Industrialization of Sex Education (Part Two)

[Introduction] In the previous article, we have discussed the similarities and differences in the development of sex education in various countries, but in fact, in general, sex education in various countries is a top-down education system, and there is no complete system. industrial system.

In the context of a lack of scientific education and guidance, the adult industry lacks scientific understanding from industry practitioners to consumers. The industry is reluctant, and sex toys sometimes become a part of sex education.

Now that we have talked about the current situation and problems, in this article, let’s talk about the more realistic part—how to do it.

Should sex education be industrialized? Why industrialize?

What should the sex education industry include?

In the previous article: Talking About Global Sex Education (Part 1), we mentioned sex education as a science that explores the human body, emotions, and behavior. In addition to school sex education, there are several types of family sex education, community sex education, and social sex education. In many countries, sex education is a kind of public education for all, and many countries cannot carry out “comprehensive sex education” completely. In family education, parents are limited to imparting knowledge about sexual safety and sexual health, while relatively lacking in deeper sexual psychology and gender relations. Even in some western countries, there has been a regression in family sex education. Teenagers and children can only learn about relevant knowledge through the Internet, lacking guidance. However, social sex education cannot provide low-cost and systematic services due to insufficient sex education development. Therefore, it can be said that sex education around the world at this stage is still stuck in its most obvious orientation and goal—to establish basic hygiene knowledge and reduce miscarriage and disease transmission. But that is certainly not enough.

In GSP education, it is difficult for sex education to take into account the differences of each individual, and the content explanation is limited to the level of physical hygiene. The lack of psychological education is more likely to bring about the disadvantages of the lack of sex education—sex concept is not educated in time Distortion, sexual needs cannot be scientifically guided and lead to crimes, gender relations and marriage relationships have problems due to insufficient awareness of differences between men and women, and social problems such as increased divorce rates.

When inclusive education is insufficient, the conventional practice is to supplement it through personalized education, and on this basis, more and more diversified derivative services are produced, and then evolved into an industry. But in reality, sex education has not been industrialized. Why?

So, when considering this issue, we might as well think first, should sex education be industrialized? What should the sex education industry include?

From economics, we can understand that industry is a highly aggregated concept, a collection of corporate economic activities with certain similar attributes; it is a macroeconomic concept between macroeconomics and microeconomics, and as the level of social productivity continues to improve, the connotation and extension of the industry will continue to be enriched and expanded.

If sex education is to develop into an industry, there is no doubt that apart from school sex education, it should be a field that can realize industrialization. At the same time, from the perspective of the content of sex education, sex psychology education, sex behavior education and sexual health education can all be included in the scope of the sex education industry. That is to say, if sex education is to be developed into an industry, broadly speaking, it should be a composite industry involving mental health, behavioral education and training, health maintenance, and educational guidance, with rich and broad extensions.

For example:

Sexual psychology education: It can include a variety of content, including sexual psychological counseling, public education on sexual mental health, and professional training in sexual psychology.

Sexual behavior teaching and training: can include teaching and training related to scientific guidance, ability improvement, and disease recovery.

Health care: It can include the whole system from health care products to reproductive care.

Educational guidance: It can include professional education from professional practitioner training, family system knowledge training, etc.

Sex education is difficult to industrialize,

Where is the root cause?

From this point of view, does the industrialization of sex education seem familiar? You may exclaim, isn’t this part of the current big health industry?

Yes, in a broad sense, sex education should be part of the big health industry. But we must not forget that in a narrow sense, it is the connotation and core of the sex education industry—sex and education.

As the most primitive desires and behaviors of human beings, as mentioned above, with the development of culture, sex is private, and the improvement of social productivity makes sex start to be related to power. At the same time, in the development of group culture, sex is endowed with many connotations that do not belong to it, and is also influenced by the subconscious of the group. Therefore, the development of the sex education industry, on the one hand, must be based on a high degree of social awareness of sex. However, due to cultural oppression and fear of open privacy, sex education is difficult to develop rapidly. On the other hand, it comes from the powerful promotion of sex education by power institutions, but for the power class, sexual power is a major attribute of power, and it has been the same since ancient times. At the same time, education, as a part of the national system, is an important component of government functions. The organization and implementation of sex education must be subject to overall supervision and opinions from the educational circles, administration, and social groups. More deeply, the feasibility of educational industrialization in countries with different political systems needs to be carefully discussed and implemented whether it conforms to the system and national conditions. Therefore, in a narrow sense, the industrialization of sex education faces enormous resistance.

what should we do?

Are there any good sample markets out there?

Although in a narrow sense, the development of the sex education industry is full of difficulties, there are still many successful cases of promoting the development of the sex education industry with state power, among which Sweden is a role model, because Sweden not only systematically popularizes sex knowledge but also helps Teenagers have a deep understanding of “sex”.

Sweden’s sex education industry and the system began to develop in 1933. It has gone through several stages and has been explored for quite a long time.

From the initial 1938 abolition of the “prohibition of dissemination of contraceptive information” law, until 1942, the introduction of sex education in Swedish primary schools, and then in 1955, sex education was listed as a compulsory subject in Sweden. Sex education in Sweden has gone through the stage from the initial prohibition to “physiological sex education”, and in 1974, the Swedish Civil Society Sex Education Investigation Committee (USSU) put forward a ten-year investigation report that “knowledge of sex life is important to It should not be seen as problematic or harmful for any age group.” In this way, sex education in Sweden began to embark on a scientific, age-based, and systematic path.

Sweden’s youth sex education includes school education, individual counseling, and social activities. Among them, school education explains gradually in-depth topics from physiological knowledge, contraception, sex, marriage, family, and emotional relationships according to the age of the students. Other social organizations cooperate with school sex education to provide individual counseling services for young people. Sweden has a specialized youth clinic, employing social workers, nurses, gynecologists, psychologists, general practitioners, and other members of different knowledge backgrounds, mainly responsible for the health, lifestyle, and psychological problems of young people, to cooperate with school teachers and let students know There are other places to get help besides school. In addition to schools and youth clinics, school counselors can provide students with more detailed counseling or special psychological counseling. Meanwhile, Sweden has moved away from using the term sex education, using the term “co-living business” instead, suggesting a broader meaning. That is to say, it is not only committed to the harmonious co-living between men and women, but also includes the co-existence between men and women, and sexual relations are only a part of it.

In addition, in terms of the development of the sex education industry in a broad sense, the generalized development of sex education, that is, “sex education + psychology/consultation/health/training” has a broader market. Take American sexual counseling as an example. According to the statistics of the American Sexuality Education, Counseling and Therapy Association, in 2007, there were nearly 30,000 professional sex therapists registered by the association. At the same time, the psychology departments of various comprehensive universities in the United States have also opened professional courses in sexual counseling and treatment. In the United States, there are three main types of consulting industries related to sex education: the first type is traditional andrologists or gynecologists, who mainly check whether couples have sexual and physical diseases, such as sexual organ hypoplasia; the second type is psychological counselors, mainly through psychological counseling, to persuade couples to love and tolerate each other, so as not to intensify conflicts; the third category is real sex therapists, who directly face the “difficulties” of couples in their sexual life and put forward pertinent suggestions and treatment methods.

On April 26, 2007, among the ninth batch of 10 new occupations released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of China, marriage and family counselors, which are similar to American “sex therapists”, have also become official occupations in China and can be legally Help answer couples’ doubts about reproductive health, provide counseling on marriage and love, and try to ease the disharmonious sex life of couples.

In addition, with the implementation and promotion of China’s “Family Education Promotion Law”, more and more family education institutions in China have begun to provide systematic family education training and guidance.

Sex education is the future

It is a qualitative leap to develop sex education from scratch, from physical education to comprehensive sex education, and this qualitative leap cannot be achieved without the support of culture, economy, education, and law. Although the development of sex education in China is late, it is very fast. With the joint efforts of professional scholars and many institutions, theories similar to comprehensive sex education have begun to take root in China. Even though the rich new media technology, many adult brands in China are doing various sex education efforts. It can be said that the professional level of China’s sex education industry is almost at the forefront of the world, but the overall level is far behind other developed countries. power.

The well-known domestic non-profit sex education organization “You and My Partner” sex education knowledge platform uses the industrialization process of sex education to explain how the sex education industry should develop and innovate in China in order to achieve the above goals.