Women’s rights activists yesterday criticized teaching materials designed for high-school health education, saying they contain content on sex education that is backward, heavily influenced by religious dogmas and could spread misleading information among young people.
Members of Taiwan Womens’ Link yesterday told a news conference in Taipei that while inspecting health education textbooks, printed by private-sector publishers, they discovered issues ranging from gender stereotypes, stigmatization of homosexuals and prejudice against premarital sex, and that some of the content is in violation of the Gender Equality Education Act (性別平等教育法).
For example, a health education textbook published by Youth (幼獅文化) said: “Homosexuals are people aged 18 or older who have had bodily contact on numerous occasions with someone of the same sex, resulting in orgasm,” group members said.
Another textbook, published by Taiyu (泰宇出版) says that characteristics displayed by some homosexual people include shame and a sense of guilt, adding that gay people often feel lonely and are “strongly oppressed,” they said.
Regarding biases against premarital sex, a textbook published by Hsin Hua (智業文化), says that having intercourse before marriage — with or without the use of condoms — prevents the couple from developing “real love,” as it leads to a relationship centered on carnal desires.
“Males engaging in premarital sex are prone to developing impotency due to uneasiness, anxiety or a sense of guilt,” according to content printed by the New Wun Ching Developmental Publishing Co (新文京出版社).
The group also panned the use of the term “religious teachings” to describe sexual intercourse in teachers’ guides; some of which cited excerpts from religious journals.
For example, a teachers’ guide published by Han Lin Publishing Co (翰林文教), which urges people to defend their virginity, substitutes the term “safe sex” with “safer sex,” saying that even when wearing condoms, there is a 43 percent chance of contracting HIV.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬), who attended the news conference, criticized the publisher for what she said were exaggerations of the risks associated with the use of condoms, saying such information could cause people to believe that using condoms is pointless.
Lin said that publishers should also include advice on how to behave sensibly after breakups in chapters related to sex education.
In response, National Academy for Educational Research official Wu Wen-lung (吳文龍) said he would forward the opinions gathered yesterday to the curriculum review committee.
A K-12 Education Administration official would conduct a review on teachers’ guides and ask publishers to remove misleading content, Wu said.
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