Is it reasonable for parents to panic at cartoon nudity in school textbooks? Only if we embrace irrational taboos about bodies.
I can’t answer much better than apis, but I can attest to the issues it causes. I’m in my 30s and have never fully recovered from being denied education on that. Still trying to break away from the shame and icky feelings. Ignorance causes so much more damage than just frakin telling us.
spoiler
From a parent perspective, largely because of societal consequences.
Your toddler talking about sex can lead to undesirable social consequences.
Not that I agree with it, but the reasoning is valid, it’s a fear of other people and their lack of understanding or nuance. And the potential for them to assume the worst and attack you over something entirely benign.
Now if we’re talking about education, there really isn’t any good excuse. Maybe it’s an extension of the above?
This is what they don’t seem to understand. The sex ed is age appropriate. No one is talking about condoms with 6 year olds. They’re hearing about boundaries and bathing suit areas. It makes them less likely to be abused and more likely to report abuse.
Control, mostly, at least at the meta level.
Many of the parents who freak out hold a lot of shame themselves surrounding bodies & sex, having been denied good sex ed. It is their job to ensure they don’t pass that to their children, but I imagine this is easier said than done, especially if shame & ignorance are normalised within a culture.
For them, the best argument may be that children who do not know about sex are vastly more vulnerable, not only to bizarre information and unpleasant mistakes, but to sexual predators.
