As you've probably noticed, the editors at feministing tend to be pretty fascinated and outraged by the state of sex education in this country. Well, so is sociologist Jessica Fields, and she's done an amazing, comprehensive, visionary study of the ways in which our pedagogy on sex shortchanges all of us. Her book, Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality, is the best I've read on the subject--excelling on both the nitty gritty level (she's really in classrooms, really observing teachers and students wrestling with poor curriculum) and the big picture level. Where the latter is concerned, she basically lays out a liberation philosophy for sex education. You think I'm kidding?:
...if education is an opportunity for students and teachers to face and reimagine those constraining definitions, then sex education insists upon the importance of young people's desire, pleasure, and power in that reimagining. Young people's desires and pleasures have the potential to remake the world.
It's enough to make you want to stand up and cheer. What's more, she's thorough in her examination of the ways in which sex education is heteronormative, racist, and classist, and brings a much-needed geographical diversity to her analysis.
Warning: Fields is an academic, so there are times when the prose doesn't exactly sing, but I was actually pretty transfixed the entire time. She doesn't do any insecure academic posturing (big words, over-referencing of Foucault etc.) and she seems to really emotionally engage with this material. There's even some personal narrative sprinkled in.
Thanks Jessica Fields. I hope this book is read far and wide.
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Hey! I'm in academia and my prose sings like it's going out of style!
...no, you're right, it doesn't. But Fields' book sounds great. I'll pick it up next time I need a break from performativity and strategic essentialism... man, I'm a nerd.
I just added this to my Amazon wish list. ;)
I just added this to my Amazon wish list. ;)
I just added this to my Amazon wish list. ;)
Is it *really* possible to over-reference Foucault?
Thanks for posting this! I am checking this book out for my thesis- it sounds perfect!
xocoatl- nope! :-D
amen, xocoatl! :)
Just ordered this, Thanks for the suggestion Courtney