Racy Sexy - Sorting through the Traffic Jam at the Intersection of Race, Culture, Ethnicity and Sexuality: A Model for Intergenerational Multicultural Sexuality Education for Parents

This paper looks at developing a multicultural model for sexuality education that focuses on parents as the advocates for increased understanding and support for healthy sexual behaviors among youth. Introduction In North America, current models for sex and sexuality education take certain cultural and social norms for granted. There is little consideration given to the role of cultural, familial and contexual foundations in enhancing knowledge and supporting behavioral changes (Irving, 1997, Sears, 1995). The HIV/AIDS global pandemic has raised concerns and urgency to increase knowledge about sexual risks and sexual health. Sexuality education models often utilize scientific and biological information to “convince” our populations to change our sexual behaviors. These models utilize strategies that are aimed at main stream North American youth populations, which create sexual stereotypes and gaps in knowledge particularly for immigrant youth and youth from ethnocultural communities. Despite the increasingly diverse demographics of target populations, sexuality education reflects a white middle-class, heterosexual male bias (Ward & Taylor, 1994). These perspectives are simplistic and do not recognize the complexity in which the nature of sexuality and identity are interdependent, bound to social, historical, cultural, economical and institutional factors which are inextricably linked to individual interactions. There have been few theories published that integrate multicultural approaches to sexuality education, and even fewer that approach sexuality education from an intergenerational perspective. Background In 2000 I was hired to develop an Educational Program for an AIDS organization, which provides services to East and Southeast Asian communities. As a sexuality educator from an ethnocultural community I have always had difficulty negotiating Western concepts around sex and sexuality that did not resonate within my own field of experience as a Malaysian lesbian. The first thing I did was to investigate existing sexuality education programs and conduct focus groups with youth peer sexuality educators, sex/sexuality/reproductive/HIV/STD educators and community health providers to identify the gaps and challenges in providing education to individuals from ethnocultural communities. I also conducted a focus group with a group of Asian youth to determine issues that were relevant to them related to HIV/AIDS/STD and sexual health. One of the most important findings that was consistent for all the groups was the need to have an intergenerational approach to sexuality education that included culturally and linguistically relevant elements. From these basic inquiries it was clear that adults, particularly parents played important roles in shaping attitudes, behaviors and beliefs of youth around sex and sexuality issues. Parents should be included centrally within the pedagogical framework that supports a communally and culturally based model which has the potential to diffuse sexual and racial stereotypes, to help create a positive social environment for changes in sexual behaviors. Theoretical Framework This paper will look at theoretical frameworks in Multicultural Education, Ethnic and Race Identity Theory and Human Sexuality that contribute to the development of this model. Discourse in Multicultural Education is centered on the recognition of cultural diversity and the importance of respecting and understanding the differences and fluidity of culture. This includes concepts of sex, sexuality, gender, desire and pleasure. While there are no conclusive agreements on the definitions of ethnicity or the means of constructing identity, it is clear that individual and collective norms, values, attitudes and behaviors are associated with membership into social and cultural groups (Keefe, 1992; Phinney, 1990; Tajfel, 1978). By extension the ‘rules’ for individual sexuality may be said to be influenced by the way in which our identities are mapped and shaped. Human sexuality researchers in North America such as Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, have played an important part in essentializing human sexual behaviour and coding sexual norms. Biological facts do not take into consideration the ways in which human sexuality is formed and expressed. To understand and accept diverse concepts related to sexuality it is important to deconstruct how human sexuality has been focused on biological determinism and not social constructivism (Irvine, 1995). Social Construction Theories on human sexuality challenges dominant norms and universally held assumptions about sex, gender and culture, this provides a more heterogeneous source of wisdom and knowledge from which to draw from when we try to understand the relationship between sexuality, identity and culture. From these theoretical locations we can begin to appreciate the complexity and fluidity of individual sexual expression. Multicultural Education Multicultural educational practices reflect a range of traditions and include assimilationist models, which support the absorption of culturally marginalized learners into mainstream cultures. Within the context of this paper, multicultural education refers to learning environments, which acknowledge different traditions of thoughts, practice and feeling. This is pedagogy which supports the acquisition of different forms of understanding and nurtures qualities that encourage critical inquiry. This process of building bridges between diverse cultures may help reduce identity and cultural conflicts inherent in interpersonal and intergroup relationships, which impact on an individual’s capacity to operate well in diverse settings. Failure to recognize cultural dimensions in sexuality education reinforces conflicts between parent/home values and school, peer and youth values and may create feelings of anxiety, tension, frustration, anger and low self-esteem. Embedded within Multicultural educational framework is the need to understand individual and communal contextual experiences and circumstances, the objective is to provide ‘translators’ to different subcultures, without privileging any one subculture. Social Construction of Sexuality Essentialist’s perspectives on sexuality, which rely on biological interpretations of sex, gender, and sexuality is slowly being replaced by Social Construction Theories of Sexuality. This new position looks at sexuality and gender as a construction of cultural, social and political influences. To understand sexuality is to look at how particular cultures organize sexual behavior, identity and social norms. There can be no universal norm but multiple cultural norms. These norms are neither fixed nor constant but shift and transform over time. Sexuality is not universal either throughout history or across cultures It is doubtful that there is an internal, essential sex drive or force. Biology plays a small role, if any, in determining our sexuality. Sexuality is deeply influenced by social, political, economic and cultural factors. We must examine the specific meaning attached to sexuality at particular historical moments in particular cultures. (Irvine, 1995, pp. 12 – 14) Cultural Coding Embedded in Current Models of Sexuality Education ‘Sexual and other social identities, as possible ways of living, are produced in relation to the cultural repertoires and institutional conditions of schooling’ (Epstein & Johnson, 1998, p. 2) In the Vancouver, British Columbia, by the time students graduate high school they would have received up to 10 hours of formal ‘Sex Ed.’ and countless hours of informal sex ed through peer interaction, main stream media and other sources. In North America, sex education models have emerged from social hygiene and human reproduction movements to provide information focused on biology and physiology rather than behavior and culture. (Irvine, 1995 pp. 125 – 127) This reinforces narrow essentialist interpretations of sex and sexuality which serves to normalize, or more important ‘abnormalize’ divergent expressions of sexuality. Essentialism There is an internal, probably biological sex drive or instinct. Sexuality is universally expressed throughout different historical times. Sexuality is universally expressed across different cultures (Irvine, 1995, p. 3) In our current milieu adolescents are socialized to think about sex within a certain context, the discourse of healthy sexuality is predominantly from the perspective of the dominant culture. Certain values and beliefs are privileged for example; Emphasis on individual agency in relationships and choices. Open and frank communication as the method to negotiate relationships. Sexual identity as an integral and defining element of individual identity. Individuals are central in the discourse around sexuality. Implications of this Model on ‘Outsider’ Communities Sex education strategies intended to support healthy decision making in young adults may in fact be detrimental to individuals who may already be experiencing tensions between their ethnic identity and personal identity. Values and beliefs that appear to contradict home values contribute to further conflicts within familial and community relationships. These relationships are important in the construction of self identity and the development of cultural and social schema, that define how individual negotiate their place in their communities and in the world. Self-labeling, a sense of belonging, positive evaluation, group preferences, community interest, knowledge and involvement within communities are affected by the educational initiatives which assume culturally neutral positions. Members from communities that may not rely on verbal communication, share communal values and/or rely on religious norms to articulate sexual expression may feel further alienated from their home identities because dominant discourse is reinforced. Teaching for sexual diversity means that learners shou