Contraception, Copulation Domination, and the Theoretical Barrenness of Sex Education Literature

Abstract

240EDUCATIONAL THEORY extramarital chastity, and to do so they rejected the view of male sexuality then held by some which saw the periodic ejaculation of semen as necessary to health. Sex, in the view of these advocates, needed to be restricted to occasional procreative acts with a loving partner.2 One physician of the time argued that "the sexual organs appear to be constructed along quite different lines from those of any other organ of the body and to be created for intermittent rather than for continuous use.'I3 Because these sex education advocates conceptualized sex in a certain way, they could promote educational programs of a particular sort aiming at specific results. According to Bryan Strong,The sex educators believed that if it were possible to impress upon the minds of youth that the end of sex was procreation rather than pleasure, then it was possible to use the ideology of procreation as "the ballast, the regulator of sex." If the young believed that the purpose of sex was the conception of children, then premarital sex would be eliminated, prostitution abolished, and sexual excess in marriage ended.4

Goals for sex equitable sexuality education

“…An underlying assumption that helps bolster the view of the woman as the barely sexual, responsible person and that helps deny the possibility of female desire and pleasure is that sexual activity equals intercourse. The intercourse assumption derives from the view of sexual activity as procreative rather than pleasurable and, as such, severely limits options teenagers have for sexual activity (Diorio, 1985). The choices are reduced to being sexually inactive or having intercourse, which brings with it the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.…”

Where is the discourse of desire? Deconstructing the Irish Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) resource materials

“…The result of this is that oppressive practices and the 'problems' that sex education programmes are supposedly designed to alleviate are actually reinforced. Furthermore, what has also been highlighted in studies of the official sex education curriculum is how it can be a reflection of anxieties in a society at a given time (Diorio, 1985;Epstein & Johnson, 1998) and also an imaginary project communicating a particular vision of how things ought to be in the social world (Kehily, 2002). Building on Fine (1988) and Diorio's (1985) contributions, some commentators have considered how sex education curricula might be opened up to the exploration of a richer gamut of anti-oppressive possibilities for experiencing pleasure or ways of sexually being in the world (Epstein & Johnson, 1998;Willig, 1999;Mayo, 2004).…”

“…Furthermore, what has also been highlighted in studies of the official sex education curriculum is how it can be a reflection of anxieties in a society at a given time (Diorio, 1985;Epstein & Johnson, 1998) and also an imaginary project communicating a particular vision of how things ought to be in the social world (Kehily, 2002). Building on Fine (1988) and Diorio's (1985) contributions, some commentators have considered how sex education curricula might be opened up to the exploration of a richer gamut of anti-oppressive possibilities for experiencing pleasure or ways of sexually being in the world (Epstein & Johnson, 1998;Willig, 1999;Mayo, 2004). Researchers have also acknowledged the complexities and difficulties experienced by sex education teachers, particularly in contexts like Ireland, where sexuality and sex education are contested politically and where, traditionally, teachers were not entrusted with this responsibility (Trudell, 1993;Lupton & Tulloch, 1996;Epstein & Johnson, 1998;Inglis, 1998;Kehily, 2002).…”

“…The problematization of young people's sexualities Diorio (1985) has claimed that a curricular field can be very closely tied to the social problems it is expected to solve in a society. Pregnancy to young unmarried mothers is one of the issues identified in media discourses and in many research studies as a 'problem' in Irish society (McNally, 1996;Southern Health Board & Ó gra Chorcai, 2003;Fullerton, 2004).…”

Threshold assessment and performance management: modernizing or masculinizing teaching in England?1

“…Much has been written about the purpose(s) of sex education and how at any historical moment these are mediated by public discourses that constitute social and economic phenomena as 'problems' to be addressed (Diorio, 1985;Reiss, 1993). This has meant that since its inception in the Western world, sex education has been variously perceived as a tool for curbing rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, 'promiscuity', 'sexual deviance' and or the 'negative' effects of unintended pregnancy (Thomson, 1994;Thorogood, 2000).…”