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CUHI Youth Sexual Health RIG Seminar Series

 

"Notes on No: Abstinence and the Problem of Thinking in Sex Education"

 

Jen Gilbert, Ph.D. 

Faculty of Education, York University

 

Wednesday October 28th, 2009, 1:30-3:00 pm

York University, Room 280N, York Lanes

For Directions: http://www.yorku.ca/yorkweb/maps/keele.htm

 

Free, all are welcome, please RSVP to [log in to unmask]

 

 

This paper explores the problem of prohibition in sex education. Drawing on
a two-year study of the language of abstinence in the United States, I
consider many of the different ways that adults and youth use "no" in sex
education. Feminists and other have critiqued the use of "no" as a
restrictive and punitive gesture, containing sexuality's potential in the
lives of youth, particularly girls, youth of color, and LGBT youth. While I
recognize the importance of these critiques, I take a detour through
psychoanalytic theories of negation and consider the ways "no" can, often
unwittingly, make room for thinking and thoughtfulness. I ask, how might sex
education be a problem of and for thinking? And, how might the prohibitions
that circulate through sex education create the conditions for thinking
while also working to shut thinking down? To make sex education a problem of
thought, as opposed to a problem of action or inaction, is to insist that
what matters most in sex education is that youth and adults become able to
tolerate what is most intolerable about sexuality-its beginnings in the
helplessness of infancy, its capacity to unsettle our sense of self and
other, its sheer uselessness, its saturation with meaning and its
entanglement in relations of authority. I aim through my exploration to
consider how we, in sex education, might notice how we are mired in this
difficult inventory of the human condition. 

 

Dr. Gilbert is an Associate Professor in Education specializing in theories
of sexuality, adolescence and psychoanalytic theories of teaching and
learning. Her research addresses both the field of sexual health education
and, more generally, curriculum theory and teacher education. Of particular
interest is how literature and film might be used to theorize relations of
sexuality and open up conversations with teachers and students about this
difficult terrain. Her SSHRC-funded research project, "Between Curiosity and
Human Rights: Psychoanalytic Investigations of Sexuality in Early Childhood
and Teacher Education," explores the theories of sexuality that teacher
candidates bring with them into their work with young children. She is also
working on a collaborative project investigating the meanings of abstinence
in adolescents' lives.

 

 

Please see our website for upcoming seminar summaries and other events:
www.cuhi.utoronto.ca <http://www.cuhi.utoronto.ca/> .

 

 

 

Carolyn Quinn

CUHI Administrative Assistant

Work-Study Student

Centre for Urban Health Initiatives (CUHI)

University College, Room 259

University of Toronto

15 King's College Circle

Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H7

416-978-7223

FAX:416-946-0669

 


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