A quick test:
- What is the average length of heterosexual sex?
- The average length of an erect penis in the UK is:
a. 5.5-6.3 inches
b. 7.5-8.2 inches
c. 3.4-4.2 inches
d. 4.5-5.2 inches
- In pornography, what percentage of women have had cosmetic surgery?
These questions were among those presented to Lancashire teenagers by visiting sex education expert Goedele Liekens.
The Belgian therapist and United Nations goodwill ambassador for sexual health delivered the test as part of a two-week sex education course, given to Year 11 pupils at Hollins Technology College in Lancashire.
The lessons were filmed for a one-off Channel 4 documentary, to be screened this evening. Sex in Class shows Ms Liekens offering the kind of sex education regularly delivered to pupils in Belgium and the Netherlands.
In contrast to their low-country peers, the Hollins pupils had received relatively little formal sex education. Ms Liekens was shocked by some of the assumptions her new pupils laboured under, many informed by pornography. One boy told her: “Most girls get jizzed on the face. If I’ve got consent to shag her, I’m sure I can cum on her face.”
Ms Liekens also showed boys photographs of variedly hirsute female pudenda, and asked them which they liked best. The majority said that they preferred those that were clean-shaven. She therefore set the boys the homework task of shaving their own pubic hair, so that they would see how uncomfortable it can be.
Girls, meanwhile, were asked to draw a vulva. As very few knew where the clitoris was, Ms Liekens told them to go home and examine themselves with a hand-held mirror.
The class was also asked to rewrite a porn scene, introducing consent and female desire.
Steve Campbell, Hollins headteacher, said: “I suppose it was quite a big step to say, ‘Yes, we’re going to be part of this’. But this year we’ve dealt with teenage pregnancies, we’ve dealt with inappropriate texts and, without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest single influence on the young people is pornography.”
Ms Liekens is now campaigning to have a version of the test she gave the Hollins pupils turned into a sex-education GCSE.
