Teen Sexual Health
Teen Workshop Modules
Filling Up Your Relationship Skill Toolbox - Overview |
Knowing Your Reasons. Knowing You're Ready |
Dealing With Emotions And Decision-Making |
A Model For Decision-Making |
Keeping Relationships Healthy Every Step Of The Way
Relationships III: Keeping Relationships Healthy Every Step Of The Way
Estimated Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Resources:
| Facilitators Background Notes |
Many people find it challenging to figure out what types of behaviours are okay. When youth look to the media to illustrate appropriate ways of relating to peers and their partners, they most often do not find healthy role models. Barbara Coloroso offers the following distinction between behaviours that fall under "flirting" and those that fall under "sexual bullying." This is based on her definitions of teasing and taunting.
Flirting:
- Allows and invites both persons to swap roles with ease.
- Isn't intended to hurt the other person-is an expression of desire.
- Maintains the basic dignity of both persons.
- Is meant to be flattering and complimentary.
- Is an invitation to have fun together and enjoy each other's company.
- Invites sexual attention.
- Is intended to make the other person feel wanted, attractive, and in control.
- Is discontinued when the person who is being flirted with becomes upset, objects to the flirting, or is not interested.
Verbal Sexual Bullying:
- Is based on an imbalance of power and is one-sided: the bully sexually taunts; the bullied kid is demeaned and degraded.
- Is intended to harm and exploit.
- Is invasive and intended to assert the status of the bully.
- Is intended to express control and domination.
- Is intended to violate the boundaries of the target.
- Is intended to make the other person feel rejected, ugly, degraded, powerless, or uncomfortable.
- Continues especially when targeted kid becomes distressed or objects to the sexual comment.
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Procedure:
- Explain that the next activity is an opportunity for to use the decision-making model to examine a number of situations.
- In this activity, students will come up with possible situations and place them along a continuum of healthy to unhealthy. It may be easier to decide where these situations fit if you first define "unhealthy" as sexual bullying. Ask the group what they think would qualify as sexual bullying.
- Divide the group into 5 smaller groups. Each group will:
- Be given a theme (flirting, dating, committed relationship, sexual intimacy, breaking up).
- Create a continuum on which to place healthy and unhealthy situations that fall under your theme, and the shades of grey that fall in between these extremes.
- Discuss what makes these situations healthy or unhealthy, what might be going on for the people in the situation, and what ways people could handle this situation.
- Designate a reporter to summarize and report the discussion to the larger group.
- Have each small group report back. At the end, ask the participants:
- What did you notice about the continuums?
- What was similar among all the continuums?
- What was different?
- Emphasize the key points of what helps keep relationships and sexual intimacy healthy.
To: Filling Up Your Relationship Skill Toolbox - Overview >
