With the recent release of a new UNESCO report advocating for and presenting voluntary global guidelines for sex-ed, the time may be near where we consider who we use as ambassadors to carry the message forward. Would it be unfeminist to suggest a spokesmodel for the comprehensive sex-ed movement? What if she were a different kind of spokesmodel? A free-thinking, unencumbered-by-politics kind of a representative who, let's face it, can grab the attention of those conservative fellows who just cannot seem to let go of their overpowering obsession with controlling the ways in which we discuss, present and teach sex-ed in this country.
Broadsheet’s Kate Harding blogged about the brilliant segment on Sean Hannity's "Great American Panel" Monday night in which Aubrey O’Day, Playboy cover model and former P. Diddy girl-group almost-star, lays down the cold, hard truth about sex-ed, for the boys.
O’Day’s demeanor is just perfect, as far as I’m concerned, when she counters these older men almost squirming in their seats over the audacity of the report’s guidelines for age-appropriate sexual health information. When Hannity turns the topic to the old spin “They want to teach masturbation to five year olds!” hysteria, all hell breaks loose:
Hannity: “It’s actually happening to the five year-olds!”
But O’Day reels them in so fluidly:
O’Day: “You boys never wondered about what you were doing and wished to be educated about it earlier?...”
The hard-core conservative, anti-choice crowd is up in arms over the report, International Guidelines on Sexual Education which, according to UNESCO,
“are voluntary and non-mandatory in character, provide educators with guidance on how children and young people can best acquire the knowledge they need to protect themselves from coercion, abuse and exploitation, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.”
Minnesota Citizens Concerned For Life (MCCL) complains that the report suggests that children should be “instructed” on how to become abortion advocates and that 12- 15 year olds be informed about where and how to obtain a legal abortion. And the web site, FreeRepublic.com, is home to a host of comments on the report, many of which seem to believe that the mere discussion about sexual health and sexuality is “perverted.” Screams one commenter in utter terror over human sexuality,
“No 5 year old has the “right” to play with themselves! You teach them to keep their hands out of their pants not in them.”
UNESCO, however, explains the impetus for creating the “evidence- and rights-based” guidelines, “Reducing HIV infection in young people and improving their sexual and reproductive health require effective education programmes. However, such programmes are still not available in many parts of the world. UNESCO and its partners have now developed new guidelines to address this problem.”
Aubrey O’Day, my new vote for sex-ed spokesmodel (grammatical errors be damned) said it best, “How is education robbing a child of their innocence?”
