The project “Fair Sex” originates from the joint Åland-Latvian cooperation project “Challenging Gender Roles for Prevention of Trafficking”, which aimed at combating stereotypical gender perceptions at a grass-root level in order to undermine conditions for development of gender related violence and human trafficking. The project activities in 2011 included an information campaign directed to young people under the title “Fair Sex”. The goal of the campaign was to address questions concerning grey areas in sexual situations and to encourage young people to reflect on such issues as identifying and expressing one’s own sexual preferences as well as understanding and considering the needs and desires of a sexual partner. The campaign highlighted the importance of communication as a pre-condition for positive sexual experiences and a way of reducing the risk of sexual violence. The idea of the campaign was also to initiate a discussion on social aspects of sex and the basic principles of respect, gender equality and mutuality in sexual relationships – topics that are often missing in a sex education curriculum at schools or in the vast sources of information about sex and sexuality available on the Internet and other media.
One of the pictures made within the Fair Sex campaign.
The campaign resulted, among the other things, in a request from school health representatives from upper secondary schools on Åland to further develop campaign material and hold interactive workshops for upper secondary school students on the central topics of the Fair Sex campaign. The school health personnel were alarmed by stories of young people involved in situations where students had sex in a way they did not feel comfortable with or experienced pressure to perform all types of sexual practices once they had started being sexually active.
Pilot workshops for youth were carried out during the period from autumn 2011 to spring 2012 with funding from the Government of Åland. All second year students in upper secondary school on Åland were provided with opportunity to take part in a pilot workshop session. Talking about sex in a structured non-formal and interactive setting was appreciated by students as something they had not previously experienced.
An incentive for developing a broader project against sexual violence in schools came up in connection to the publication of the results of the school health promotion study from 20112, carried out by the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland. It had shown that 30% of all girls in the lower secondary school, 25% in the general upper secondary school and 40% in the upper secondary vocational school on Åland had experienced sexual violence by being pressurized or forced into sexual intercourse or other form of sexual practices, offered money, luxuries, alcohol or drugs in exchange for sexual favors or groped against their will. The Government of Åland reacted to these results by inviting the Åland Islands Peace Institute to develop a project initiative against sexual violence that would involve both students and school personnel of upper secondary schools on Åland. The project “Fair Sex” was granted funding and launched in spring 2012. The project have been running until the end of 2015.
