“When mummy and daddy love each other very much they have a baby”.
When children’s curiosity reaches a certain point, they are usually given the talk about “the birds and the bees”; typically, a variant of the “when mummy and daddy love each other very much they decide to have a baby” phrase. When they reach school age, within a few years, they normally receive some form of sex education -which is often the half-hearted “penis in vagina” sex talk which seems to almost always focus more on scaremongering the youngsters about early pregnancies and STIs than providing them with a safe, well-rounded knowledge of sex as a whole.
We need to inform our population on sexuality from a young age in order to abolish the stigma around it
Our children are overexposed to the classic heterosexual nuclear family and taught that sex is a taboo like topic leading many to become embarrassed about it. They are not educated on the fact that sexuality isn’t one size fits all model, that female pleasure is equally as important as a male’s or that families come in all different shapes and sizes.
According to the UK government the number of same-sex parent families has been increasing over the last few years, ‘with an increase of 53.2% from 152,000 in 2015 to 232,000 in 2018.’ This demonstrates one of the ways in which our society is becoming more inclusive, so it is vital that the school system dissolves its outdated set up and expands its curriculum in an equally inclusive manner in order for society to continue to progress.
Solely preaching about heterosexual relationships in this way to children can leave them with a huge lack of understanding towards relationships in their lives. Learning about the different variations of sexuality within sex education presents children with reassurance if they do not feel they adhere to the typical model of heterosexuality. This also increases their awareness and knowledge of different familial backgrounds which will help to prevent bullying which generally arises when children believe that one of their peers is "different".
Moreover, by promoting sexuality to our population from a young age, we can help deconstruct the taboo of sex and encourage a healthy awareness on the topic as a whole.