Sex education experts take aim at Hong Kong authorities over ‘unprofessional’ teaching materials
- Education Bureau slammed as out of touch after advising secondary school students to go and play badminton instead when sexual desires arise
Sex education experts have accused Hong Kong authorities of being “very unprofessional” and reinforcing a victim-blaming bias after teaching materials advised secondary school pupils to control their impulses, refuse premarital sex and “avoid visual stimulation from sexy clothing”.
The sharp criticism on Saturday came a day after the Education Bureau defended suggestions released last month in teaching materials for the citizenship, economics and society subject for Form One to Three pupils, stressing the need to enable students to “make responsible decisions”.
The materials said students should define their boundaries and control their sexual impulses, and that if a boy and girl had intimate physical contact that induced desire, they should either “leave the scene immediately” or go to play badminton together.
The 70-page document said those unable to cope with issues “such as unwed marital pregnancy, legal consequences and emotional distress” should “firmly refuse” to have premarital sex.
The Reverend Peter Koon Ho-ming, a lawmaker and a former Curriculum Development Council member, saw merits for the authorities to “draw a line” on premarital sex and uphold a more conservative stance in face of the rebellious teenagers.
“If you talk about this in a university course, of course, they will think you are a fool and it won’t work. But if we talk to children of 12 to 14 years old who are in the middle of puberty, you would be better off setting a more stringent [standard],” he said.
But Koon also found some examples included in the document to be “really quite strange”.
In one scenario, a teen couple were portrayed celebrating one month of dating with a film night, with the boy hoping to kiss his girlfriend after having some wine and feeling “hot and excited”.
Discussing the consequences of the girl accepting the advance, the document suggested that “sexual behaviour may occur when sexual impulses are aroused through touch stimulation” and the girl “may be at risk of pregnancy out of wedlock”.
The recommended “avoid and divert” response was to “go for a walk in the park” and “enjoy the sight of flowers and trees”.
Doris Chong Tsz-Wai, executive director of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, said discussions in the materials omitted the important thought process of enabling young people to identify their own will and clearly express consent.
“Regarding sex education, we actually want to show them whether they know what their needs are and what choices they have,” she said.
“[Document drafters] seem to be very worried that once young people have sexual urges, they will go to have sex, have babies, and fall into a very bumpy and catastrophic situation. But is this the only route out there?”
In a mock exercise in the materials, pupils acting as “love experts” are also advised to tell a 15-year-old teen couple to “dress appropriately to present a healthy image and to avoid visual stimulation from sexy clothing”.
Chong was concerned that the inclusion of such messages would feed into the victim-blaming bias often seen in the city.
Professor Diana Kwok Kan, a sex therapist and a scholar specialising in gender studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, found 27 per cent of the materials were related to Family Planning Association pamphlets with rare reference to proper and recent academic studies.
Certain publications cited in the document were published more than 30 years ago, she noted, while one theory was run in the document without citing its source and “no attention paid to its theoretical limitations pointed out by many scholars”.
“Sex education research has begun to understand that gender can be non-binary, and the new guidelines have failed to properly face the reality of sex and gender in young people. It is very unprofessional and confusing that they did not conduct an academic literature review for an official textbook,” she said.
“The 1997 sex education guidelines were much more superior in concept, but now they are regressing. Sex has evolved from ‘the foundation of a good life’ to an obsession to ‘control’.”
The bureau dismissed criticism of being “out of touch” in an earlier statement.
“Some comments said that sex education in Hong Kong had failed to keep up with the development of modern society. The bureau must point out that this view is incorrect,” it said on its website on Friday.
“The concept of sex education in the Hong Kong school curriculum is to cultivate students to become people with comprehensive values and enable them to make informed and responsible decisions about sexual issues in the future when their thoughts and conditions are mature.”
It said it needed to guide schools to improve students’ awareness of self-protection as well as cultivate their attitudes of self-discipline and abiding by the law.
“Although society holds different opinions on premarital sex, we should provide adequate protection to underage students and remind them that Hong Kong laws impose severe penalties on sex-related offences,” it said.
