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What It's Like to Grow Up in a Country That Doesn't Hate Sex

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mr.JA8/18/2013 4:17:08 am PDT

As someone from Holland, it was really funny (or sad) hearing about ‘sex education’ in the US from an American colleague. I was absolutely mortified…
We got a condom, we saw movies (animated, but fairly explicit) that didn’t just talk about safe sex, but also the whole emotions that come with it, and how you should feel good before you sleep with someone.
My US-american colleague told me that in her school, her biology teacher taught them ‘if you have sex before marriage, you will either end-up pregnant, or with an STD’. MY colleague’s parents went to some very liberal humanistic church, where they got sex-ed in Sunday school, where they were pushed (when they were 16) to buy a packet of condoms and bring it, since buying condoms is something that can be a hurdle to safe sex…

Also, to attend the lesson about homosexuality, you needed to hand in a signed letter of consent by your parents, otherwise you weren’t allowed to attend. Exactly the right thing to say to a group of hormone-laden teenagers. I’ve had a g/f from the UK, and she was sometimes quite surprised with my frankness when it came to sex - apparently in the UK, sex education isn’t even a compulsory part of the curriculum. When I was there (did my masters there), I was really surprised by the amount of young girls pushing prams - when I mentioned this, and I said I’ve never heard of someone becoming pregnant at middle school, people fell over…

The Teenage pregnancy rate here is ~5 per 1000, whereas in the US it ~35-40 per 1000, on of the highest in the world. Importantly the abortion rate is also Europe’s lowest, meaning that in The Netherlands, people just screw around and then get an abortion.

Here, safe sex is something that is very much hammered home into people - one of my friend (a guy) wouldn’t sleep with his g/f before she took the pill, and they used a condom. Hope sex-ed in the US and the UK can learn from countries like Denmark and The Netherlands…