With the recent release of a new UNESCO report advocating for and presenting
voluntary global guidelines for sex-ed, the time may be near where we consider
who we use as ambassadors to carry the message forward. Would it be unfeminist
to suggest a spokesmodel for the comprehensive sex-ed movement? What if she
were a different kind of spokesmodel? A free-thinking, unencumbered-by-politics
kind of a representative who, let’s face it, can grab the attention of those
conservative fellows who just cannot seem to let go of their overpowering
obsession with controlling the ways in which we discuss, present and teach
sex-ed in this country. 

Broadsheet’s Kate Harding blogged about the brilliant segment on Sean
Hannity’s "Great American Panel" Monday night in which Aubrey O’Day,
Playboy cover model and former P. Diddy girl-group almost-star, lays down the
cold, hard truth about sex-ed, for the boys.

O’Day’s demeanor is just perfect, as far as I’m concerned, when she counters
these older men almost squirming in their seats over the audacity of the report’s
guidelines for age-appropriate sexual health information. When Hannity turns
the topic to the old spin “They want to teach masturbation to five year olds!”
hysteria, all hell breaks loose:

Hannity: “It’s actually happening to the five year-olds!”

But O’Day reels them in so fluidly:

O’Day: “You boys never wondered about what you were doing and wished to be
educated about it earlier?…”

The hard-core conservative, anti-choice crowd is up
in arms over the report, International Guidelines on Sexual Education which, according to UNESCO,

“are voluntary and
non-mandatory in character, provide educators with guidance on how children and
young people can best acquire the knowledge they need to protect themselves from
coercion, abuse and exploitation, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted
infections, including HIV.”

Minnesota Citizens Concerned
For Life (MCCL) complains
that the report suggests that children should be “instructed” on how to become
abortion advocates and that 12- 15 year olds be informed about where and how to
obtain a legal abortion. And the web site, FreeRepublic.com,
is home to a host of comments on the report, many of which seem to believe that
the mere discussion about sexual health and sexuality is “perverted.”  Screams one commenter in utter terror
over human sexuality,

“No 5 year old has the
“right” to play with themselves! You teach them to keep their hands out of
their pants not in them.”

UNESCO, however, explains
the impetus for creating the “evidence- and rights-based” guidelines, “Reducing HIV infection in young people and improving their sexual and
reproductive health require effective education programmes. However, such
programmes are still not available in many parts of the world. UNESCO and its
partners have now developed new guidelines to address this problem.”

Aubrey O’Day, my new vote
for sex-ed spokesmodel (grammatical errors be damned) said it best, “How is education robbing a child of their
innocence?”