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Chapter 5: Post-millennials and Sex Education

Chapter 5: Post-millennials and Sex Education

This chapter contends that Italian schools—one of the few in Europe without compulsory sex education—still treat sexuality mainly as anatomy and risk, erasing pleasure and bodies (e.g., the clitoris) from textbooks and public discourse. In this vacuum, post-millennials turn to the internet: they learn fast, but face harms (sexting abuse, unsolicited nudes, porn-shaped scripts), while some boys use PDE5 drugs to chase performance. Drawing on WHO standards, the authors argue for a curriculum that centers consent, safety, desire, gender plurality, and reciprocity, not morality or fear. They revisit Goodman’s warning about “permissiveness without real contact” and show how open, equal dialogue with youth—where adult power circulates rather than dominates—protects against abuse better than silence. Examples include politically charged “post-porn,” and the youth-led Making of Love project, which models intergenerational co-creation. The chapter links shallow equality to persistent objectification and violence, noting that reciprocity lags unless men also do inner work encouraged by feminism. Inspired by Greek dialogic culture, it frames Italy’s regulatory gap as an opportunity: empower students to co-design sex education that speaks of pleasure as well as prevention, practices active consent, creates safe spaces, and treats sexuality as a relational, ethical force for growth.

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