By Shreya Tomar
This past Sexceptional Weekend, I took a cross-cultural sexual health tour around the world with SHA. From learning about comprehensive sex education to hearing about ancient Roman contraception methods, I was mesmerized by the knowledge and curiosity all the speakers, educators, and sex-nerds (my kinda people) came with to this event!
Sex and Culture: CLITORAL EDUCATION
The first day was started off by Anna Jansen, a sex educator and a sexual development expert. She provided a holistic presentation on the Dutch sex education program within the school systems. She also highlighted the significance of closing the orgasm gap in heterosexual relationships and understanding women’s pleasure as part of the human experience. Anna further went on to emphasize how sex education in the Netherlands involves modules ranging from abstinence to pleasure with sex positivity as the key concept.
The idea of parent involvement in learning about sexual development was also brought up to further highlight the collaborative process of teaching sex education in schools. Being available for parents to answer any questions is an important part of the Dutch educational development. However, the most surprising fact I learned was that it was only recently in 2020 that the word clitoris was added to the biology books. This reflected how reluctant the society is regardless of culture even today to call attention to the clitoris– a part of our typical anatomy. As someone who has a clitoris, this makes me furious every single time! What’s so dangerous about an organ that isn’t even outwardly visible?
THE LARGE IMPACT OF SMALL COMMUNITY SUPPORT ON SEX EDUCATION AWARENESS
After an educational ride through the Netherlands, we landed in Lebanon with Dr. Sarine EL Dabouk. She explained the various ways in which Lebanon faces sexual and reproductive health challenges including early marriage rates in specific regions, lack of use and awareness of contraception, and stigma around sexual health. There was an attempt in 1998 to integrate sex education in school curricula but the strong religious and social groups opposed its inclusion in schools. The course was left to be focused only on biological understanding of reproduction. Dr. Dabouk inspiringly further mentioned ways in which the sex educators in Lebanon are overcoming resistance and building support. Twisting the titles and labelling the terms in more culture and religious ways has helped move the education forward and gain more acceptance. At the end of the day, what matters is increasing access to accurate sexual health information using the creative tools we’ve got.
Moving on from Lebanon to Ghana and India, we heard from Dr. Joshua Amo Adjei, a research scientist and Dr. Rajesh Mehta MD respectively. They both discussed the challenges and opportunities in integrating comprehensive sexuality education in their countries. Dr. Mehta explained how Indian culture went from celebrating its erotic history as seen in 12th century temples to taking a 360 turn and declaring sex as a taboo and immoral subject. This shift in ideology can be understood better if we look at how colonization oppressed the ways sexuality was displayed in the Indian arts, literature and culture. Moreover, given the large youth population in India, it’s also concerning how much of the sex education is learned through the use of media.
Nevertheless, there are small yet significant success stories like one of Udaan–an NGO in India that is providing access to sex education. It’s important to recognize the larger impacts of smaller communities that are advocating for sex positive and comprehensive educational programs for adolescents. Dr. Joshua also explained how sexuality education has been implemented with different names including civics education, school health education and HIV alert. Similar to other places, the pushback from major political and religious groups challenges a straightforward implementation. Out of school systems, there are smaller organizations inspiringly working towards providing a comprehensive sexuality education through different means including channels on local radio stations.
Sex and Culture: INDIGENOUS CONCEPTS OF SEXUALITY AND THE FUTURE OF SEX
After lunch, we learned from James Pfaus about the indigenous history of contraception, pleasure and gender identity. From the Bedouins using polished stones to control female camels from getting pregnant around 7000 years ago to Romans using ring pessary as female contraception, the anatomical understandings of reproductive organs dates back to ancient periods. Moreover, during the 12th century CE the Inca women had a workable knowledge of their vulvas and pleasure. This is evident in their fertility statues with long penises and were presumably used as sex toys for women to sit and stimulate all different parts of their vulvas including the clit, the CUV complex and the A-spot. Isn’t it fascinating to learn that centuries ago, Inca women had more knowledge about vulva pleasure than most women today? This highlights how healthy cultural depictions of sex result in better care and pleasure for all people. After the Inca empire was colonized by the Spanish, sexual moralities became more conservative and as we know today, normalizing sex toys is still a challenge given that female sexuality is viewed as something dangerous and unnatural.
Furthermore, James Pfaus shared the diverse gender narratives of the American First Nations tribes. Specifically, the Cree tribe differentiated identities with at least 6 genders and other indigenous groups considered the third gender to be an inculcation of both female and male characteristics called Two-Spirited. This was seen as something positive, healthy and special which is so far away from the violence the gender queer community faces around the globe today. Therefore, it’s important to learn the historical accounts of different cultures to understand the holistic perspective of pleasure and gender diversity and create more awareness of how the modern world is in reality running far behind than we are traditionally made to think.
Talking about the modern world, Bryony Cole presented the ways in which the increased use of AI and technology are shaping the world of sex. Technology such as virtual reality, apps, robotics and AI are progressively being used in sex education, health and assault reporting. When we think about AI and sexuality, usually the mainstream ideas of sex robots and sex dolls enter our brains. Nevertheless, the expansion of AI in our workplaces can be of great help to support the sexuality field including in therapeutic note-taking or consent education. Bryony gave the example of how a woman used her social media platform to start an online petition website to ask for consent courses in schools in Australia. Another example was the successfully emerging Elephant Ed–a youth-led inclusive and interactive sex education program in Australia.
DIVERSE SEXUAL ATTITUDES
On the second day, we got to hear more diverse narratives around sexuality and relationships of Iceland, Spain and Ireland. Jamie Oliver mentioned how traditional gender roles are widely present in relationships, even though the Catalan and Spanish men are viewed as more progressive. Power dynamics between genders have an enormous impact on the success of long term relationships and adheres to the values of cultural preservation. Another interesting thing that Jamie talked about was the current climate of sex work in Spain. Even though we consider Spain to be one of the most sex positive countries in the EU, it is limited in regulating sex work as 80% of the workers are victims of trafficking. However, I want to make clear that sex trafficking and sex work are often used synonymously but hold completely different definitions. Sex work involves age-appropriate, consensual sale of sex while sex trafficking is a violation of human rights and is non-consensual through the means of force and abduction. It’s crucial to understand the difference as we want to continue advocating for the rights of sex workers and support the abolishing of sex trafficking.
Moving ahead, we worked our way through the sex culture of Iceland and Ireland. Firstly, Sigga Dögg reflected on how there is a lot that goes on in determining how sex-postive Iceland is–it’s not all glitter and gold as televised to the world. For instance, contraception is available but in the small rural towns there are limited pharmacies which are also closed on the weekends. This does negatively impact access for all. Secondly, Lee Tracey shared Irish mythologies vs. realities of the norms of sex. It was captivating to learn about the spiritual perspective of sexual wellness and female sexuality as it added to the diverse range of normal sexual behavior dating back to the 5th century. On another note, Tracey highlighted the control of the church and religion on sexuality which later prompted several feminist and queer movements. The presence of Magdalene laundries are one of the most visibly horrifying examples of how women who didn’t adhere to the catholic rules of gender roles were imprisoned in the name of being an immoral part of the society. This goes back to the idea that female sexuality is dangerous and must be kept under surveillance by religion and patriarchy.
WHY DO WE NEED TO HAVE A CROSS-CULTURAL LENS TO UNDERSTAND SEXUALITY?
Lastly, Dr. Justin Lenhmiller signified the value of using different biological, psychological and cultural lenses to grasp the manifold expressions of sexuality. Most research we view around sexual health is manufactured using American theories and methods and lacks representative data. This limitation should be taken into consideration to challenge ourselves when thinking about what is normative sexual behavior. More so, as therapeutic professionals, it is vital to understand the impact of cultural values around sex on the clinical presentations of sexual dysfunctions and symptoms. For instance, in Japan menopause is considered a typical part of aging and human development whereas in America, it is seen as a “condition” that needs to be treated. Additionally, he presented research on fantasies and desires which also lacks being culturally diverse. Cultural values can heavily influence the content of fantasies and desires. Therefore, studying how sexuality is expressed, valued and holds space in a culture is detrimental in research, clinical and educational work.
If you want to join more of such culturally diverse professional and academic conversations, check out the SHA Certification Quiz to see what fits your interests! Check out more SHA events and for any questions about the certification programs reach out to shacertifications@gmail.com.