What is the educational role for teenage magazines?
Filling the knowledge gap
Despite the assumed sexual sophistication of the young, the evidence is that ignorance about sex is still a problem for many. More than two thirds of the sample of people interviewed for the British Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (BSSAL) saw themselves as inadequately prepared in terms of information on sexual matters at the time of their first sexual experience.
The proportion of respondents claiming that they 'knew enough' has not increased among younger age groups as might have been expected. BSSAL showed that the majority - more than two thirds of men and women - said they did not have enough information about sexual matters at the time of first intercourse, and the proportion was virtually as high amongst young people as it was amongst the older generation.
The situation will improve with greater provision of sex education in schools. Schools have been playing an increasingly important role in the sexual education of the young, particularly for men. Yet schools can meet only part of the demand. Thompson et al (1992) report that although four out of five young people felt their school sex education was inadequate, there was satisfaction with the treatment of topics relating to physical and sexual maturity, pregnancy and childbirth, as there was with coverage of topics relating to the adverse outcomes of sexual activity such as abortion, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. Areas that are less well covered are the emotional and relationship aspects of sexuality.
"The education that we got was mainly [about] what 'bits' people had. But in the female genitalia there was no mention of things like the clitoris of what it does, its importance. It was mainly that goes in there and produces a child.
"Nobody ever talks to you about the problems and the entanglements and what it means to a relationship when you start having sex. Nobody ever actually discussed that sort of thing. They just seemed to expect that you would know and they were really too embarrassed to start telling you.
"I think honestly that you need that [biological understanding] well not need it, but it's useful to know. But I think what is far more needed is the emotional side, and how you feel. And what exactly is going to happen, practically rather than biologically."
Young woman interviewed by Thompson et al (1992)
Attempts have been made in recent years to reorient sex education towards a perspective informed by personal development (Thompson et al, 1992). The fact that some topics are not adequately covered by the school syllabus should not necessarily be interpreted as indicating that schools should attempt to fill all the gaps. The reality is that schoolteachers may not be the appropriate agencies. A good deal of nervousness and anxiety is felt among many teachers and many feel comfortable enough with the biological and health aspects of sexual behaviour but less so dealing with personal relationships and the emotional aspects of sex. Legal and political constraints also lead to confusion.
School sex education is particularly ill-placed to deal with desire. In an environment in which the charge is often levelled that teaching about sex education encourages experimentation and early activity, it is difficult to legitimate discussion of sexual desire and sexual self knowledge. Similarly, young people themselves may feel those in authority over them and senior to them in years are inappropriate role models. Carried out badly, the business of sex education has the potential to cause more problems than it solves.
"The sex education class becomes a forum within which the two modes of adolescent sexuality and the authority of the school culture come into open confrontation and it is this juxtaposition that most clearly marks these young women's memories of the classes."
Young people challenge and embarrass the teacher (Thompson et al, 1992).
By the same token, young people rarely have all their questions answered in the family. Asked how easy or difficult it was for them to discuss sex with parents, 33 per cent of young women and slightly more men (40 per cent) rate this as difficult (Rudat and Speed, 1993). The proportion of parents willing to talk to their children about sex is low. Only five per cent of young men and 17 per cent of young women cite their mother as their main source of information and fathers feature even less prominently (Wellings et al, 1994). Furthermore, the parental line is often concerned with protection and control.
Friends, by contrast, are easier to talk to, and are a major source of information for just over a third of men and just over a quarter of women. The problem here is one of accuracy. Much information exchanged between friends is transmitted by 'Chinese whispers', messages which are become distorted in circulation.
Contact: Kerry Neilson , TMAP secretariat, kerry.neilson@ppa.co.uk, 0207 400 7520
Teenage
Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP)
28 Kingsway
London WC2B 6JR
tel: 0207 400 7520 - fax: 020 7404 4167 - email: kerry.neilson@ppa.co.uk - web: www.tmap.org.uk -
site contact: Kerry Neilson - this site is audited by ABC Electronic -
