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Sex Education, Youth, and Advocacy: Sexual Literacy, Critical Media, and Intergenerational Sex Education(s)

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Abstract

Youth get many competing messages about sexuality, often steeped in tacit messages about unequal gendered power relations. However, social networking revolutions have created unprecedented opportunities for students to access information and create representations of information about sexuality that challenges normative gender identities. This chapter reviews some diverse sex education occurring among young people, focusing on feminist and peer-led intergenerational sex education. We explore the intersections of sex education and media and discuss activist strategies for bringing relevant sex education into young people’s lives in and out of classrooms. We include an original workshop to help young people develop skills to become critical consumers and producers of media, and to mobilize them to be both sexually educated and proactive sexuality educators themselves through engagement in activism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Marisa Ragonese & Deborah L. Tolman

  2. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Christin P. Bowman

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  1. Marisa Ragonese
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  2. Christin P. Bowman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Louisa Allen

  2. School of Sociology Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Mary Lou Rasmussen

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Ragonese, M., Bowman, C.P., Tolman, D.L. (2017). Sex Education, Youth, and Advocacy: Sexual Literacy, Critical Media, and Intergenerational Sex Education(s). In: Allen, L., Rasmussen, M.L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_15

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