Family Contexts of Informal Sex Education: Young Men's Perceptions of First Sexual Images

Abstract

Guided by a feminist perspective, the authors examined young men's recollection of their reactions to and the familial and social contexts in which they realized that they were seeing an explicit sexual image for the first time. The sample consisted of 199 young men enrolled in a human sexuality class who responded to questions regarding the what, when, where, with whom, and how they felt about and reacted to seeing a sexualized image. On average, participants were in elementary school and without adult supervision when they found their first image in a form of media that was readily available in the home. Implications for family life education for both parents and children include direct and knowledgeable communication about sexuality to counter the often sensationalizing, objectifying, and entitled culture in which boys are informally initiated into adult sexuality.

Use of Sexually Explicit Materials as Sex Education Tools to Reduce the Number of Recurrences of Urinary Tract Infection in Sexually Active Women

“…Not much of informal sex education exists within the family as well. 18 Hence, the internet is being used by the men and women to acquire knowledge about the issues related to sexual desire, romance, foreplay, sexual intercourse, etc. 19, 20 Most of the unhealthy sexual behavior as well as unhealthy sexual practices are attributable to the audiovisual media available on the internet.…”

A Comparison of the Process and Content of Sexual Communications Among African American Adolescent Children Living in Parent and Grandparent Headed Families

“…Since more than one-third of adolescents have sex by the ninth grade, sexuality communications between parents and adolescents should occur before the age of 13. 11 , 12 …”

Innovation and Integration of Sexuality in Family Life Education

“…In the United States, sexuality education has emerged to become dramatically out of alignment with the principles informed by life course, socioecological, systems, and intersectionality theories. With few exceptions (see Allen & Lavender‐Scott, 2015; Allen et al, 2008; Baber & Murray, 2004, for some exceptions) sexuality education has narrowly focused on adolescence, schools, and individuals' risky sexual behavior. Further, sexuality education has largely ignored intersectional experiences and expression of sexuality and failed to keep pace with the changing realities of contemporary sexuality, most recently with respect to technology and media.…”

“…Although pornography is a sensationalized and typically inaccurate socializing force (Séguin et al, 2018), and people are now exposed to it at earlier ages than in the past due to the Internet (Allen & Lavender‐Stott, 2015), there is relatively little agreement about how best to communicate with children about pornography as a means of mitigating any potential negative effects of early exposure (Dawson et al, 2019). Nonetheless, given the amount of sexual content and ease of access to this content via the Internet, sexuality education must address pornography for people at all ages.…”