Review of 'Shaping sexual knowledge: a cultural history of sex education in twentieth century Europe', edited by Lutz D. H. Sauerteig and Roger Davidson, London and New York, Routledge, 2009, 276 pp., £80.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-41114-1

Abstract

One could be forgiven, when investigating sex education, for thinking there are only two key discourses at work: comprehensive sex education and the conservative movement aiming to repress it. Much of what is published in books, journals, newspaper articles, radio discussions and (here I roll my eyes) televised news reports about what goes on in Western schools reflects this assumption. Often such texts explicitly promote this dichotomy. This is particularly true with texts privileging US cultural histories or perspectives. These texts vary in their selection of the focal point of their debate - it may relate to teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, sexually transmissible infections, safety, representations of the family, policy and so forth. But it is the depiction of the debate itself, the story of a struggle between power-holders and the sexually repressed, which is consistent. Extreme and polarised ideologies concerning 'what our kids should be taught about sex' are depicted as pitched in a valorised battlefield wherein one or the other side must clearly be championed, wherein one or the other side clearly has the children's best interests at heart, whilst one or the other will lead them not only to personal ruin, but also to a damaging of society at large and a failing of its key institutions. Despite all Foucault's insights, the plethora of sexuality discourses, and the complexities of their interrelations beyond a simplistic notion of repressive power, is frequently obscured in contemporary media. The value of 'Shaping sexual knowledge' is threefold in combating this pervasive illusion.