The Australian government has canceled two sex education videos designed to educate teens about consensual sex and sexual harassment after they were widely panned.
The online education campaign has used metaphors such as rubbing milk on someone’s face to show disrespect and abuse.
Weird And Concerning
Equality activists have described these videos as “weird” and “concerning”.
Officials removed the milkshake video and another on coercion in which a girl wonders whether to swim with sharks.
Why Were The Videos Removed?
A spokesman for the Department of Education, Skills and Employment cited “community and stakeholder feedback” for removing and taking down the two videos, reports ABC.
The provincial government had defended the start of the campaign, which it said was done with the help of experts.
The decision to take down the video followed criticism from senior members of the Liberal government and opposition parties, as well as many activists and campaigners.
New South Wales Education Minister Sarah Mitchell, a Liberal politician, called the videos “bad” and “a lost opportunity”.
“I think we have to deal directly with young people when we talk about these issues.”
‘It’s really dangerous’
What Is In The Videos?
The online learning platform, published on The Good Society’s website, includes more than 350 videos, news and podcasts. It was developed as part of the Australian government’s Respect Matters program, to teach respectful relationships in schools.
One video, designed for students between the ages of 14 and 17, shows a young girl rubbing a milkshake on her boyfriend’s face without his consent. The video then uses other examples of eating pizza and “touching your buttocks” as situations where permission will be required.
Another video about respecting other people’s decisions and choices shows a teenage girl doubting whether she wants to swim with sharks, while a boy tries to convince her to do so.
A section entitled “sex and gender norms” confuses “norms” and “myths”, for example, by suggesting that ideas such as “males enjoy sex more than females” and “females that wear short skirts want sex” are examples of gender norms.
The Good Society website defines learning materials as an “engaging, flexible and online program that helps students build safe, healthy and respectful relationships”.
Reactions
However, women’s rights activists and anti-rape activists say the content is harmful, avoids the use of the word sex, rape or assault and does not reflect realities or relationships.
The Fair Agenda has launched a petition calling on the Australian government to work with violence prevention experts to replace “concerning and bizarre” content.
Australian of the Year and sexual assault survivor Grace Tame said the videos were insulting the intelligence of adults and children alike.
“It minimises the experience of rape trauma, it fails to really address the nuances of this complex issue of consent,” she told The Drum programme on ABC TV.
The phenomenon has also been criticized for its inconsistencies with today’s youth, through references to the Hollywood movie Titanic, released 24 years ago, and the series The X-Files TV, which ended its last season almost 20 years ago.
In a statement on April 14, the Australian education department said the initiative was “done in partnership with Our Watch, the eSafety Commissioner and the Foundation for Young Australia (FYA), as well as parents, the community and principals’ groups”.
However, Our Watch and the FYA have said that they were barely consulted. FYA told SBS News it had introduced the government to a young person in its network who may have taken part in a confidential reference group in late 2017.
