Crossing ‘boundaries’ with the collective girl: a poetic intervention into sex education

Abstract

Feminist poststructuralist approaches to research can authorize different ways of working with different types of texts in search of insight into the discursive constitution of subjects. In this paper I undertake a close reading of women's memories about early sexual experiences generated in a small collective biography workshop. The collective poetic text that emerges from the workshop is analysed in terms of recent feminist sociological research on girls' experiences of (hetero)sex and in terms of Foucault's work on power. Analysis reveals the discursive complexity and deep (and often dangerous) contradictions through which girls negotiate their shifting subjectivities as they become sexual. My readings of this text imply that school sex education programs might attend more closely to the ambiguities of agency and desire experienced by adolescent subjects of the curriculum. Finally, I suggest that reflexive readings of our own (sexed) subjectivities can be productive professional development strategies for teachers of sex education.

Notes

* School of Education and Early Childhood Studies, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, South Penrith DC 1797, NSW, Australia. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susanne Gannon *

* School of Education and Early Childhood Studies, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, South Penrith DC 1797, NSW, Australia. Email: [email protected]