By Airial Clatney
The importance of including sex-positive content about masturbation in comprehensive sex education has been a constant up hill battle for educators and advocates since pretty much always. For reasons like religion and culture, and because of the totally and completely false notion that it would result in kids running rampant masturbating everywhere and having sex with everyone, the fight for legitimate sex education has been real.
The most crystal-clear argument (not that it should be an argument) for why masturbation should be included in our kids sex education curriculums is that it is a form of sexual pleasure that is non-reproductive, and does any not pose risks like contracting STIs. If that’s not a good enough reason to empower our kids to self-explore, findings have even showed that masturbation can promote positive body esteem in vulva owners, which is obviously important for sexual and mental health. If you are a parent who is struggling with the idea of the inclusion of masturbation in sex-education, or it just doesn’t work for you, know that it’s in you child’s best interest because it can improve sexual health, promote relational intimacy, reduce unwanted pregnancy and STIs and reduce the transmission of HIV.
When reliable information about sex is not accessible to young people receiving mixed messages on the regular about masturbation, kids will feel shame based on their surroundings and common myths that circulate about self-pleasure, like it will blind you or make you go off the rails. The truth is that most adult vulva owners still have troubles with accepting the fact that self-pleasure is normal and healthy, indicating that a major shift still needs to happen around the inclusion of sex-positive masturbation content in sex-education curriculums.
Citations:
Coleman, E. (2002). Masturbation as a means of achieving sexual health. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 14(2/3), 5-16.
Kaestle, C., & Allen, K. (2011). The Role of Masturbation in Healthy Sexual Development: Perceptions of Young Adults. Archives Of Sexual Behavior, 40(5), 983-994. doi:10.1007/s10508-010-9722-0
Shulman, J. L., & Horne, S. G. (2003). The use of self pleasure: Masturbation and body image of among African American and EuropeanAmerican women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 262-269.