Abstract
The central focus of this chapter explores how girls in a coed classroom deal with the vulnerability that may arise in lessons in curricula that position them as at risk for coercion and rape. Needing to assert themselves as both strong and equals to the boys in the class, they introduce ideas of retaliation and aggression. In this chapter we also discuss how girls seemingly abandon support of other girls who cross a line with regard to respect, even in situations where other girls are being exploited. Needing to maintain that a self-respecting girl should always be in control, they strongly and rather heartlessly blame other girls for putting themselves in positions where they might be raped. In the classroom they also had moments of refusing to participate in discussions of pornography, when challenged to do so. We discuss these issues in terms of the “respect” ideology, the idea that adolescents are urged to be responsible for themselves in the United States, their relationship to feminism, the historic protection of men of color by women of color when men of color have been wrongly blamed or accused of rape, and the socialization for resilience.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allen, L. (2007). “Pleasurable pedagogy”: Young people’s ideas about teaching “pleasure” in sexuality education. 21st Century Society, 2, 249–264.
Allen, L. (2008). “They think you shouldn’t be having sex anyway”: Young people’s suggestions for improving sexuality education content. Sexualities, 11(5), 573−594.
Batchelor, D.C. (2006). Vulnerable voices: An examination of the concept of vulnerability in relation to student voice. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 38(6), 787–800. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2006.00231.x.
Bay-Cheng, L.Y. & Eliseo-Arras, R.K. (2008). The making of unwanted sex: Gendered and neoliberal norms in college women’s unwanted sexual experiences. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 386–397.
Blum, L. (2012). Moral asymmetry: A problem for the protected categories approach. Lewis and Clark Law Review, 16(2), 101–109.
Brown, L.M. (2003). Girlfighting betrayal and rejection among girls. New York: New York University Press.
Crenshaw, K., Ocen, P., & Nanda, J. (2015). Black girls matter: Pushed out, overpoliced and underprotected. Report issued by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Columbia Law School’s Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The souls of black folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.
Duncan, G.A. (2005). Black youth, identity, and ethics. Educational Theory, 55, 3–22.
Erikson, E.H. (1966). Eight ages of man. International Journal of Psychiatry, 2, 281–307.
Fields, J. (2005). “Children having children”: Race, innocence, and sexuality education. Social Problems, 52(4): 549–71.
Fields, J. (2008). Risky lessons: Sex education and social inequality. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Fine, M. (1988). Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire. Harvard Educational Review, 58(1), 29–53.
Franiuk, R., Seefelt, J., & Vandello, J. (2008). Prevalence of rape myths in headlines and their effects on attitudes toward rape. Sex Roles, 58(11–12), 790–801.
Freud, A. (1936/1993). The ego and the mechanisms of defense. London: Karnac Books.
Froyum, C.M. (2010). Making “good girls”: Sexual agency in the sexuality education of low income black girls. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 12(1), 59–82.
Garcia, L. (2009). “Now why do you want to know about that?”: Heteronormativity, sexism, and racism in the sexual (mis)education of Latina youth. Gender & Society, 23, 520–541.
Garrod, A.C., Smulyan, L., Powers, S.I., & Kilkenny, R. (2005). Adolescent portraits: Identity, relationships, and challenges (5th ed.). Auckland: Pearson Education.
Guzmán, B., Arruda, E., & Feria, A. (2006). Los papas, la familia, y la sexualidad. In J. Denner & B. Guzmán (Eds.), Latina girls: Voices of adolescent strength in the United States (17–28). New York: NYU Press.
Harris, P. (2003). Gatekeeping and remaking: The politics of respectability in African American women's history and Black feminism. Journal of Women’s History, 15(1), 212–220.
Henwood, K. (2008). Qualitative research, reflexivity and living with risk: Valuing and practicing epistemic reflexivity and centering marginality. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5(1), 45–55. doi:10.1080/14780880701863575.
Iglesias, E., & Cormier, S. (2002). The transformation of girls to women: Finding voice and developing strategies for liberation. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 30, 259–271.
Irvine, J. (2002). Talk about sex: The battles over sex education in the United States. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Isom, D. (2012). Fluid and shifting: Racialized, gendered, and sexual identity in African American children. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 6(11), 127–137.
Lamb, S. (2013a). The future of sex education: Just the facts? Educational Theory, 63(5), 443–460.
Lamb, S. (2013b). Sex education for a caring society: Creating an ethics-based curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.
Lamb, S., & Randazzo, R. (2016). From I to we: Sex education as a form of civics education in a neoliberal context. Curriculum Inquiry, 46(2), 148–167. doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2016.1144465.
Lesko, N. (2012). Act your age: A cultural construction of adolescence. New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, S.A., & Black, M.J. (1995). Freud and beyond: A history of modern psychoanalytic thought. New York: Basic Books.
Payne, D.L., Lonsway, K.A., & Fitzgerald, L.F. (1999). Rape myth acceptance: Exploration of its structure and its measurement using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Journal of Research in Personality, 33(1), 27–68.
Ringrose, J., & Renold, E. (2012). Slut-shaming, girl power, and ‘sexualisation’: Thinking through the politics of international SlutWalks with teen girls. Gender & Education, 24(3), 333–343.
Romo, L., Kouyoumdjian, C., Nadeem, E., & Sigman, M. (2006). Promoting values of education in Latino mother-adolescent discussions about conflict and sexuality. In J. Denner & B. Guzmán (Eds.), Latina girls: Voices of adolescent strength in the United States (59–76). New York: NYU Press.
Taylor, J., Gilligan, C., & Sullivan, A. (1995). Between voice and silence: Women and girls, race and relationship. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Utsey, S., Giesbrecht, N., Hook, J., & Stanard, P. (2008). Cultural, sociofamilial, and psychological resources that inhibit psychological distress in African Americans exposed to stressful life events and race related stress. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(1), 49–62.
Weekes, D. (2002). Get your freak on: How black girls sexualise identity. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 2(3), 251–262.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lamb, S., Roberts, T., Plocha, A. (2016). Girls of Color in Sex Education Classrooms. In: Girls of Color, Sexuality, and Sex Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60155-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60155-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60153-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60155-1
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)