Degenerate and sinful: China needs some sex education – fast

Asia/China/14 de Agosto de 2016/Autor: Yuan Ren/Fuente: The Telegraph

RESUMEN: Según el profesor Fang Gang, un «sexólogo» y profesor de la Universidad de Silvicultura de Beijing, afirma que «La educación sexual en China, no importa en el campo o la ciudad, sigue siendo, en general, un espacio en blanco»; el profesor Fang  ha estado presionando para que la educación sexual sistemática sea incluida en el plan de estudios nacional. Se dice que las consideraciones prácticas, como la anticoncepción, simplemente no están dirigidas. Puede parecer paradójico entonces que China tiene una de las tasas más altas de uso de anticonceptivos en el mundo y se sitúa en el 84,6 por ciento en 2009 para las mujeres casadas según un informe de la ONU. Políticas de anticoncepción de China están dirigidas principalmente a  las mujeres casadas, tras la introducción de la política de un solo hijo desde 1979. Pero hoy en día, no es suficiente, dado el índice creciente de las relaciones sexuales antes del matrimonio. El número oficial de abortos cada año en China es de 13 millones de dólares. Esto es casi seguro que una subestimación, ya que deja fuera de la píldora abortos inducidos (comúnmente prescritos por los médicos para los embarazos en fase inicial) y los procedimientos realizados en las clínicas sin licencia. Anuncios para «abortos sin dolor» se encuentran a menudo en los campus universitarios; incluso algunas clínicas han sido conocidos por ofrecer «descuentos» para las terminaciones. «Muy pocos en el mundo de la educación, incluidas las escuelas y los maestros, apoyan el lado práctico de la educación sexual», dice el profesor Fang. Una de las principales preocupaciones, de los padres y educadores, es que demasiado conocimiento demasiado pronto va a promover un comportamiento sexual prematura.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was gob smacked when I told her you could get a sexually transmitted infection (STI) through oral sex. “What? No way!” she exclaimed. At the time, she was single, in her mid-twenties and worked at the top of the fashion industry.

Even though she was sexually liberal and had a wealth of expat friends, she remained a product of the Chinese education system in an era where sex education simply didn’t exist.

According to Professor Fang Gang, a ‘sexologist’ and associate professor at Beijing Forestry University, little has changed in the past few decades.

“Sex education everywhere in China, no matter in the countryside or city, remains, on the whole, a blank”, says Prof Fang, who has been pushing for systematic sex education to be written into the national curriculum.

He says that practical considerations, like contraception, are just not addressed.

It may seem paradoxical then that China has one of the highest rates of contraceptive use in the world, standing at 84.6 per cent in 2009 for married women or those «in unions”, according to a UN report. China’s contraceptive policies are primarily targeted at married women, following the introduction of the one-child policy in 1979.

But today, targeting married women is simply not enough, given the soaring rate of premarital sex.

Recently, the nation’s outdated attitudes towards premarital sex were exposed when the contents of a book called “Scientific Sex Education”, used in parts of south China, was posted online by a teacher.

The book was first published in 2004, but reports suggest it is still used in schools. It refers to «the sin of sex» and reads like something from an abstinence sermon. The text says that boys will see girls who “sacrifice their body” with premarital sex as “low”.

Having sex before marriage, it continues, will also see a woman “degenerate” towards immorality: «if she doesn’t quickly get married, she will turn from an innocent person to an impulsive one who easily yields to lustful boys.”

In 2006, just 35 percent of the unmarried Chinese population had premarital sex. Six years later, in 2012, that figure had doubled to 71 per cent. Now, four years, it’s undoubtedly even higher.

The official number of abortions each year in China is 13 million. This is almost certainly an underestimate, since it leaves out pill-induced abortions (commonly prescribed by doctors for early stage pregnancies) and procedures undertaken in unlicensed clinics.

Statics from The National Institute of Population and Family Planning in 2013 showed that more than half of all abortions were performed on women aged 25 and under.

Adverts for «painless abortions» are often found on university campuses; some clinics have even been known to offer «discounts» for terminations. Abortion as a concept doesn’t conjure the same horror as it often does in the West: failure to fully understand contraceptive practices, together with the normalisation of abortion due to decades of the one-child policy has created a culture of pragmatism towards the procedure.

Sterilisation and IUDs are the main forms of contraception among married women; reports suggest that less than five per cent of Chinese women take oral contraceptives, and less than 10 per cent use condoms.

China Youth Daily reported last year that more than 20 per cent of sexually active adolescents have become pregnant, with more than 90 percent having an abortion as a result.

From those who design the curriculum to those who teach it, conservative mindsets remain the biggest barrier to any form of standardised sex education in China.

“Very few in the educational world, including schools and teachers, support the practical side of sex education”, says Prof Fang. One of the primary concerns, from parents and educators, is that too much knowledge too early will promote premature sexual behaviour.

Prof Fang says there is simply «too much protest» holding back progress. Last year, he ran a series of training seminars in Shandong province for teachers using his own textbook that addresses masturbation and female empowerment. It met with so many objections from parents that the local authorities called a stop to the programme.

Premarital sex is no longer a social taboo in China, even if sex education for adolescents is. A report conducted by one of the nation’s top establishments, Renmin University, showed that even a decade ago, more than half of those surveyed thought that sex before marriage was acceptable.

From my own experience, sex among consenting adults in relationships is seen as healthy.

But without formal sex education, young people are forced to rely on online advice, as well as trial and error. For my generation, born in the 1980s, any mention of sex was anatomy-based, or in biology class.

The younger generation isn’t faring much better: a 22-year-old graduate from Beijing Normal University told me that a “small booklet” about bodily changes during puberty was the closest to a sex education he ever got. Intercourse is never made explicit in class.

Twenty-five-year-old Carmen Zhang says she only learnt about contraception because her psychology degree offered the option at university. The problem, she says, lies with schoolteachers and parents: “it’s their own thinking that is not open enough to change».

But their conservative attitudes are failing the sexual health of an entire generation. It’s time that adults in charge faced the reality in the hike in HIV transmission among youths and got over their shallow embarrassment – for the sake of their children.

Fuente: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/degenerate-and-sinful-china-needs-some-sex-education—fast/