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.  Goedele Liekens with her charges in Sex in Class. Photograph: Matt Squire 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 quot...

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.  ...

Today on BBC Three Counties Radio I heard an interview with 20 year old Grace talking about her experience of being pressured into watching pornography by her then boyfriend when she was 15 years old. She was incredibly honest and open about how she felt it had negatively impacted her. If you would like to listen to the interview it will be available for a week at the BBC , skip to 1 Hour 7mins into the programme or you can read my typed up  complete transcript of the interview. In this blog I want to pick out a few of things that Grace said.  One of the first things Grace says is  So the boy I was currently dating at the time, was obviously at that age where he had been watching it since about the age of 12 and he had heard from some of his friends that they watch it with their girlfriends. So he came up with a suggestion to me and I said no and I kept saying no and then he just kept on pushing, so I then said “well ok lets check this out, I’ve never looked a...

My view of the channel 4 show "Porn on the Brain" which is all about how teenegers might be being impact by watching porn online. I have just finished watching "Porn on the Brain"   (if you live outside UK Tunnel Bear can let you watch this) a Channel 4 British documentary by a previous editor of Loaded (lad mag) Martin Daubney . In this documentary Martin looks to try and find out what is the situation of porn and teenagers. Now sometimes the show becomes a little sensationalist with phrases like "The internet brought about the end of innocence" but behind some hype is some interesting stuff. With Martin spending 15 years of his life dedicated to (soft core) pornography with his work in loaded his perspective on the porn industry is not naive, he describes himself as an "wanking expert". Early in the show he makes a judgment of how he views the changes in the porn industry.  "Porn has lost its sense of humour and become something mac...

BBC3 takes a frank look at how a sexual health clinic operates in Manchester. Following a n umber of young people as they go through the process of testing, waiting, getting results and then if needed getting treated. Mixing true life stories and high quality sexual health advice this show has the power to do some good.  Revealing some shocking attitudes in the youth. Especially in regards to condom use. By both males and females. Plus the voice over guy has some great one liners. You can see the shows official page here  and if you live outside the UK and want to watch this show have a quick look at TunnelBear  .  "I love dripping willies,   because    then you know what they have" For me the best part of the programme is seeing how the staff are professional and friendly. I really hope and believe that this programme will help increase the number of people going as now they have an idea what will happen. The mystery of sexu...

Treating the Sex Ed past of america as a learning opportunity Just posting this info graphic by a guy called G reg Voakes  who contacted me letting me know it was online to be shared (thank you). Whilst it is focused on the USA lots of the statistics are very informative for our work in Chester and the UK. I have always thought about the USA as a grand experiment in SRE approaches, we different approaches applied in entire states. But the experiment should be wrapped up. I think that it has conclusively proven that abstinence only education is not effective and that condom only education is not enough. We need comprehensive education that covers it all from the right to say no, emotional well being, relationships, STIs and contraceptives. (plus in my opinion, sex and technology for the next generation)  Created by: PublicHealthDegree.com

Helping teens see how perceptions of beauty are twisted by the media Fact from the show 1/2 of all anorexics are girls aged 16-19 Good to see that Gok is doing a programme not just highlighting the issue with young people but looking at how to help some individuals. In particular Jake is clearly a guy who needed some help. 6ft 9 and over 20 stone he had been so badly bullied he would not leave his house with out his mum. Bullying can be viscously powerful. When young people get to this stage they need to get personal one to one support. Size and strength is no protection from emotional damage. I am very impressed they show that Jake is getting professional support/help. Too often in TV it seems like the famous presenter solves all their emotional problems but not on Gok's show. Very refreshing to see a more honest approach. Love Gok taking him to the ring Great to see that he is talking to teachers. From my work in schools I know that the opportunities w...

76% of teenagers have not thought about how porn distorts what real sex is. Figures come from my research in this trial run of lessons Over the last few weeks and months I have been researching and writing a lesson looking at how the media distorts sex and relationships. Pornography has been a big issue to tackle and this week I have tested my lesson and I wanted to share my early results. I've posted the lesson plan, print out resources and powerpoint on my website , just scroll down to the Distortions of media section.  The Lesson progresses through a foundation of media distorting what is beautiful, moving on to how films/TV distorts relationships and finishing with an exercise that shows how porn distorts sex and what the consequences of believing porn could be. At the end of the lesson i hand out a feedback sheet. one of the questions asks them to write down what words they associate with porn. I've made their results into a wordle for you. (the bigger the word the mo...