Has Zoella shown the UK education system to be unsexy to a fault?

When AQA decided to drop their connections to Zoella through a GCSE media course after her website published a ranking of female sex toys, the internet blew up with its opinions. And our contributors were no different, keen to share their own views on the topic of female masturbation and sexual education provided by schools.

“Sex-education in the United Kingdom ignores female pleasure, at a detriment to the students”

The social impact

Some were keen to point out the implications this action had on the UK education system.

“Zoe Sugg may not have called into question the UK’s sex education programme directly or deliberately, but she did do it. She wrote on her Instagram, ‘I wish I had a website like Zoella when I was growing up.’ While sites such as these can be useful to teach teenagers about sex and relationships, it says something about our schools that this is the only place teenagers have to turn to.” (Tweet to @mavshiels)

“Dropping Zoe Sugg and her website from the curriculum due to a post about sex toys reflects a key issue in our education system: sex-education in the United Kingdom ignores female pleasure, at a detriment to the students. The new compulsory SRE (Sex and Relationships Education) curriculum, which became effective in September 2020, bears no mention of the words ‘pleasure’, ‘female pleasure’ or ‘masturbation,’ despite the fact that inclusive sex-positive education has been proven to be more effective. Sex-positivity is an approach to sex education that takes ‘an understanding of sexuality as a natural and healthy aspect of human life’ in order to properly ‘facilitate sexual health’, in direct opposition to the pervasive culture that tries to muffle the subject of sex and sexuality. (Tweet to @niaemt)

Elective educational programs

Maibh also spoke about the disparity in teaching depending on your educational environment. 

“I can’t speak for everyone but my school’s sex education extended little beyond periods and pregnancy for girls, and condoms as contraceptives for boys. Granted I grew up in a Catholic school, so talking about sex beyond a scientific standpoint was as likely as teenagers abstaining – neither was ever going to happen.”

“Important issues were often treated as taboo topics in my school. Things like consent, masturbation, foreplay, and same-sex sex typically don’t feature in most schools’ sex education, and they definitely didn’t in mine. God forbid (or in this case, Catholic school forbid) sex should be seen as anything other than a baby-making exercise.”

“Rather than deterring me from having sex, it stopped me from talking about it.”

“Steering clear of such topics can have consequences. Teaching about consent can reduce instances of sexual assault, talking about masturbation and foreplay can remove the stigma around sexual pleasure, especially for females, and teaching on same-sex relations can prevent the spread of STIs.” (Tweet to @mavshiels)

Despite Maibh’s experience in a Catholic school, it doesn’t seem to be an anomaly. It is, unfortunately, the case that AQA’s actions simply play into an age-old practice rooted in gender inequality which involves shaming women when it comes to discussing sex. Nia discusses a particular time when this was the case.

“Dani, a slow-fashion and OCD-awareness advocate, recalls being made to feel intense shame during sex education classes. ‘During a sex education lesson, our teacher handed out flashcards with offensive names like “slag” and “village bike” written on them. They told us that if we had sex we would be called these names. Rather than deterring me from having sex, it stopped me from talking about it. And as a result, I felt too ashamed to even seek help for the sexual abuse I was experiencing.’ Perhaps if online publications like Zoella, where women speak freely about their sexuality, were promoted in schools, girls would feel less shame and more empowerment.” (Tweet to @niaemt)

The male and female sexual divide

“It is an outdated perspective that needs change.”

Lauren further discusses this female stigma that pervades not just education, but society as a whole.

“To this day, the topic of female sexual pleasure is a taboo subject while their male counterparts have a significantly reduced stigma when discussing the topic. Despite masturbation and sexual pleasure being healthy, normal acts, they are tied up with masculine associations, so woman find it uncomfortable to talk about. This leads to women using informal slang in conversation surrounding sexual pleasure, to bring less attention to something that deserves to be openly spoken about. That is why the Zoella website is so beneficial for women across the world.”

“The world needs to talk about female sexual pleasure – men are not the only ones to experience it, despite what society leads us to believe. If we do not, sexual desire, pleasure, and masturbation will remain associated with masculinity, implying that women do not have their own sexual experiences and only engage in sexual acts for the male’s satisfaction. It is an outdated perspective that needs change.”  (Tweet to @laurmtaylor)

But could a sex-positive program create meaningful change? 

Nia says yes.

“ A sex-positive approach to SRE is taken have considerably less teen pregnancy than those without.”

“A sex-positive approach to SRE is proven to have many positive effects, one major factor being the reduction of unwanted teenage pregnancy. The WHO reported that 3.9 million unsafe abortions took place on girls age 15-19 years, ‘contributing to maternal mortality, morbidity, and lasting health problems’ and teenage parents are more likely ‘poor health, education, social, and economic outcomes’, the CDC found. Studies highlight that countries, such as the Netherlands, where a sex-positive approach to SRE is taken have considerably less teen pregnancy than those without. Reports reveal that the UK has the highest rate of teen births in Western Europe, five times higher than in the Netherlands.”

“All evidence points to favouring a sex-positive approach to SRE so it is about time the UK made the switch. Not only will it help reduce the number of teenage pregnancies which are proven to have negative repercussions for the mother and the child, but it will also prevent girls from feeling ashamed of their bodies and their sexuality. Surely, it would be a step in the right direction.” (Tweet to @niaemt)

It appears that education, specifically in the UK, has a long way to go

Thankfully, sites such as Zoe’s can help but the responsibility should fall to schools to educate their students properly. And it’s a responsibility that doesn’t disappear if the school is religious. No matter how much you pray, teenagers will have sex, and they should be having it safely and without stigma.

“Sex education needs to go beyond periods and pregnancy and condoms and contraceptives. It needs to go beyond baby-making. Beyond the basics and the bare minimum. Sex education in schools needs to go beyond sex.” (Tweet to @mavshiels).

Only now in the media we have begun to see female sexuality openly and accurately portrayed – the Netflix show Sex Education and the Zoella website are perfect examples.

“The openness depicted in these is exactly how society should approach the topic – it should be talked about, regardless of what an old-fashioned exam board thinks.” (Tweet to @laurmtaylor)

Lauren Taylor, Nia Thomas and Maihb Shiels

Featured image courtesy of Deon Black on Unplash. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.