Beyond the birds and the bees: constituting a discourse of erotics in sexuality education

Abstract

A tradition of predominately feminist literature has revealed that there is a ‘missing discourse of desire’ in many sex education programmes. Building on this work, this article explores the gendered effects of this de‐eroticized and clinical form of education. It is argued that young women and men's (hetero)sexual subjectivities are differentially affected by the invisibility of desire and pleasure in this curriculum. To offer young women a sense of personal empowerment and entitlement, and young men a broader range of (hetero)sexual subjectivities, it is proposed that sex education include a discourse of erotics. This would comprise more than an acknowledgement of desire and pleasure and incorporate the embodied practicalities of these experiences. As a means of developing this discourse within sexuality programmes, empirical evidence of 17‐ to 19‐year‐olds' experiences of desire and pleasure are examined.

Notes

* School of Education, Level 8, Business School Building, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]

Since the inception of the Health and physical education curriculum (1999) in New Zealand ‘sex education’ has officially undergone a name change to ‘sexuality education’. It is stated in this curriculum that ‘sex education, generally refers only to the physical dimension of sexuality education’ while ‘sexuality education’ is believed to be a more holistic and inclusive term which covers all aspects of sexuality (Ministry of Education, 1999, p. 38).

‘Hetero’ is bracketed in an attempt to decentre the notion of (hetero)sexual experience as the ‘norm’.

Six couple interviews were conducted with young people who were in a relationship at the time of the research. These were directly followed by individual interviews with each partner.

411 questionnaires were completed asking young people about their sexual subjectivities, knowledge and practices.

17 Focus groups were conducted by the researcher in both mixed and single gender group contexts. In 10 of these groups subjects were ‘At School’ while the rest of the groups were comprised of young people who were no longer at school.

16.3% Maori, 16.3% Pacific Islands, 9.1% Asian, 57.4% Pakeha (see note 7), 1% Other.

Pakeha is a term commonly used in New Zealand to denote non‐Maori New Zealanders of European descent.

An umbrella definition to describe anyone who transgresses normative gender categories.

In New Zealand the ‘Maori Gay, Lesbian, Bi‐sexual and Transgender community have adopted this word to identify as being Maori and queer’ (Definition from the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, Takataapui Pamphlet)

Intersex refers to ‘people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female’. More specifically this means someone ‘born with sex chromosomes, external genitalia, or an internal reproductive system that is not considered ‘standard’ for either male or female’ (Intersex Society of North America, 2002 as sighted at http://www.isna.org/drupal).

By contrast 74.5% of young women had never consulted pornographic magazines as a source of information. Of those who had, only 3% reported finding them very useful. It is possible this is because a discourse of erotics can be accessed from other sources such as women's magazines.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louisa Allen *

* School of Education, Level 8, Business School Building, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]