Sexual Pedagogies: Sex Education in Britain, Australia, and America, 1879-2000 [Hardcover]

Claudia Nelson (Editor), Michelle H. Martin (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403963509 | ISBN-13: 978-1403963505 | Publication Date: January 3, 2004 | Edition: First Edition

"Sex education" extends beyond the classroom and beyond childhood. As this collection of seven new essays shows, many kinds of texts have tried to shape their audiences' sexual understanding, from 19th-century erotica to 20th-century sermons on abstinence, marriage manuals to feminine-hygiene pamphlets, Hollywood comedies about sexual coming-of-age to picture books validating homosexuality. Together, the essays in Sexual Pedagogies seek to illustrate the many responses that Anglophone culture has had to changes in sexual mores. Focusing on three nations, this anthology examines the interplay of radical and conservative ideologies of sex, noting the influence of market forces, cultural beliefs about childhood and gender, and in some cases geopolitics. The competing agendas and assumptions of sex educators past and present have much to tell us about the society in which we live.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Why do some sexual pedagogies succeed and some, perhaps most, fail? Sex education -- the whole question of who should be entrusted to persuade whom to do what-- has never been so hotly contested as it is today. Yet in many ways the relationship between what is taught and what is practised is as little understood as ever. This thought-provoking volume looks unblinkingly at over a century of efforts, in Britain, the United States and Australia, to intervene in citizens' understandings of their own desires. The contributors take to task purveyors of pornography, children's books, films, sex manuals and tampons, and illuminate some surprising conjunctions between gender, sex and the marketplace."--Trev Lynn Broughton, Center for Women's Studies, University of York
"Nelson and Martin are among the brightest of the younger scholars in the field of children's studies...Sexual Pedagogies reflects a high standard of scholarship, comprehension of a very controversial topic, and original thinking...This is a book that will make students, scholars, librarians, and the general reader think carefully about the problematic nature of sex education."--Jack Zipes, Department of German, University of Minnesota and author of The Brothers Grimm (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)

About the Author

Claudia Nelson is an associate professor of English at Texas A&M University and the author or coeditor of five previous books, most recently Little Strangers: Portrayals of Adoption and Foster Care in America, 1850-1929. Michelle H. Martin is assistant Professor of English at Clemson University in South Carolina, where she teaches children's and young adult literature. She is the author of Brown Gold: Milestones of African-American Children's Picture Books, 1845-2002 (forthcoming).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (January 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403963509
• ISBN-13: 978-1403963505
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,972,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)