What is this child holding? British Museum RSE

[LiterallyProblematic]

Just looking through the Relationship & Sex Education programme on the British Museum web site, and as well as wondering why the hell the BM think they ought to be doing this, I really want to know what the child in the picture is holding up and how it is relevant Relationships or Sex education. Any ideas?
The programme seems to include looking at exhibits in the museum and assessing what that tells us about sex in, for eg, Ancient Egyptian times. So, I'm wondering if the (tin foil?) chain the girl is holding up is supposed to be some sort of replica of an ancient sex aid.

Happy to be told that I am way off the mark thinking this is dodgy; reading a lot about the culture of sex-positivity in SRE may have corrupted my mind.

www.britishmuseum.org/learn/schools/ages-14-16/school-workshop-relationship-and-sex-education

Looks like tin foil shaped into hearts and circles and linked into a chain?

I'm wondering about this chain in the context of RSE?

The Ancient Egyptians made contraceptive caps out of dried crocodile dung.

@MockersFactCheckMN how on earth do you know that?!

I think it’s just a stock photo. Not some sort of sex aid.

SEX IN HISTORY by Reay Tannahill

Is it not something to do with the relationships aspect - ie hearts being linked or something?
No idea - just guessing

Agree with cheesecake .

OP -the link to RSE is love(heart). Don't know if that makes me naive or you cynical 😂

I have definitely fallen in to the cynical camp.

I don't trust these groups who want to talk to children about sex. It's all tied up in sex positivity, porn culture and queer theory.

Replica Welsh love spoon? And no that's not a euphemism (as far as I know) for something filthy!

Crocodile dung. Blow me down. I actually have that book but it's on the tbr pile. Didn't they use something odd for tampons, too?

Guess. Everyone in the group made a heart or a circle, then they linked them into a chain to represent that people are linked by e.g. family relationships.

Is it part of a chastity belt ?!?

Hearts represent love. The idea that it might be a sex aid is completely and utterly bonkers.
Why don't you write to the British museum and ask them?

LiterallyProblematic Wed 27-Nov-19 17:10:15
I have definitely fallen in to the cynical camp.
I don't trust these groups who want to talk to children about sex. It's all tied up in sex positivity, porn culture and queer theory.

The irony of you not trusting 'them' and you thinking the picture was of some sex aid

No, it’s not part of a chastity belt. Jeez. You’re providing so much fodder for those who say GC people are hysterical and overreacting.

I think they used the pith inside reeds for tampons, ScrimshawTheSecond. Having dismantled lots of reeds as a child I can imagine it might work quite well. And as it's completely inside the rush and never exposed to the air, bugs, etc it would be pretty hygienic too.

And fairly green, obvs

Guess. Everyone in the group made a heart or a circle, then they linked them into a chain to represent that people are linked by e.g. family relationships.

Absolutely agree. Sex aid indeed

Yeah, it's hearts. For love.

But it's a stupid topic for a museum to present to teenagers.

My association in this context is the love is love campaign. They use a lot of this heart motif and relate it to different personal and cultural practices around sex. Whicj I would say I am not really crazy about for teens.

Fell down an internet hole. I think they used papyrus, according to the sources I found.

OP, no idea, but it looks pretty harmless to me.

I don’t trust an antiquities museum to add much to SRE education when trained teachers struggle to do it well.

How is saying it looks like a chastity belt anything to do with being gender critical? It looks like part of a chastity belt I remember from one of my school text books. There was no more to it than that.

Mockers knows everything

Am gonna to ask mockers about amazon fire. As I need to know

Total derail tbh

Museums need to attract schools to use them as a resource because its a good way to get visitor numbers, and it really helps if they can make themselves a necessary or useful part of the statutory education provision - government has to provide schooling but it doesn't have to provide museums. So big museums will offer all kinds of ways schools can use them to deliver different subjects.