The Sexuality Curriculum and Youth Culture

by Carlson, Dennis; Roseboro, Donyell L.

• ISBN13: 9781433109997
• ISBN10: 1433109999
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-01
• Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Inc

Summary

The book aims to change the conversation about sexuality education for adolescents, making it consistent with a democratic cultural politics that is attuned to changes in youth and popular culture. Traditional sex education is nearly obsolete; sexuality curriculum is now primarily learned through popular culture and youth culture, which teach young people what it means to be a man and a woman, gay and straight, white, black, and Latino, rich and poor - and what sexuality has to do with it. Ultimately, this book conceptualizes democratic sexuality education as a commitment to the idea that sexuality education should affirm the right of all young people to construct their own sexual selves and relations as much as possible, so long as they are non-exploitive, consensual, and informed.

Author Biography

Dennis Carlson is a professor of cultural studies of education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and is Director of a Ford Foundation grant project, Re-framing Sexuality Education. He is the author of a number of books and co-edited volumes focusing on the meaning of democratic education in new times, and on the intersections of youth culture, popular culture, and the curriculum. Donyell L. Roseboro is an assistant professor of secondary education and foundations at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She holds a PhD in curriculum, teaching, and cultural studies from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and has recently published journal articles in Equity & Excellence in Education, The Journal of Educational Foundations, Teaching & Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice, and Learning for Democracy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
A Framework For Sexuality Education	p. 1
Constructing the Adolescent Body: Cultural Studies and Sexuality Education	p. 3
The Place of Mutuality and Care in Democratic Sexuality Education: Incorporating the Other Person	p. 29
WhatÆs Love Got to Do with It?: The Imperative of Authentic Desire	p. 44
Alone in the Presence of Others: Autistic Sexuality and Intimacy Reconsidered	p. 57
Sexuality And Youthful Subcultures Of Difference	p. 71
The Politics of Information: Prevention Education, Individual Choice and the Gendered Politics of Blame	p. 73
LGBTQ Youth and the Hidden Curriculum of Citizenship Education: A ôDay of Silenceö in a Suburban High School	p. 90
Youth Constructing Meanings of Gender in the Sexuality Education Classroom	p. 108
Where Are the White Girls?: A Qualitative Analysis of How Six African American Girls Made Meaning of Their Sexuality, Race and Gender through the Lens of Rap	p. 122
Adolescent African American Males and Hegemonic Aggressive Masculinity	p. 136
Building a Navajo Curriculum for Life: Iina	p. 149
The Prom as a Spectacle of Heteronormativity	p. 156
Sexuality Education: Lessons from Drag Kings	p. 171
Adolescent Sexuality In Film	p. 187
Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics, and the Pedagogy of Display	p. 189
The Celluloid Sexuality Curriculum: Deconstructing Teen Films	p. 217
SheÆs the Man: Deconstructing the Gender and Sexuality Curriculum at ôHollywood Highö	p. 231
The Cautionary Whale, Viking, Vessel, Planet or Saint? Adolescence and Maternal Configuration in Juno and Beyond	p. 246
The Twilight of Sexual Liberation: Undead Abstinence Ideology	p. 261
Representations Of Youthful Sexuality In Literature, Television, And Virtual Media	p. 277
Coming Back to the Text Again: Leslie Fiedler on Popular Culture, Sexuality, and Pedagogy	p. 279
Undressing the Hidden Curriculum: Sexuality Education and Middle School Literature	p. 288
TeachersÆ Perceptions of Adolescent Sexuality: Hip Hop and BET vs. Mayberry and the Moral Majority	p. 303
Breaking through the Baby-Mama Drama	p. 316
Hip Hop, Sexuality, and Online Magazines	p. 328
The Self-Porning of American Youth	p. 348
Contributors	p. 363
Index	p. 373
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The book aims to change the conversation about sexuality education for adolescents, making it consistent with a democratic cultural politics that is attuned to changes in youth and popular culture. Traditional sex education is nearly obsolete; sexuality curriculum is now primarily learned through popular culture and youth culture, which teach young people what it means to be a man and a woman, gay and straight, white, black, and Latino, rich and poor—and what sexuality has to do with it. Ultimately, this book conceptualizes democratic sexuality education as a commitment to the idea that sexuality education should affirm the right of all young people to construct their own sexual selves and relations as much as possible, so long as they are non-exploitive, consensual, and informed.