Family Planning and “Sex Education” Join Forces to Answer Teens’ Questions – Libération

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This is the collaboration we didn’t expect. Planned Parenthood is partnering with Netflix to air the fourth and final season of the hit series Enlightenment lessons, Airing this Thursday, September 21st. The series, released online in January 2019, is comprehensive and disinhibiting, tackling many topics related to sexuality. Vaginismus, homosexuality, female pleasure, asexuality and even abortion are sexological in the voices of Otis (played by Asa Butterfield), the son of a sexologist, and Maeve (Emma Mackey), the rebel, the dissatisfied high schooler in the toilets Consultations organized, discussed or even Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), a sunny teenager who comes to terms with his homosexuality in his very religious family.

“Young people have been talking about it since 2019, parents (whose positions are also dissected in the series) are talking about it.” We find the support interesting, it has become a source of information, an object of debate, reflection, exchange.”explains Sarah Durocher, President of Planning, welcoming a series “pretty comprehensive and says the words”.

“How do I know if I like girls or boys?”, “Is foreplay sex?”… a series of five posters that address questions that the show’s characters might ask themselves (and that draw directly on the questions of teenagers) will be distributed across France in the coming days under the theme “It’s the last season, but Ongoing sex education with family planning”. An opportunity to contact the association’s toll-free, anonymous and free number, which has been used since 2015 to answer all questions about sexuality, contraception and abortion (0 800 08 11 11).

This communication campaign called “Hotline Sex Education”, which Netflix publishes every season in various forms (YouTube video, manuals distributed free of charge, card game) with an undeniable image challenge, is a double duty for the association. “We have a glaring lack of resources to distribute the toll-free number. We have been calling for a national campaign for this number for years without receiving it.” This campaign is a great opportunity to get the word out. “We want even more young people to have the courage to call us,” admits Sarah Durocher.

This campaign also closes the gaps in national education. A Audit of the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and ResearchThe law presented in 2021 showed that twenty years after the 2001 law came into force, only 15% of students benefited from the three compulsory lessons from elementary school to high school, while in middle school the figure was less than 20%. Content creators Shera Kerienski, Meryl Bie, Ben Névert, Edward Sad and Anissa Maille are also taking part in this campaign via videos that will be published over the next five days. In the form of a street microphone, they collected questions about sexuality and their emotional relationships that young people never dared to ask. As for non-application of the law, there are undoubtedly many of them.