Sexual Health - Report Example

Introduction

The development of a healthy sexual life is a lifelong continuous process that entails attaining a holistic personal understanding of the emotional, psychological, physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of one's sex life. For this reason, sexual health may vary from one individual to another, depending on various factors such as their age. Unlike in biological terms, where an adult is any organism that has reached sexual maturity, human beings are considered adults when they attain the age of majority hence deemed to be independent. Adult sexuality can be divided into three major stages, i.e., early adulthood, midlife adulthood, and late adulthood. Regarding sexual health, all these stages have to be characterized by various personal and interpersonal characteristics for an individual to be considered a sexually healthy person. In this regard, this paper focuses on Dr. Jean F. Milburn, a midlife adult character in the British comedy-drama series "Sex Education," analyzing her sexual health status using the SIECUS guidelines that stipulate the life behavior of a sexually healthy adult.

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Synopsis

Dr. Jean F. Milburn is among the main characters in the series "sex education." She is a well-known sex therapist; hence the honorific prefixing her name, who is divorced and has a son, Otis. The show focusses on her son with whom she open and blunt about sexual health as he starts to grow through his adolescent stage. In the first season, Jean focusses mainly on her son, her book, and partly her different casual sex partners. This changes during the second season, where she starts a relationship with Jakob and is hired as a sex therapist at Moordale Secondary School. The season ends with her being pregnant with Jakob's child.

SIECUS Guidelines

The primary aim of the SIECUS guideline is to provide comprehensive information regarding sexuality, hence shaping people's beliefs, attitudes, and values in areas of intimacy, relationships, and sexual identity. Based on behavioral analysis, the guidelines are structured into six key concepts that categorize information and skills that an individual must possess to be classified as a sexually healthy adult. These key concepts are Human Development, Relationships, Personal skills, Sexual Behavior, Sexual health, and Society, and culture. Inherently, it is through these concepts that I base my argument on whether Dr. Jean is a sexually healthy adult or not.

Human Development

Dr. Jean was a well-poised woman who was confident and bold. As a sex therapist, her character can be attributed to her knowledge of matters regarding reproduction. Despite this, she was eager to understand the sexual development of young adults, hence her willingness to be a sex therapist at Moordale high school, where she kept a detailed journal with the aim of one day publishing it. During her sessions in school, she interacted with both male and female students and was open to each students' experiences. For instance, during private sessions, few students admitted to feeling uncomfortable to engage in any sexual relations, whereas others were already having such relations. She advised them accordingly, affirming that sexual development may or may not include genital or reproduction sexual experience. Even though she was heterosexual, since all her sexual partners were male, she did not discriminate against gay and bisexual students such as Eric Effiong and Ola Nyman, respectively, during therapy sessions.

Relationship

Jean had difficulty expressing her love and intimacy appropriately hence her tenancy to have multiple partners with whom she shared no meaningful relationship. In the second season, even after falling in love with Jakub, she still kissed her Ex-Husband Remi Milburn who once visited to meet their son. This was a clear indication that she was unable to develop and maintain meaningful relationships and to make informed choices about family options and relationships (SIECUS, 2005). Additionally, Jean did not have the relevant skills that promote personal relationships. This was an event through her reaction and hostility toward Jakob after he moved into her house. The most notable scene was when she lashed at him for disrupting her sex education lesson with other women in her house. However, based on the relationship concept, Jean was able to avoid a manipulative and exploitative relationship by divorcing her ex-husband who not only tried to steal her book idea by getting her drunk and trying to sleep with her but also admitted to Otis that by writing his bestselling book, he was only pretending to be something he was not.

Personal Skills

Among the significant life behaviors of personal skills is communicating with peers, family, and partners effectively (SIECUS, 2005). Jean's relationship with people around her was always anchored on her excellent communication skills, i.e., she was a good listener; she was friendly, confident, clear, and to the point and empathetic. According to (Chew et al.,2020), listening involves an emotional, physical, and cognitive commitment to understanding by investing the energy and time. In this regard, when the troubled Maureen Groff, the head master's wife, walked into her office, Jean automatically knows that she had an underlying problem that she was afraid if not ashamed to share. She later gets her to open up about her sex life and helps her improve it. Also, despite their love-hate relationship, Jean and Otis always had a blunt and straight forward communication. At most times, they would play the roles of a therapist and a patient when addressing issues between them.

Sexual Behavior

According to the SIECUS guideline, adults with healthy sexual lives ought to enjoy sexual feelings without necessarily acting on them (SIECUS, 2005). However, Jean finds it hard to do so when Jakob, Ola's father, and also a plumber, first comes to her house to put in new taps in her bathroom. Jean admits an intense sexual attraction exists between them, stating that this attraction comes down to simple compatible pheromones that give humans sex appeal. Additionally, adults with healthy sexual lives often express their sexuality throughout life. Even at her age, Jean shows that she supports a healthy sexual life regardless of age or gender. During her speech at Moordale, Jean addresses the students saying that she understood that some of them were having sex because, at their age, they (Jean and the teachers) were also having sex. "...in fact, some of us are still having sex," she adds while referring to her and the teachers present.

Sexual Health

Contraceptive is the most effective method of preventing pregnancies. A sexually healthy adult considers the use of contraceptives in their sexual lives. During a sexual education Q and A lesson headed by the science teacher Colin, Jean was compelled to add in by stating, "…no matter how persistent your sexual partner is about not using contraception, remember it is your right to say no." However, in season two, she contradicted herself regarding the above behavior when she discovered that she was pregnant with Jakob's child a few days after breaking up with her. The other behavior concerning sexual health is practicing of health-promoting behaviors,

Conclusion

Conclusively, despite its formulation mainly for educational purposes, the SIECUS guidelines for sexual health indicate the life behaviors of a sexually healthy adult regarding the six key concepts, namely: Human Development, Relationships, Personal skills, Sexual Behavior, Sexual health, and Society, and culture. Based on these concepts, the above discussion shows the sexual health development process of Dr. Jean F. Milburn in the comedy-drama series "Sex Education." Through analysis, it is clear that Dr. Jean does not fully fulfill all the guidelines in each concept; however, this justifies the notion that developing a healthy sexual life is a lifelong continuous process that develops with age and experience.

References

Chew, S. L., Neufeld, G., Hamill, S., Taylor, A., & Macias III, S. (2020). Assessing Goal 4 Communication Skills for Psychology Across Audience, Purpose, and Context. Teaching of Psychology, 47(4), 296-304. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0098628320945120

SIECUS (2005). Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten -12th Grade, 3rd Ed. New York, NY: SIECUS.
https://hivhealthclearinghouse.unesco.org/sites/default/files/resources/bie_guidelines_siecus.pdf.