnow
3.
@EverydaySexism was taught about periods in 5th grade. Nothing else. Didn't hear the word "consent" until I was 20. #SREnow
4. Some women were told to just never have sex.
.@EverydaySexism The one day we talked about condoms, the message was, "They don't work. Abstinence forever!" #SREnow
5.
#SREnow Taught us if we have sex before adulthood we WILL get an STI, but not if we wait. Not a word about consent.
Relevant Mean Girls reference: "Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die!"
6. Others were warned that they shouldn't arouse boys.
We were told that if we wore fuzzy sweaters and sat on boys' laps they would become aroused. So we'd better not. @EverydaySexism #srenow
7.
#SRENow - Our School told a class of boys and girls that girls could control there urges while boys couldn't... Looking back I am appaled!
8. Many women were simply taught how to put a condom on.
All girls' school, no one ever mentioned consent to us or that we had a right to say no. We got taught how to put a condom on. #SREnow
9. Often they were taught how to with a banana.
@EverydaySexism I was lucky. In school at age 13 they blindfolded us, had us spin around & then put a condom on a banana #SREnow
10.
#SREnow @EverydaySexism The full extent of my school sex ed was putting a condom on a banana...
11. Some girls had their virginity compared to cookies...
@EverydaySexism A crumbled Oreo was compared to losing your virginity before marriage. Save your whole cookie for your husband! #SREnow
12. ...and other weird things.
We were shown a vid of a woman (egg?) sitting on a lily pad in swimming pool while men (sperm?) raced to get to her. @EverydaySexism #srenow
13.
#SREnow we had packing tape put on our arms and ripped off to simulate what sex was going to be like emotionally/physically
14.
@EverydaySexism My tutor was too embarrassed to even say 'sex'. He called it 'jiggery pokery'.
15. Girls were taught what they wore and how they acted meant they've said "yes" to sex.
#SREnow my catholic school taught consent by suggesting if your skirt is shorter than knee length, you've essentially said "yes".
16.
We were taught that girls need to be careful and close our legs or "we might be raped" #SREnow
17. But hey, "boys will be boys."
#SREnow No lessons on safety but lessons on why boys will be boys.
These tweets suggest sex education has a lot of room to improve.
As Laura Bates, the founder of The Everyday Sexism Project, points out in the Guardian, while these tweets are anecdotal, they still reflect sex education in classrooms today: in a recent survey with almost 22,000 young people, conducted by the UK Youth Parliament, 40% said theirs was either poor or very poor, and 43% said they hadn't received any at all.
The campaign, which was launched in partnership with the End Violence Against Women Coalition, is calling on political leaders to ensure that sex education includes information on sexual consent, healthy and respectful relationships, gender stereotypes and online pornography.