The principles of sex education

I think the time has come to change our priorities and look at this subject the right way. Sex is what keeps life going: every one of us came from a sexual relationship between our parents. Just imagine how ashamed each of us felt on finding out that fact; many even accused their parents of bad manners.

Every civilisation has been interested in sex, and many held it sacred, comparing it with the fertility of the land: the plough sows the earth and it grows, and sex produces children. World heritage is full of stories and myths of fertility, told to the youngest children so they knew where life came from.

We can only marvel at where we have ended up, we who claim to be civilised and advanced. Children hear stories about flowers that open to reveal a baby, or about a mother going to the market and coming back with one. All this removes the idea of a physical bond between father, mother and child. The child no longer feels part of them, or that they will need a partner in the future: a phone call might be enough to have children delivered. Better-informed children believe a kiss or a touch causes pregnancy, which leaves them terrified of the other sex.

And if you think the problem ends there, you are badly mistaken. Many of our young men and women reach thirty without ever having had sex, with no idea of the reality, the feelings or the other sex. This is bitter even among doctors: I know many women doctors who were in the final years of specialist training when they married, yet didn't know the simplest basics. Many tried to find useful books on the subject without real success. I can only imagine how bad it is for young people who don't even know human anatomy.

Society and its social and moral institutions push, in practice, for sex to be delayed. They demand virginity until marriage, and no marriage until a partner is perfect, materially and morally. Under this pressure to delay sex, and this blackout on information about it, various disorders and psychological and physical illnesses appear that stand in the way of healthy families.

Making matters worse is the spread of wrong information, from pornography to ignorant people and self-styled experts, creating a frightening, disastrous situation. Relationships between men and women are no longer something good to be proud and happy about, and sex no longer brings a woman pride but is seen as lowering her value and insulting her.

We don't want to start a revolution against society or lead a fierce campaign to overturn social ideas and restrictions: that is up to each individual. But we do want to give information about the principles of sex education and the foundations of healthy relationships between men and women, from a medical and social point of view.

We aim to give useful, important information to everyone: men and women, married or single, well informed or not. And unlike most other sources, we will present it in a distinctive, interesting and unusual way.