The article claims there’s a german sex-ed booklet which advises, among other things, that fathers “don’t pay enough attention to their daughter’s vagina and clitoris,” and that their “caresses” should extend to those areas. Real WTF material there… so WTF, in fact, that I don’t believe it.
The fact that I can’t find any mention of the story in English that does not stem directly from the above link also turns on my BS meter. And the nature of the site linked to above also turns on my BS meter.
I find the following, in German, at Der Spiegel’s website:
It’s about the book in question. So the book does exist!
But I don’t know enough German to be able to read the article. At one point, I see that someone is claiming that something has been misunderstood. Are the quotes I read, then, taken out of context? What’s the proper context? Anyone here read German?
My German is a bit rusty, but the Spiegel article states that the booklets have been withdrawn due to the controversy, due to ambigious advice, due to advice easily misunderstood and due to a lack of focus on preventing child abuse.
I think the translated statements are twisted slightly, but the booklet is about preventing tabooisation (or a similar but actually existing word) of children’s sexuality. Not in the context of promoting it, but in the context of not stopping or punishing a child’s exploration of his or her own body.
The booklet is real and it is true that it has been withdrawn after complaints. However the translation in the article is a bit misleading.
My own rough translation from the booklet with a little context:
(* Although “sexuality” is a reasonable literal translation, it’s actually closer to something like “the quality of having a sex/gender”)
I understand how that can be seen as an unfortunate somewhat ambiguous phrasing but the real text is not quite as sinister as the article claims. I can’t comment on the next alleged quote…
… because I can’t find it in the booklet.
American readers probably aren’t aware of this but there is a small tradition of slightly distorted news articles from some socially conservative American sources about the latest outrage from godless socialist Germany. Anybody remember that urban legend about the unemployed woman who was forced into prostitution by the employment office?
It was a minor press topic in late July; the ministry apparently pulled the brochures pending reevaluation. Later articles in Spiegel Online had statements from sex education experts to the effect that there was no basis to the allegations (of encouraging pedophilia).
It seems the story did not get any traction since - it appears that no significant political group in Germany is trying to make hay of it (the original story ran in a far-right rag).
BTW there was an evaluation study on the brochures in 2001 (60 mothers and 30 fathers of 0-6 year olds, randomly chosen, and 15 nonrandom childcare professionals), and it seems none of the participants voiced the concerns referred to in the OP. evaluation study summary and download (German language)