Apparently sex belongs in the classroom. Or so says a Danish sexologist, who is advocating that we need pornography for better sex education in high schools. Why roll a condom on a banana, argues Christian Graugaard of Aalborg University, when you can just press “play” and let the actors do the work? But Graugaard’s suggestions are not about exposing kids over the age of 13 to porn for the first time. (One study shows that 99% of teen boys and 86% of teen girls in Scandinavia have seen pornography, so that ship has sailed.) Instead, the sexology professor is calling for an open dialogue about pornographic films in the hopes of creating more conscientious — and realistic — consumers. Though it seems he’s recommending such tactics for educational purposes in part, he also underlines the importance of ensuring tomorrow’s leaders are thoughtful when it comes to porn.
His comments, aired on Danish TV network DR, were met with praise from students.
“I think you could get something out of it — for example the difference between real love between two people who have sex and hard porn and orgies from the US,” a ninth-grader named Anders Kaagaard said to DR. (Why are we the only ones with a bad porn rap?)
Highlighting his point, Graugaard said:
"We want our kids to have exciting and gratifying sex lives, so an open-minded, constructive dialogue is the best way to make sure that they are able to make meaningful decisions for themselves."
Although this may be true — and it’s awfully kind of him to want Generation Z to have fulfilling sex lives — there may be a bit of a culture gap going on here. I can’t really picture my sex ed teacher rolling in a TV and VCR on a cart at eight in the morning and settling in to watch and discuss a porn with us, but then again, I also can’t picture a TV and VCR on a cart anymore.
At least one thing it seems most of us can agree on is that sex education needs an overhaul. Sex educator Colin Adamo has some ideas for changing the way we teach boys about sex in this country, and new British sex ed guidelines released last year stressed the need for helping teens understand the difference between porn and real sex, among other smart recommendations.
More than half of the students in the U.K. already rely on porn to learn about sex, one study found, which gives credence to Graugaard’s thesis — if it’s shown in the classroom, educators could have some control over what these kids see, and encourage thoughtful discussion about sex and pornography. Perhaps “thoughtful discussion” is giving teenagers too much credit, but that’s another story.
Overall, Graugaard is calling for “reinvention” of sex education:
"Young people, like the rest of us, are part of a sexualized post-modern society … Rather than focusing on the technical disease-related or biological aspects of sex, we should also use this platform to discuss and show other phenomena, such as pornography, taught by trained teachers, so that young people can develop a critical approach to what they are seeing."
As awkward as it might be to take in a porn in between your best frenemy and that guy you made out with in a closet last year, this sounds a hell of a lot better than the frightening and vague claims my high school sex ed teacher made about pregnancy and STDs. Hit the lights!
Images: Getty Images (2), Giphy
