Sexual Pedagogies : Sex Education in Britain, Australia, and America, 1879–2000

Understandings of sexuality and sex education have changed dramatically, and in this collection, the authors explore the various texts that were used to teach, to entertain, to sanction and to form a sexual standard for a nation.

"Sex education" extends beyond the classroom and beyond childhood. As this collection of seven new essays shows, many kinds of texts have tried to shape their audiences'' sexual understanding, from 19th-century erotica to 20th-century sermons on abstinence, marriage manuals to feminine-hygiene pamphlets, Hollywood comedies about sexual coming-of-age to picture books validating homosexuality. Together, the essays in Sexual Pedagogies seek to illustrate the many responses that Anglophone culture has had to changes in sexual mores. Focusing on three nations, this anthology examines the interplay of radical and conservative ideologies of sex, noting the influence of market forces, cultural beliefs about childhood and gender, and in some cases geopolitics. The competing agendas and assumptions of sex educators past and present have much to tell us about the society in which we live.