Stereotypes in Four Current AOUM Sexuality Education Curricula: Good Girls, Good Boys, and the New Gender Equality

Abstract

It has long been noted that sexuality education curricula contain gender stereotypes and heterosexism that may be harmful to people of all genders. Many of the stereotypes and sources of heterosexism that have been discussed in the literature have to do with old-fashioned and restrictive roles for men and women and focus on heterosexual sex and marriage. In this article, we analyzed four currently used Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM) curricula in order to examine to what extent these curricula reproduce these stereotypes. We found only a few instances of older stereotypes of boys as pursuers and girls as passive recipients. There were instead more modern ideals of choice and equality that were represented; however, we found that the language of choice and equality was often used to support new stereotypes of female sexuality. For example, in treating boys and girls as equal in terms of pressuring each other to have sex or objectifying each other, they introduce some problematic new images and stereotypes of female sexuality. We use Blum's theory of “false symmetry” and Glick and Fiske's theory of benevolent sexism to explain the problems with these new images.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality education curricula
• abstinence only until marriage curriculum
• gender stereotypes

Notes

It is important to note that throughout this paper, the terms boy/girl and man/women refer to the self-presentation of a chosen gender. Though this chosen gender usually aligns with one's biology, the socially constructed notion of gender allows for an individual to actively construct their gender (West & Zimmerman, 1987). However, male/female refers to biologically determined sex characteristics.