Sexual health education and the normalization of bodies in Western Switzerland

Publikationen

«It is a piece that fits into another»: Sexual health education and the normalization of bodies in Western Switzerland

Abstract

Drawing upon two ethnographic studies conducted in Western Switzerland – in a sexual education service for disabled people, and in a sexual health centre for the general public – this article demonstrates how gender is constructed through sexual health education. Deploying the theoretical paradigms of the Doing Gender Theory (West, Zimmerman, 2009), and the epistemology of ignorance (Tuana, 2006; 2004), this article presents one main finding: sexual health education programs (re)produce gender dynamics along a continuum, in different sexual health education programs designed for different audiences (youth, teenagers, adults). The analysis follows three lines: discourses, as well as medical and anatomical models, about fecundation and the clitoris; discourses about the social construction of puberty; definition and perception of sexual intercourse.

Keywords

  • sexual health education
  • Doing Gender
  • epistemology of ignorance
  • ethnography

Autor_innen

Links

Publikation Information

Verlag:

Genre, sexualité & société - GSS, 24 | Automne 2020: «Varia»

Sprachen:

Französisch

Stadt:

Aubervilliers

Jahr:

2020

Forschungsthemen:

Schulwesen – Ausbildung
Gesundheit – Medizin
Sexualität

Fächer:

Soziologie, Erziehungswissenschaft

Form:

Artikel