Counseling and School Psychology, College of Education and Human Development, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125, USA.
Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 14;18(8):4144. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084144.
Sex education in the United States is often approached through an individual lens that focuses on personal protection, safety, and rights. This focus on personal responsibility and care-for-self reflects national values and permeates governmental systems and actions, including generalized public health approaches. This issue has been most recently highlighted in the individual and systemic attitudes, beliefs, and responses towards the recent, ongoing crisis following the global surge of COVID-19. In this paper, we provide examples and discuss lessons gleaned from the public health response to this crisis, particularly in the areas and intersections of gender, individualism, and neoliberalism, and the parallels of these issues in sex education. We make an appeal for a collectivist and community-oriented approach to sex education, which would focus not only on prevention and protection, but on inequities, ethics, and care for others.
美国的性教育通常是从个人视角出发的，重点是个人保护、安全和权利。这种对个人责任和自我关怀的关注反映了国家价值观，并渗透到政府系统和行动中，包括一般性的公共卫生方法。这个问题在最近的全球 COVID-19 疫情期间的个人和系统态度、信仰和反应中得到了最突出的体现。在本文中，我们提供了一些例子，并讨论了从公共卫生应对这一危机中吸取的经验教训，特别是在性别、个人主义和新自由主义的领域和交叉点，以及这些问题在性教育中的相似之处。我们呼吁采取集体主义和面向社区的性教育方法，不仅要关注预防和保护，还要关注不平等、伦理和关爱他人。
