Tagged: sex education

Gender & Sexuality / Sociology of Culture

The detriments of "Sex Ed" in its current state

Do you remember your sex education during your youth? Did you even have sex education? My school district (a local, public school district composing of four small townships) contracted out our sex education through Catholic Charities, which would come into health classes and teach “sex ed.” (Note: I am very conscientious of using quotations around my experience of “sex ed” because it wasn’t real sexual education, but rather, (heteronormative) abstinence only education.) We started having exposure to sex ed as...

Gender & Sexuality / Sociology of Culture

Sexing Up the Sex Ed Classroom Revisited

About a year ago, I wrote my first post for Sociology Lens about the tensions over sex education in the United States. Specifically, I commented on Jessica Field’s Sociology Compass article, “Sexuality Education in the United States: Shared Cultural Ideas Across the Political Divide,” in which she argues that, regardless of political position on sex education, most participants in debates operate from a shared assumption about the dangers of adolescent sexuality. Following Fields, I called for a truly comprehensive form...

Science & Technology

The Good and Bad News about HIV Infections

This week, great news emerged out of Mississippi: an infant, previously infected with HIV, has been cured of the virus. This development indicates promise for the future. We have now entered an era with the possibility of curing a once incurable disease. This is certainly a time to celebrate the progress of modern medicine and its ability to save the lives of millions of people. However, alongside this great news, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released new data...

Sociology Compass Issues

Sexing Up the Sex Ed Classroom?

  In her Sociology Compass article, Sexuality Education in the United States: Shared Cultural Ideas Across the Political Divide, Jessica Fields maps the terrain of sexuality education in the United States. While many people believe that debates about sexuality education polarize into two approaches (one favoring an abstinence based approach and the other favoring a more comprehensive based approach), Fields shows that both “camps” want to regulate adolescent sexuality and protect teenagers from the dangers of sexual activity and desire...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Psychology & Lifecourse

Rethinking Sex Education

by theoryforthemasses Public debate about the content of sex education in U.S. schools has been raging for decades.  On one side of the fence are proponents of programs that teach abstinence-only sex education; on the other side are those who advocate for a more comprehensive program that teaches students how to engage in sexual activity more safely.  The educational system has long been the site of this debate.  However, a recent New York Times article explores a program in North...

Class & Stratification / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Media & Communication

‘What’s it all about, Alfie?’

                                                                                                       by paulabowles Once again the emotive issue of teenage pregnancy has hit the headlines in the UK. The recent news that 13 year old Alfie, and his 15 year old girlfriend Chantelle have become parents, has sparked a frenzy occupying all branches of the media from the broadsheets to the tabloids and the BBC to YouTube, as well as attracting the attention of senior politicians. Although, very young, Alfie and Chantelle are by no means, the youngest children to...