A sexual behavioural expert who wants to teach primary school children how to masturbate has sparked outrage from viewers. Kate Dawson appeared on This Morning opposite hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, where she explained how works with children, generally around the 11-year-old mark, to start conversations around the issue to make young people comfortable with their own bodies. Speaking on the show about the ‘should eight-year-olds be taught masturbation’ tagline, Kate said: ‘I normally wouldn’t work with children as young as eight, generally it’d be around 11 years old, but in primary schools.
Kate believes this outlook is through young people’s exposure to pornography, which creates unrealistic expectations of what male and female bodies should be. ‘We don’t get to see other people’s genitals ever,’ Kate said. ‘The only place we get to see other people’s genitals is porn and people in porn are hired because of the type of bodies they have.’ Asked why ‘self-pleasuring’ is important to teach, Kate replied: ‘It’s something that most people do and boys are definitely more comfortable talking about it.
‘But when we’re talking about self-pleasure and what it’s like, and what might feel good for a person who has a vulva or a penis, it’s really important for the person of the opposite gender I guess, can have an idea of what it might be like. ‘Because sometimes we’re talking to young girls and they’re being really badly hurt by their partners who don’t understand you have to be quite gentle with that part of the body. Physically hurt. Where their vagina might be bruised or cut even. ‘Sometimes they just don’t want to make their partner feel bad because they don’t want to embarrass them so they don’t say anything. What we do, it’s really about giving people the skills so they can say, “this is what I like and this is what I don’t like.” And how to communicate that.’
Or could it be a good idea?