The year 1991 was a peculiar limbo in Belgian history. The Cold War had just ended, the first Gulf War was underway, and within Belgium, the foundations of a federal state were being hammered out amid linguistic tensions. For the teenagers of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels, however, 1991 was defined by more immediate anxieties: the first pubic hair, the mystery of menstruation, wet dreams, and the whispered, terrifying rumor of AIDS.
To understand why a film like Sexuele Voorlichting was produced, it is crucial to analyze the pedagogical landscape of the era. By 1991, European nations—particularly Belgium, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia—were shifting heavily toward a "progressive frankness" model of youth education.