Let's Give The Spanish A Hand

A Spanish region's new approach to sex education has provoked anger by suggesting children be taught "self-exploration and self-pleasure".

The government of Extremadura launched a campaign giving advice to teenagers on masturbation with the slogan "pleasure is in your own hands", which has angered Spain's Roman Catholics and conservative media.

"Extremadura should be pleased with itself," Pilar Rahola, a columnist in the Barcelona-based La Vanguardia newspaper, wrote. "It may have the most unemployed young people in Spain but they will be the best at masturbation."

But Laura Garrido, president of Extremadura's youth council, said the lessons would be valuable to adolescents, and were part of a much broader education than the mechanics of masturbating. "The lessons are based on the concepts of self esteem, confidence and male and female anatomy and physiology," she said.

Local media reported her as saying that press coverage of the lessons had been "manipulated and twisted". No pun intended, of course.