“Much ado about nothing” sums up attitudes towards sex education in Spain. Studies have emphasized its key role in preventing machismo, low self-esteem in young people and sexual and domestic violence, yet sex ed remains something of a pending assignment for the government, which has ensured neither quality standards nor comprehensive implementation in schools.
Recently, a lack of resources and increasing furor from the far right have put sex education in the spotlight. Meanwhile, professionals are looking for new ways to interest and engage teenagers, from classroom workshops to raising awareness through social media, books, and movies.
Raquel Hurtado, deputy director of Spain’s Family Planning Federation (SEDRA), believes there is at least an “abstract” awareness among the general population of the importance of sex education. “People aren’t really sure what it is, often leading the collective imagination to the idea of risk prevention, unplanned pregnancies, how to use a condom, and so on,” she says. “This eclipses some of the most important aspects: general wellbeing, health in the broadest sense of the term, equality, social transformation….” Hurtado observes that it is precisely when these issues are introduced in workshops that support for sex education declines, with people “rejecting them and becoming suspicious.”
SEDRA organizes sex education workshops in schools for both students and families. “Demand tends to center on discussing risks and prevention, but this alone does not help young people to acquire the specific tools they need, nor does it change certain attitudes,” says Hurtado. “That’s why we strive to broaden our focus to include discussions about identity, desire, and orientation, how we fall in love, attraction, erotic encounters, communication with others, social media and its impact on beauty and body image…. We are striving to distance ourselves from a purely risk-based approach.”
Roberto Sanz, a psychologist and sexologist at Fundación Sexpol, is also striving to bring sex ed to the nation’s classrooms. “Our workshops are organized into three sessions, although they are often reduced to two. Sometimes we’re asked to do just one, but we refuse. It’s impossible to achieve anything in so little time,” he says. Sanz decries the scarcity of sexual education in Spain, noting that it is invariably relegated to sporadic hours or tutorials unless a specific school or teacher displays awareness of the issue.
“They expect us to teach students how to use a condom; sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t, it depends on the group. We take a very open approach to the sessions, giving students a base upon which to establish their own ideas and attitudes. We talk about diversity, equality, porn, masturbation, communication, pleasure, reproduction. About how any sexual encounter is also an emotional encounter. We distance ourselves from notions of guilt or shame, of ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ focusing instead on the importance of values and knowledge,” says Sanz.
All workshops are adapted to the students’ age group, and although both Hurtado and Sanz confirm they are usually requested for teenagers age 14 and up, the ideal situation would be to start much earlier. “From elementary school on, we should be talking about our bodies, our relationships with others, establishing boundaries, providing children with an emotional education so that they can better express their experiences and what they want, so they can navigate disagreement,” says Hurtado. The two sexologists also agree that resistance to sexual education has intensified in recent years as a result of people hearing others liken it to “indoctrination” or attempts to “convert” girls and boys into “something they’re not.”
Starting early is also the advice of Anna Salvia, psychologist, sex educator and author of the trilogy La regla mola (Periods Are Cool), El semen mola (Semen Is Cool), and El porno no mola (Porn Isn’t Cool), published by Montena. All three books are illustrated by the artist Menstruita, who fills the pages with images that, like the text, are clear, explicit, charming, and entertaining.
Salvia’s books are based on her professional experience with families, students and teachers; they discuss key issues in a “clear, direct and fun” manner in order to provide children and teenagers with much needed information. They are also conceived to appeal to adults in their families who may lack some of this knowledge.
Salvia defends the importance of explaining these things “before they happen” so that young people can go into life experiences informed, prepared, and without fear. “Sex education isn’t just a quick chat. It’s many conversations from different perspectives. Certain topics have been taboo for a long time, and although some people may want to help break down these barriers, they don’t necessarily have the information they would like to impart. In fact, the fundamental pillar of sex education should be the family, the primary transmitter of values. The education system then must guarantee, independently of the values transmitted at home, that children have access to certain information and knowledge,” says the author.
For Salvia, reading books with children and teenagers is an effective way for adults to “open a door,” to show that they are receptive to talking about the subject, and to combat something that she believes has been endemic to the scarcity of sex education: the feeling of being alone.
According to a survey conducted by Fundación FAD, half of all Spanish young people ages 16 to 29 believe they have received poor quality sexual education. Another study by the Institute de las Mujeres on sexuality in young people ages 18 to 25 showed that one-third of the subjects had no access whatsoever to sex education programs in their place of study. And 50.7 percent of those who had received some form of sexual education rated the quality of teaching as well below average.
In January 2024, the Sex Education Film Festival in the city of Terrassa (Barcelona) held its fourth edition. The festival’s 45 documentaries screened over several days were attended by 2,300 teenagers from 14 high schools across the city and surrounding area. “Not all the movies are specifically aimed at a teenage audience, but a significant majority are,” says Iván Albacete, one of the festival’s directors. “The documentaries talk about self-discovery, acceptance, gender, first relationships, sexual diversity, problems that may arise, and STIs.” Yet other themes include feminism and LGBTQ rights.
One set of documentaries targets students in the first and second year of high school, while another is designed for those in the third and fourth year or already studying for the International Baccalaureate. After the screenings, there are discussions that include Q&A sessions with a sexologist and partner organizations. The organizers realize that not everyone is comfortable talking about sex in front of an audience, so students may also submit questions anonymously. Minute-long videos based on these questions are later recorded and shown in the participating schools.
“We always get great feedback,” says Albacete. “We started the festival with the specific aim of creating a social project; we saw that there was a clear need for this kind of interaction. People don’t tend to talk about sex education.”
Every year, the festival reaches out to the directors of all local schools, inviting them to attend. Not all respond. Despite the fact that half of Terrassa’s schools are state-subsidized charter schools, only one of the schools participating in the 2024 event had attended a previous edition.
Isabel Duque, alias “Psicowoman,” takes sex ed to classrooms but also to social media with her YouTube channel and Instagram account, answering questions, creating live broadcasts, and recommending other accounts with quality content. “It’s also a way to give a sense of continuity to the workshops I give in the classroom,” she says. “The first part of the workshop always centers on what I would like to have been told at their age, and I also let them submit questions anonymously. Often there’s not enough time to answer everyone’s questions or to address a complex issue.”
“I started my channel to create a space for counter-information at a time when the dominant opinions were very homogeneous,” she says. “Today’s generation is looking for quality, critical and inclusive information.”
Duque laments the fact that some workshops often focus on fear or disease and are taught by unqualified staff with no training in sexology. “It’s important to differentiate between talking about sexual violence and sexual education. Sex education is about listening, communication, desire, care, although of course we also talk about consent.”
How does Duque see the overall state of sex ed in Spain? On the positive side, she says there is now a greater awareness of sex ed, and the demand for it is increasing. On the negative side, schools are becoming increasingly afraid of parental reactions, in spite of this significant progress.