Against Sex Education: Pedagogy, Sex Work, and State Violence

This book explores the questions of why we have sex education, for whom it exists, and who it is against, focusing on the marginalized lives of sex workers. It argues that sex education is a form of state violence that maintains close ties to sexism, racism, colonialism, and capitalism and calls for an end to it as a federally funded project.

Format: Hardback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 07 October 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Winner of the American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Book Award, this groundbreaking book delves into the profound questions surrounding sex education. It challenges the very existence of sex education, examining its purpose, beneficiaries, and opponents. Through a focused analysis on the marginalized lives of sex workers, the book offers a fresh perspective, shedding light on the implications of sex education in public schools and teacher education. By exploring the interconnectedness between sex education and sex work, Caitlin Howlett uncovers the ways in which sex education perpetuates state violence and maintains close ties to sexism, racism, colonialism, and capitalism. Drawing on a diverse range of disciplines, including Foucauldian genealogy, feminist history, epistemology, post-humanism, and queer of color critique, Howlett advocates for the abolition of sex education as a federally funded project and proposes alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching about sex, gender, and sexuality in schools. The ebook editions of this book are freely accessible under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com.

Weight: 436g
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350178441