Blindfish RSE

Review of Channel 4's Sex in Class from a relationship and sex educator's perspective.In this review I will try and bring my perspective as a relationship and sex educator to look at Channel 4's one off show Sex In Class. The show is about a Belgian sexologist Goedele Liekens testing out her approach to relationship and sex education for 15-16 year olds at a Lancashire school. You can read some great overall reviews from Jules Hillier at Brook and Sam Wollaston at the Guardian  of the show. In this blog I am trying to focus specifically on my my perspective as a relationship and sex educator on Goedele's content and approach. 

The show starts with a pretty unsurprising statistic of "83% of kids have seen porn by the time they are 13" (source not cited) and goes on to show how teachers at this school don't think current RSE is good enough and also gives some quotes from young people involved. Such as "It [porn] doesn't give you a lot of information…

Today childline launched anew campaign (FAPZ)to help young people make sense of the powerful influence online porn can have on young people. I welcome any new or renewed effort to help tackle this issue. What ever adults personally think about adults consuming porn, it clearly is not meant for young people. Below is a tweet from Simon Blake (CEO of Brook) Agree @NSPCC we must talk about porn at home, school & community. Whatever you think about porn it is not place CYP should learn about sex
— Simon Blake (@Simonablake) March 31, 2015 It is very worrying to hear Childlinereporting high numbers of calls to their phone line where online porn is a key issue. And this will just be a tip of the iceberg of the influence porn is having. When I talk about Childline in high schools I have meet many young people who think its not for them because they aren't a child so they wont ring it. Such a shame. 

However, the NSPCC could strengthen their campaign by releasing the full details of the…

Thoughts on how Relationship and Sex Educators may have to respond to the 50 Shades of Grey film with young people. 

2 and a half years ago I wrote a review of the 50 Shades of Grey book from a relationship and sex educator perspective. Today I saw the film adaptation with the aim to do the same for the film. 1 in 10 young people have read the novel and I am confident even more will try and see the film. This film (at least in the immediate future) will have an impact on young peoples perspective of sex and relationships and I am keen that people who work with young people equip themselves to respond to questions and concerns this film might raise. Imagine being asked by a young person "why do people enjoy spanking?" "What is fetish?" What is BDSM" "Explain 50 shades of grey?" are we ready to answer young peoples questions? This film raises issue of consent, healthy/unhealthy relationships, BDSM sex, boundaries, communication and value in sex. 

In the …

Nearly 1 in 10 young people have read 50 Shades of Grey say relationships and sexual health education experts.
Esteem Resource Network, a project of the charity ACET (AIDS Care, Education and Training) has more than 25 years of experience in delivering workshops to young people on issues related to self-esteem, relationships and sexual health.
As part of a larger study, to be released later this year, a survey carried out by Esteem has found that almost 10% of young people report reading an explicit sex scene from 50 Shades of Grey.
Unlike the adult market, this anonymous survey shows that male readership (12%) doubles that of than female readership (6%) amongst young people.
More than 1,000 12-16 year olds were asked if, when and how they had encountered written and visual explicit sex scenes. The preliminary findings of the survey show that 67% of young people have seen explicit sex scenes, whilst 47% have encountered them in writte

This is just a quick update to share my powerpoint from the Esteem Resource Network
update event and link to a few resources I looked at during my research. 

PowerPoint Presentation 

WHO definition of sexual health

Fpa Sexual Wellbeing and Pleasure document


Youtube videos 

50 Shades of Grey Trailer

Home office rape prevention advert 

Sex+ Consent video


Background reading

Fetish Sex: A Complete Guide to Sexual Fetishes

50 Shades of Grey reading by a Sex and Relationship Educator

and if you are super keen  Fifty Shades of Grey

This is a very expensive but very useful collection of articles  The Politics of Pleasure in Sexuality Education: Pleasure Bound (Routledge Research in Education)

When I write a new lesson plan or activity  I always ask myself "how would my lesson impact someone if they had... - experienced sexual abuse
- been pregnant
- a member of their family or themselves  infected with HIV
- been questioning their sexuality
- never seriously considered sex before
(and I've just added)
- been through the fostering/adoption system "When a write new material I am usually  writing something that I hope I could use multiple times with multiple groups and possibly over multiple years. So whilst statistically it is unlikely that every class will have people for all the above questions. It is an almost 100% certainty that most of the materials I write will at some point be delivered to all of the above.  I believe we have to plan for the 20%, 1%, the 0.1% and the 0.01%. I may never happen but if it did I want to ensure all my materials have a positive impact for everyone regardless of what others pressures that may have on their life.  I know I …