Teach youth that gender is a cultural construct

Beyond being told that the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Growing Years programme will reflect mainstream values, we have been given little information on the gender and sexuality ideologies that will be taught. (“MOE mindful of secularity in education”; Oct 13)

In 2009, the Government hired American relationship experts with Christian connections to train leaders and counsellors working in the family and marriage arena. In 2010, four of the six vendors of sex education approved by the MOE belonged to Christian organisations.

Given this, I cannot but worry that the conflation of Christian sex education with pro-family, secular sex education could mean the cultural imposition of a minority perspective on our society.

The absence of religious references does not negate the differences between the sexuality and gender ideologies of church organisations and the values of non-Christian pro-family Singaporeans.

Our masses are not against abortion or safe sex; otherwise, the Government could hardly have legalised abortion or launched its family-planning programmes. Though pro-family, these do not invest in gender stereotyping that views women as subsidiary to men.

One can be pro-family and yet against the patriarchal family, which some religious groups support. Other cultural impositions are also possible, as “mainstream values”, by definition, exclude significant values held by minority communities.

Even more frightening is the thought that progressive perspectives on gender that are taught in our universities will be cut out of the sex education curriculum. I hope I will be proven wrong.

The recent discussion in the media about the research concerning men’s “ultra-visual brain wiring” and strong neural responses to the way women dress has been puerile. It suggests that Singaporeans have not been receiving adequate sex and gender education.

Youth who are taught that gender is a cultural construct would make sense of such research. They would recognise that the long history of the patriarchal socialisation of men, rather than nature, explains the different responses between the sexes.

They would know that a progressive education can overturn such gender inequities.

Indeed, our youth deserve an education that exercises caution in limiting their horizons.