Friday, April 30, 2010

Porn in the Classroom








By now, we as human sexuality students are all acquainted with SARs: Sexual Attitude Reassessments: the use of "emotionally evocative and sexually explicit films and presentations" designed to give the viewer an "opportunity to explore (their) own attitudes, values and beliefs about sexual behavior in a safe, comfortable and nonjudgmental environment." These activities are designed specifically for those of us who work with sexuality issues in the workplace.

While we might each have differing reactions to the SARs trainings we've experienced in the program, the goals of these exercises certainly seems to be positive and productive. As Planned Parenthood defines a SARs activity, it is designed to help educators and clinicians:

- See and study (their) own reactions. Learn to recognize the way (they) respond to sexual behaviors, images, thoughts, and feelings, and see how other people develop sexual attitudes and values.
- Understand sexual diversity. See the complexity of human sexuality and examine the diversity of human sexual expression and experience.
- Learn how to communicate about sexuality. Examine issues involved in effective communication, particularly in the context of understanding sexual behavior and expression.
- Learn to view sexuality more objectively. Understand the impact sexual attitudes have on personal relationships and on providing educational, health and social services.


All positive stuff, right? But we are talking about sexuality educators who are a willing audience for sexuality education, whether it be difficult/uncomfortable/troubling or not. The underlying agenda (since in teaching, there is always an agenda to be taught, even if it's a "worthy" one) is to detail the multiplicities of sexuality in order to create more capable educators. We are not talking about college students taking an elective or high school students grappling with body issues.

So let's talk about taking explicit content into a classroom NOT filled with sexuality educators! And more specifically, let's talk about porn! Some facts on the widespread nature of pornography (in case you didn't already know):

- Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography.
- Every second - 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography.
- Every second - 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines.
- Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.

And college professors, in particular, have taken note of the social impact that porn has has in recent years. According to the blog "Breaking Free: A Journey Towards Purity in a Sex-Saturated Internet," a number of colleges and universities now offer courses that involve either the viewing or discussion of pornography, including UCLA, UC Berkley, Vanderbilt, MIT, and NYU. Some academics, such as Michael Leahy, the author of Porn Nation, think this has changed the landscape of teaching college students in a profound way:

“Porn is now the norm in our culture, and no one understands that better than today’s college students. From the rapid rise of cyber porn addiction among male and female college students to its role in influencing the high incidence of rapes and prevalence of eating disorders among college co-eds, the growing influence of porn in the midst of an already sexually charged campus culture is taking a very real toll on students’ lives.”

That being said, some professors have responded by using porn against porn: showing pornography content in order to help students "reveal their understanding of pornography." Not unlike our SARs activities.

The viewing of pornographic content, on its own, has its own agenda as a conduit for sexual arousal and stimulus. It possesses the dual agenda: that of the person viewing it as well as that of the person(s) who produced it. Considering perhapshow much pornography is viewed in the United States, utilizing pornography as a tool to demonstrate societal (ab)normativities and counteract some of (potential) effects porn has had on the modern life is one way that sexuality educators can apply their own training to the education of others.

Using porn in the classroom, though? Seems like a racy thing to do, but is it really realistic? After all, just using text with sexual content in it can lead to reactions like this one. For that reason, here are some suggestions for starting out:

1. START SMALL. If you can't get approval to show pornographic content, then find as much written material that expresses the ideas and concepts you want to cover. Push for the concepts instead of the videos; ask yourself if you really need to show something in order to teach the experience of it.
2. RATIONALE, RATIONALE, RATIONALE. The foundation of our HSED learning. What is the point of this class? What change do you want to affect?
3. AFTERCARE. Many journalists and researchers point to the notion that porn does indeed have a profound effect on youth's psychological stasis, so proceed with caution and care. There is a difference between creating a radical shift in standpoint and causing a breakdown.

And above all, get APPROVAL from the school board! Teaching with porn might be a tricky process, but using popular culture to teach about popular culture may indeed be a creative and rewarding way to affect change in student's lives.

4 comments:

  1. Knowing there is a multi-million dollar industry which impacts a large group of viewers to emulate porn practices, I believe there is also a duty to education the porn industry. There is fear that implementing condom usage in the porn industry will cause sales to drop, shifting the blame to almost everyone within the porn industry (For example, http://www.thebody.com/content/art/art56330.html). As educators, we need to take on these issues and find ways that keep both porn actors and consumers safe from harm. I'm sure we have plenty of creative minds that can find a way to make condoms enticing and inviting to consumers. Individuals are remarkably adaptable, it's just necessary to give them an opportunity to adapt to much needed changing porn practices.

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  2. This interesting link came my way today as well: http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20100502/NEWS06/5020402

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  3. Great Blog! I can see where I would love to use porn as an educational tool, specifically for health behavior purposes. Like Alicia commented, most of the porn we see (or our students watch) do not take (or at least we don't see them take) mainy safety precautions that we often educate on. Show the video, and then ask the students what we didn't see happen that from a health beheavior model should happen. Where's the discussion about STIs? Contraception? What does this mean? I think it would be an effective tool. The tricky part is getting administration to allow you to use it. And like you said, RATIONALE, RATIONALE, RATIONALE!!

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  4. I remember in my undergrad sexual health class we watched a sexually explicit video of older adult sexuality. This class sticks in my mind because it was the one class that everyone showed up to and then some. There were people in that day that I never saw any other time probably because they weren't in the class normally. I bring this up because it shows that there is is an extreme interest in this topic.

    There is a great video from Media Education Foundation that I have showed in class before called... THE PRICE OF PLEASURE:
    Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships. Once again MEF is awesome because they provide study guides with ideas for conversations and activities that go along with the video.

    Check it out here... you can preview the entire film.
    http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=235

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