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Dude, our health curriculum is sooo gay

Submitted by Julia on October 25, 2007 - 8:16pm.
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Recently, in health class, we watched the film, "What if I'm Gay?" Needless to say, I was thinking that there must be a better video than this. Later, when completing the worksheet that accompanies the video, they asked how it feels for students questioning their sexuality to be called dykes, fairies, or queers.

My first thought was: "They think those names are so gay!"

While this material had good intentions, it failed in its delivery to teens. We don't use the words dyke, or fairy. In fact, the only real place I've heard those words would be the media trying to portray teenagers. Today, the term "gay" in itself is an insult, and far more prevalent than stupid words like "fairy." In fact, all of our health videos are made in the 70's and 80's, and I recently found out why.

Our health curriculum (which includes topics like sex ed, suicide, puberty, abuse, etc.) hasn't changed since 1988. It hasn't changed since before I was born!

This is incredibly wrong to me. Our video on acquaintance rape didn't mention drugs like Rohypnol, because they hadn't been used yet. Our video on contraception doesn't mention EC, because it hadn't been invented yet. Our video on STDs doesn't mention cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine, because it hadn't been invented yet.

The most egregious error I've noticed is the fact that these videos constantly talk about HIV/AIDS as if it's an automatic death sentence- maybe that's because back in 1988, it was! It's not as if good, informational videos haven't been made since. In fact, I recently saw a new Lifetime movie called "Girl, Positive" about a teen contracting HIV that I thought was very informative and really well done- and it doesn't give the impression that HIV/AIDS is like bubonic plague.

That the schools are trying to give us information and tools to help us in the real world is nice, but the tools are 20 years old. They leave us defenseless.

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Just a quickie?

Submitted by Heather on October 26, 2007 - 1:12am.

"While this material had good intentions, it failed in its delivery to teens. We don't use the words dyke, or fairy. In fact, the only real place I've heard those words would be the media trying to portray teenagers. Today, the term "gay" in itself is an insult, and far more prevalent than stupid words like "fairy."

Plenty of young lesbians DO still self-identify as dykes: I hear it at Scarleteen all the time, as well as in queer youth communities. Plenty of young gay men also self-ID as gay (even though now, as it always has been, it is also used as insult by others), and to boot, be cautious calling "fairy" stupid -- the gay men in the gay fairy communities don't think it's stupid!:)

And if the question was about how it feels to be called those things, all three ARE still very much used as insults (though "fairy" is a bit more out of vogue than the other two, and if they'd asked about being called fags, it'd have been more on-point).

That said, how about writing a letter to your school about your aging curriculum that's constructive and lets them in on how much you're in need of an update? You might want to include SIECUS' curriculum guidelines printed out with it.

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Thanks!

Submitted by Julia on October 26, 2007 - 1:52am.

I definitely know that the GLBT community has tried to turn words like "dyke" and "queer" around, and so I meant using such words in an insulting way, not as an identification. The far most prevalent homophobic insults that I hear are "gay" (used in a derogatory manner) and "fag." Actually, come to think about it, this ties in with how we painted an area of the school for our Gay-Straight Alliance during Ally Week, under administrative approval and teacher supervision. The next day, it was painted over.

I have been thinking about writing a letter to the county, but it would have to be a huge overhaul of the system. But it needs to be changed, considering that it's not just that these videos aren't culturally relevant anymore, it's that they aren't even factual anymore.

Love and hugs,
Julia

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There are other resources

Submitted by Brooke on October 26, 2007 - 7:25pm.

There are other resources out there. My sex ed class wasn't much better but some of the information was a little bit more up to date. Our classes relied more on speakers from organizations like ARC and Planned Parenthood to tell us up to date information.

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When I was in Middle School,

Submitted by Natalya AF on November 2, 2007 - 8:20am.

When I was in Middle School, our health curriculum didn't even mention being gay or anything... I didn't really know what it was until I was around 11 or 12, but just look at me now lol...

Anyway, yeah, we did have the same ancient videos as well... The clothing alone could let you know that they were filmed in the 70's.

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