Socialism

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.

When I had sex ed in the late 90's, I was shown videos with real (but obviously non-sexualized) nudity. I don't remember there being any controversy about that at all, and I went to a Christian school (Anglican).

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.

Control through guilt and shame. Humans without knowledge become emotional. Keep them stupid (emotional), easier to control. Or so the story goes…

Important to note they don’t teach emotional control either, just prayer. It’s just a shit system honestly.

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?

It's probably about control I would guess. The capitalists need people to do work for them so if the population doesn't know much about their own bodies I would guess it's more likely they'll have children who will grow up to be workers.

Because it is a kind of social control. People really need to read more Foucault.

Short version: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/#HistModeSexu On Foucault’s account, modern control of sexuality parallels modern control of criminality by making sex (like crime) an object of allegedly scientific disciplines, which simultaneously offer knowledge and domination of their objects. However, it becomes apparent that there is a further dimension in the power associated with the sciences of sexuality. Not only is there control exercised via other people’s knowledge of individuals such as doctors’ knowledge, for example; there is also control via individuals’ knowledge of themselves. Individuals internalize the norms laid down by the sciences of sexuality and monitor themselves in an effort to conform to these norms. Thus, they are controlled not only as objects of disciplines but also as self-scrutinizing and self-forming subjects.

It's always baffled me why violence is such a seemingly acceptable subject in comparison, what with gangster shows galore, gun nuts, etc., yet god forbid a naked breast is seen on national TV for 5 milliseconds and people lose their freakin' minds - let alone bring up the subject of sex education in schools. I apologize if I offend by saying this, but it's just I didn't grow up here and it's frankly always bugged me how hung up about sex people are in the US vs anywhere else I have lived.

The US was founded by some crazy cult members who had extreme views about sex. The Mormons came out of such a cult, but were pushed out of the country. Most of those old cults are still around to this day.

The religious views from these cults lingers on in our social conscience, probably most notable in our sexual repression and sexual censorship. Those old cult views instilled the idea that sex was depraved and not something to cherish and enjoy. So we still, at least subconsciously, hide sexuality out of a sense of righteousness and politeness.

Here's a short summary of the linked article

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Read Freud and take that early year development theory seriously. Gender and sexuality. Develop early in human life. Just like everything else about humans.