Youth Sexuality Sexuality is a normal and healthy part of human development, one that begins at birth and continues By:someone throughout the life cycle. SSeexxuuaalliittyy iiss nnoott jjuusstt aabboouutt sseexx…… MMINDIND -YOU are the EXPERT of GENDER IDENTITY VALUES your life. -Identity: is how someone -Values: what is right and wrong for -YOU can use your brilliant defines themselves. you. mind to FILTER all these influences and make -Gender roles: are social -We learn our values from many healthy and positive expectations for people different places (family, friends, decisions for yourself. who identify as male or religion, school, experiences, etc.). female. Sometimes -Stress, mental illness, use gender roles can get in -The messages we get from these of drugs (including alcohol) the way of acting/doing places can sometimes contradict can affect the decisions what we want to do. each other. We decide which values you make. we hold on to. YOUR MIND = YOUR - Transgender: people CHOICES = YOUR LIFE whose assigned gender does not match who they know themselves to be. SEXUALITY -We get to choose how -EVERYONE has a sexuality. we identify! -It includes everything on this page and a whole lot more! YOUTH RIGHTS -It plays itself out in different ways from the moment a person -Abortion laws: no one can be is born until the moment they prevented from or forced to MEDIA and BODY die. have an abortion. -Body Image: how you -Marriage laws: allows people feel about how you look. to be married to whomever they want regardless of -Sadly, lots of people feel gender. badly about how they SEXUAL ORIENTATION look. -Consent laws: you can legally -includes who we are attracted to and consent to sexual activity at 16 -The media gives us how we choose to act (or not act) on as long as you partner isn’t in strong messages about that attraction. a position of power or trust how we should look and over you. how we should behave. -Sometimes who we are attracted to is different from who we choose to date -Sexual assault laws: only yes - Puberty: hormones or be sexually active with due to fear of means yes, people need to make our bodies go violence, gender programming, stop if their partner doesn’t through both physical and disapproval from friends and a desire give permission and people mental changes during cannot consent to sexual to be accepted. puberty. activity when drunk/high. Everybody believes in something, even if that something is nothing. Belief systems help us to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. They help us to think about the big questions such as… What do we want Why are we How can we here? contribute? out of life? Who are we? They give us a way to define ourselves, to figure out what is and isn’t important to us, and they can help to provide a framework for our actions. These beliefs can be called our VALUES. Our values can and do change over time. Attitudes and opinions evolve as you meet new people, learn and experience new things. People’s values are greatly influenced by their families and upbringing. We pick up our family’s attitudes and opinions, as well as those of our friends and teachers, sometimes without even realizing it. Often, the process of figuring out who you are includes questioning the beliefs you’ve grown up with and coming to terms with your own ideas, whether they are in sync with the people around you or not. “Throughout your entire life you will be challenged to defend what you think, feel and believe," writes teacher Michael Basso, author of The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality. "It's very difficult being your own person and doing what you know is right, but the more you stand up for yourself and defend what you believe in, the stronger you become as a person." Example: A friend comes up to you who: 1) Is in an abusive relationship and aren’t ready to leave. You really care about her/him and want them break up. 2) Is thinking s/he is gay and doesn’t want to be. You want them to accept themselves. 3) Wants their girlfriend to get an abortion. You don’t think it’s OK to force someone to make a choice. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? What are your thoughts on: body hair? the death penalty? plastic surgery? The age of consent abortion? being 16? the war in Afghanistan? Obama? dating more Facebook? than one person at the same time? sexting? What issues have been on your mind lately? Sexuality and The Law • 1869: Abortion is made illegal, under threat of life imprisonment. Providing information about birth control is also made illegal. • 1926-1947: 4 000 – 6 000 Canadian women die as a result of bungled illegal abortions. • 1969: Contraception is legalized. Before 1969, the sale of contraceptives was illegal in Canada: in 1960, a Toronto pharmacist was jailed for selling condoms. • 1983: It became possible for a wife to charge her husband with rape if he forced her to have sex. • 1988: Abortion is made a legal option a pregnant woman can choose as the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down Canada’s abortion law as unconstitutional. • 2003: Same-sex marriage was legalized in Ontario and other provinces followed. In 2005 same-sex marriage became legal across all Canadian provinces and territories. • 2008: The age of consent is raised from 14 to 16 years of age so it was made illegal for an adult to have vaginal sex with someone under the age of 16. Youth 12 to 15 years of age can give consent to sex but only with someone who less than 2 years older than themselves. • The age of consent for anal sex is 18 years of age unless you are legally married. Although this law has been ruled as discriminatory by the federal court of appeal, it still exists. • You must be 18 years old to get married, although you can marry at 16 or 17 with parental consent. No youth can get married under the age of 16 in Canada Rights! Adapted from the Native Youth Sexual Health I have the right to… be listened to and to decide what is best for my body! have a healthy relationship! education that will help me make healthy choices! say NO to anything I am not ready for! have my gender, sexuality, body, and age respected access health services that are youth friendly! have my own opinion and use my voice! add to this list as many rights as I can think of! Rock these websites… scarleteen.com sexualityandu.ca teenwire.com youthresource.com sexetc.org Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation is mostly understood to mean whether you prefer to be romantically involved with boys, girls, both, or neither. It goes much deeper than that though, like what do you prefer… Tall people? Creative people? Funny people? Book smart people? Sporty people? Shy people?.…. Sexual orientation is about attraction (who we are drawn to) and whether or not we act on that attraction. Sometimes attraction is obvious, other times completely mysterious. what’s on your list? For more information on sexual orientation, check out the Appreciating Diversity Chapter. GENDER IDENTITY Gender identity is about a person’s core sense of who they are. It’s about whether someone is emotionally and spiritually Male or female or both or neither. Society has its own ideas of what makes a girl a girl and a boy a boy. These ideas can be very limiting for individual people. But these expectations do change over time. For example, less than 100 years ago, people thought pink was the best colour to dress boys in and blue for girls. Expectations do change and we can have a lot to do with changing them. Gender do’s Gender don’ts -question all stereotypes -don’t judge people how about guys and girls they look -support those around -don’t encourage making you who are different fun of others by laughing or spreading gossip -keep an open mind about what guyness -don’t change the way you and girlness mean or what you like just to please others -look at people as individuals, not just -don’t assume adults have a member of a gender no biases -choose your words -don’t be close-minded words carefully to make about differences b/w sure you’re not using people hurtful language -don’t let gender rules -hand out compliments limit or change your hopes and dreams -know you have a voice and an ability to affect -don’t be afraid to look bad the world around you when you try something new. You will get better -talk to your friends with practice people. when you see them treating people unfairly adapted from Peters, Diane. 2005. Girlness: deal with it body and soul, and Guyness: deal with it body and soul. James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Toronto. For more information on gender identity, see the Appreciating Diversity chapter. Media Literacy What is Media Literacy? The ability to critically make sense of messages and images in the media. This involves looking at who is represented in media, how they are represented, and why. The flip side of this is looking at who is not represented, and why not. Sexism: Men continue to dominate television, comprising 65% of the prime time population. Ginghofer, Jill. 2001. MefsdiaWatch USA. Summer edition, Vol. 2 No. 4, p.7 It is not simply what the media say, or how they say it, that creates stereotypical perceptions of women.