Feminist Sex and Relationship Education
On 24 September Feminist Fightback held a launch meeting for our Sex and Relationship Education packs. After a great discussion about the challenges to and opportunities for a feminist approach to SRE we are going to meet again to discuss taking some of the ideas we had forward.
This meeting will be on Thursday 8 November 7-9pm, in the cafe on the top floor of the Whitechapel Ideas Store (very close to Whitechapel tube/Overground station). All genders are welcome to take part. Please get in touch if you’re interested in joining in and/ or having a look at the feminist Sex and Relationship Education resources we have produced.
What is the Feminist Fightback SRE project?
Following discussions about our own experience of sex and relationship education (SRE), Feminist Fightback set about thinking about what we wished we had been taught, told, made to think about and allowed to ask. Acknowledging the pitfalls and inadequacies of our own experiences both in school and in our adult lives, we asked ourselves what is feminist sex and relationship education?
As many of us work in education and health, and with our experience as a group in contributing to workshops in and out of schools, we felt able to put together some resources for use in schools and youth groups. We created two resource packs: the primary pack is a looser collection of ideas for discussion, activities and everyday practice, while the secondary pack is a more structured scheme of work.
These materials aim to offer educators tools and exercises for teaching about sex and relationships in an honest and positive way. They deal with relationships from an emotional perspective as well as a physical one, acknowledge diversity and individuality and enable open discussion of gender and sexuality. They help students to consider respect and consent in a way that is relevant to their own experiences,
They provide activities and resources for teaching about the language, social myths and media messages surrounding sexuality, as well as for confronting the prejudice surrounding female sexuality and non-heterosexual relationships. They aim to give teachers practical tools to add to their SRE teaching, to help address what we felt was missing from our own experiences of learning and teaching SRE.
Or come and participate in our workshop about the project at the Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday 27 October, 3-4pm, QMW, University of London, Mile End Road.