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Responses to Brook’s sex education guides

Brook Advisory Centres used graphic imagery and everyday language in their sex-education guides. While the guides were popular with the young people they were aimed at, they caused controversy among some politicians and the media.

Words by Caroline Rusterholz

  • In pictures
Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows an information leaflet which contains black and white photographs and orange graphical elements. The leaflet is split into three vertical panels. The one on the left shows a black and white photograph of two young woman in conversation over a counter. On the front of the counter is a large poster showing many different shaped condoms hanging on washing lines. The central panel contains the words 'Book Advisory Centres. Annual Report 1994-95. A Service for Young people'. The panel on the right show three photographs one above the other, each one shows a group on women in discussion.
'A Service for Young People' educational leaflet from the Brook Advisory Centres. 1994-95. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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Information on contraception and sexuality for young people has always been a contentious topic in the UK. Even today, sex education and relationships at school are hotly debated, and new guidance remains desperately limited. The first UK institution to tackle this lack of information for young people was Brook (at the time Brook Advisory Centres or BAC) in 1964. BAC’s aims were to “educat[e] young persons in matter[s] of sex and contraception and develop among them a sense of responsibility in regard to sexual behaviours”.

Photograph of a black and white archive photographic print from the 1980s against a black background. The print shows a group photograph of 4 young people surrounding an older woman who is wearing glasses. Everyone is looking to camera and smiling.
Photograph of Helen Brook, in the centre wearing glasses. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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The centres were created by Helen Brook, who had worked for the Family Planning Association (FPA). Until then, only married people were allowed into FPA clinics and Marie Stopes clinics. BAC broke with this tradition and officially allowed young unmarried people to obtain advice and contraception for the first time. In addition to providing in-person counselling, Brook members produced visual materials to inform young people about contraceptive methods and safe sex practices.

Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows 3 DL size leaflets, side by side. The leaflets to the left and right are a purple colour with white text and graphics. The one to the left carries the words 'Safe Sex, Contraception, Brook Advisory Centres'. In the centre is an abstract line sketch of two people holding hands. The one to the right carries the words 'How to use the sheath' within a rounded edged rectangular white line. The leaflet in the middle show a black black and white photograph of a group of young people looking to camera, with 3 smaller red tinted portraits of young faces, overlaid onto of the first larger image. Surrounding the images are the words 'Love Carefully, Use a condom', with a small logo for the Brook Advisory Centres.
A selection of three educational leaflets from the Brook Advisory Centres. 1974 - 1984. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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In 1974, BAC designed its first informational leaflet, called ‘Safe Sex Contraception’. Combining detailed visual depictions of the contraceptive methods available on the market with informative text explaining how the methods worked, this leaflet provided evidence-based information about the advantages and disadvantages of each method, as well as its failure rate. It also offered a list of BAC branches where young people could obtain contraceptives. More than 30,000 copies circulated in 1974, and the leaflet was updated based on the latest scientific studies in 1977 and 1979. 

Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows an A5 sized leaflet with a large orange tinted photograph on the front of a young man and woman in an embrace. Above and below the image are the words, 'How the Brook helps teenagers needing advice about sex. Brook Advisory Centres, helpful people with helpful answers'.
An educational booklet titled 'How the Book helps teenagers needing advice about sex' from the Brook Advisory Centres. 1974 - 1984. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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The educative work done by BAC proved popular, and BAC members were regularly invited to give sex-education talks in schools across Britain. Sex education was the responsibility of the Health Education Council from 1968 onwards. The latter worked with independent voluntary agencies such as the National Marriage Guidance Council, the Family Planning Association and BAC in order to train and provide resources for teachers.

Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows an A5 sized hole punched booklet, purple in colour. In the centre is an abstract line sketch of two people holding hands. Above the figures is a rectangular sticker with the words 'Contraception Teaching Pack'. Next to the sticker is a smaller circular white sticker with '£5' hand written on it. Below the central figures are the words 'Brook Advisory Centres. Education & Publications Unit'.
Teaching pack booklet titled 'Brook Advisory Centres, Education & Publications Unit'. 1974 - 1984. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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In 1976 BAC Birmingham created a safe-sex kit for use by teachers, speakers and group leaders. The kit was made up of 48 slides, a cassette tape, some accompanying notes, the aforementioned ‘Safe Sex’ leaflet and a set of contraceptive samples. It presented facts about contraception by depicting a young couple’s visit to the doctor. This kit proved successful and, as a result, an Education and Publications Unit was set up to produce teaching kits. 

Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows an A5 sized hole punched leaflet with 4 diagrams of the male and female reproductive organs. Above the diagrams are the words 'A look at your body'. The top two diagrams show labelled views of the external reproductive organs, with the male on the left and female on the right. The two diagrams below are labelled cross-sectional drawings of the internal reproductive organs, again male on the left and female on the right.
'A look at your body' educational leaflet from the Brook Advisory Centres. 1974 - 1984. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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In 1980 the first contraception teaching pack designed by the unit was produced. It offered advice and material for teachers to use when introducing the topic of contraception. Three main themes were covered: biology of sex, methods of contraception, and use of contraception. Each of them was arranged around resource materials that featured visual graphics. For instance, the leaflet ‘A Look at Your Body’ combined a frontal depiction of the male and female genitals with an identification of the different anatomical parts and cut-side views of the same genitals.

Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows an open double page spread of an information booklet which contains purple coloured typed text and a purple tinted drawing. On the left hand page are the title words, 'Condom, sheath, Johnny,Durex, rubber, French letter. A man can use a condom.' Under these words are a drawing of condom, its foil packed and cardboard box. Under the drawing are the words 'The man waits for his penis to go hard. Before he has sex he rolls the condom onto his penis'. On the right hand page are the words 'The his penis can go into the woman's vagina.' Under this text is a large drawing of the torso of a naked man. He is pictured in the process of putting a condom onto his erect penis.
Page from an educational booklet explaining how to use a condom, from the Brook Advisory Centres. 1974 - 1984. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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However, one leaflet triggered widespread condemnation and BAC was told to remove it from teaching packs or lose government funding for the Education and Publications Unit.  Entitled ‘A Look at Safe Sex’ (1978), the booklet was designed for people with learning impairments. Ten thousand copies of the booklet were printed, 800 of which were distributed to officials and teachers in order to assess its acceptability and efficiency as a teaching aid for people with limited reading skills. For the purpose of providing “simple and explicit” information, the leaflet depicted frontal nudes and erect penises alongside both Latin terminology and “back-room language”. It also showed graphic depictions of the different methods of birth control and how to use them.

Photograph of archive material from the 1980s against a black background. The image shows an A4 sized hole punched piece of card with two yellowed newspaper cuttings sellotaped onto the card. The cutting on the left carries the headline, "'Curb the sex pedlars' call to Government". The cutting to the right carries the headline, "Curb the sex groups, says John".
Newspaper clippings from May 1980 attacking some of the Brook Advisory Centres' educational material. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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‘A Look at Safe Sex’ proved popular, and another 7,000 copies were distributed the same year, but in 1980 the booklet attracted negative attention from politicians due to its straightforward approach to contraception. In Parliament, the Tory MP James Pawsey stated that the pack “contained some of the most pornographic material I have ever seen”. What outraged Pawsey was the fact that the leaflet did not contextualise the sexual relationship in a broader moral framework but instead provided simple, factual and accurate information on contraception, using the language of young people. 

Photograph of a tabloid newspaper against a black background. An inside page has been pulled vertically out of the cover revealing a photograph of a young woman with permed hair, large hoop earrings and a large metal necklace. She has no clothes on her upper body. Above her to the left, in the corner of the page is a graphical oval shape with the words 'The lovliest girls are in your Sun'. Below the woman is the front page of the newspaper which just obscures her breasts. In a red box on the front page is the title of the newspaper, 'The Sun' and the date 'Monday, July 9, 1990'
Page 3 of The Sun newspaper, 9th July 1990.
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This controversy reveals that despite the need to educate young people about contraception, explicit visual materials were censored, indicating the graphic boundaries of what was acceptable in sex education at a time when the media was increasingly using explicit and sexual imagery of young people to attract consumers. 

About the author

Photographic black and white head and shoulders portrait of Dr Caroline Rusterholz.

Caroline Rusterholz

Dr Caroline Rusterholz is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.