Queen’s researchers want people to talk about sex.
They’re encouraging the public to do this at sexualityandu.ca, a health website recently ranked as one of the top five health e-projects in the world. It received the United Nations 2005 World Summit Award over submissions from 168 other countries.
This site is a response to an increasing number of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections in Canada. It is part of the Contraception Awareness Program, which was created by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The program is chaired by Dr. Robert Reid from the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Queen’s. Launched in 2000, the website currently receives an average of 130,000 hits per month.
Featuring demonstrations, quizzes and interactive games—such as the martial arts-inspired “Sex-Fu”—it aims to educate teens, adults, parents, teachers and health care providers about contraception, safer sex and sexual orientation.
According to Dr. Reid, the aim of the site is not only to inform students, but to give them the tools to guide their behaviour.
“The old methods of sex education simply explained the physiology to students, but never prepared them with the behavioural tools to know what to do,” he said. Katy Latimer, ArtSci ’06, said she feels the website is crucial in today’s society, which she described as over-sexed.
“Just because there’s sex everywhere in our society, this stuff isn’t overkill for teens,” she said, adding she thinks the website is important because it counteracts sexual myths prevalent in contemporary society.
“I think this site illustrates the graphic sexual body to young teens, who hear about people ‘doing it’ and couples having sex on sitcoms, but aren’t really ever told what that entails.”
According to the website’s section for adults, people between the ages of 20 and 24 are most at risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection. Dalia Lucchetta, ArtSci ’06, said she thinks this figure makes the website particularly relevant for university students.
“We think we’re in our invincibility years,” she said. “We can stay up cramming, go on three-day benders, [and] we think we’re not going to be a statistic.
“But obviously our age group can definitely benefit from something like this.”
The University currently offers the only Contraception Advice Research and Education fellowship in Canada, supervised by Reid and Mary Anne Jamieson, both with the department of obstetrics and gynecology. E-mails sent to the website are answered by Contraception Advice Research and Education fellows, who are graduates of Queen’s obstetrics and gynecology department. The fellows also write a monthly e-newsletter.
The website’s creators will receive the award at the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society next month in Tunis, Tunisia.
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