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Drawing the Line: Sex Education and Homosexuality in South Australia, 1985

Jose, Jim (1999). Drawing the Line: Sex Education and Homosexuality in South Australia, 1985. Australian Journal of Politics and History,45(2):197-212.

Document type: Journal Article
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Title Drawing the Line: Sex Education and Homosexuality in South Australia, 1985
Author Jose, Jim
Journal Name Australian Journal of Politics and History
Publication Date 1999
Volume Number 45
Issue Number 2
ISSN 0004-9522   (check CDU catalogue open catalogue search in new window)
Start Page 197
End Page 212
Total Pages 16
Place of Publication UK
Publisher Blackwell Publishing
HERDC Category C1 - Journal Article (DEST)
Abstract This paper examines a specific controversy over the control and content of sex education in South Australia in 1985 that was triggered by concerns about homosexuality. Drawing on Foucault's idea of the “deployment of sexuality”, the paper examines the way in which the issue of homosexuality became the focal point for a concerted struggle over sex education in state schools. It is argued that the idea of homosexuality, or more accurately male homosexual sexuality, served as a boundary marker that both defined and revealed the content and scope of school-based sex education. It is shown that this controversy was an instance of the “deployment of sexuality” through which public opinion was concentrated and mobilised to ensure that prevailing heterosexual norms remained the defining parameters for sex education. Thus it is also demonstrated that sex education is deeply implicated in both the construction and maintenance of prevailing (gendered) sexual norms.
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8497.00062   (check subscription with CDU E-Gateway service for CDU Staff and Students  check subscription with CDU E-Gateway in new window)
 
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Created: Fri, 12 Sep 2008, 08:35:25 CST by Administrator