In the new world of Andrew Tate, hardcore pornography and rape culture, sex education is very different to the days when it conjured up images of a hapless teacher trying to put a condom on a banana.
That is why Matilda Lawrence-Jubb decided to name her relationships and sex education (RSE) company Split Banana: for her, modern sex-ed should be about “splitting away” from the ways of the past.
But RSE is now facing another crisis. The government is bringing forward a review of sex education in schools amid a media storm over claims that children are being taught that there are “over 100 genders” and learning about “rough sex” from external educators.
RSE has come a long way in the past 20 years. Schools were only permitted to talk about the existence of gay people in 2003, with the repeal of Margaret Thatcher’s section 28 laws. RSE only became a compulsory part of the secondary curriculum in 2020.
