Last night’s “Glee” TV episode tackled sex education among high school students — or the lack of it.
Taking on the abstinence-only versus comprehensive sex education debate, the show offered a mixture of racy song choices, discussions of celibacy and both opposite-sex and same-sex attraction. But the highlight was a particularly poignant “sex talk” between father and son.
The episode, rated for ages 14 and older, begins with a meeting of the celibacy club and the school guidance counselor’s efforts to promote abstinence. Gwyneth Paltrow, reprising her guest-star role as the saucy Holly Holiday, steps in as the sex education teacher, arguing that abstinence is a valid choice for teenagers but “not that realistic,’’ and that “information is power.’’ And because this is “Glee,” she breaks into a racy rendition of Joan Jett’s “Do You Wanna Touch Me.’’
But the moving father-son talk should be required watching for any parent. The father, Burt Hummel (played by Mike O’Malley), talks to his gay son, Kurt (Chris Colfer), about the emotional side of sex.
After offering his son some pamphlets on the “mechanics” of sex, he launches into The Talk.
For most guys, sex is just this thing we always want to do. It’s fun. It feels great. But we’re not really thinking too much about how it makes us feel on the inside or how the other person feels about it.
He goes on to caution his son not to think that “sex is just sex.”
You’ve got to know that it means something. It’s doing something to you, to your heart, to your self-esteem, even though it feels like you’re just having fun…. When you’re ready, I want you to be able to do everything, but when you’re ready, I want you to use it as a way to connect to another person. Don’t throw yourself around like you don’t matter. Because you matter, Kurt.
Watch the video to see all of the father-son conversation about sex. And then join the discussion. Do you wish Burt Hummel was around when you were a teenager? Or did the racier scenes during the rest of the show push the sex episode too far?
