Course Syllabus

Sex Education and Sexual Reform in Europe 

Semester & Location:	Spring 2021 - DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 3 credits
Major Disciplines:	Gender Studies, Youth Studies, History and Sociology
Faculty:	Emma Raask, emma.raask@disstockholm.se
Program Director:	Tina Mangieri, tma@disstockholm.se
Time & Place:	Fridays (only), 10:05-13:00 / 1E-508

 

COVID19

We all have a collective responsibility to avoid the spread of COVID-19 at DIS. Throughout this semester, please monitor yourself carefully for symptoms of COVID-19 (dry cough, high temperature, breathing difficulties, sore throat, headache, muscle pain, loss of smell/taste). If you experience any of these symptoms, please stay home and contact the DIS emergency phone. The respondent will coordinate with Academics at DIS Stockholm, who will in turn contact your individual faculty. If you are otherwise well but isolating due to possible exposure or mild symptoms, it is your responsibility to keep up with your coursework - we will organize hybrid classes for you to join via Zoom. If you are unwell due to COVID-19 and unable to attend class or study, your absence will be excused. Your faculty will work with you to ensure you are able to make up missed course content due to illness. You are still responsible for completing any missed work. 

 

Course description: This course will give you an insight into the ways in which sexual reform and sex education have shaped not only the history of sexuality in Europe, but also the very core of various national identities. We will explore the different movements, campaigns, policies, and public debates regarding sexuality and will discover the ways in which sex and sexuality are conveyed in sexual education aimed at children and youth by reading and watching examples of sex educational material.

What sexual behaviors are deemed socially acceptable or normal, and why? We will discuss the framing of a nation’s collective sexual identity through state interventions and sexual reform and the implications for its citizens.

Our theoretical approach will be largely norm critical and you will learn how to apply the theoretical perspectives of Foucault, Rubin, Ponzetti, and others. In doing so, we will critically reflect on the history of sexual categorization of human beings, as well as understand sexual norms as dynamic and closely tied to other historical movements and events.

We will ask norm critical questions, such as “is sex political?” and “are sexual practices and preferences innate?” What socializing role could and should sexual education have? At the end of the course, you will make group presentations in which you present your own version of “the perfect sexual education.”

 

Required texts:

- Herzog, Dagmar. Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-century History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2011.

- Strömquist, Liv. The Fruit of Knowledge: The Vulva Vs. The Patriarchy

- Additional texts will be available digitally through Canvas.

 

Course Faculty:

Emma Raask:

M.A. Cultural Studies, Goldsmith’s University of London studying bodies, plasticity, plastic and queerness. Previous Sexual Educator (RFSU and Goldsmith’s student union). CEO at a small charity working for young peoples rights to live in a society free from sexual violence (Föreningen Tillsammans). With DIS Since 2020.

 

Learning objectives of the course:

Upon completing the course, you will be able to…

1. Demonstrate the different ways in which sexual reform and sex education have been central to the positions of human rights and sexual health in various European nations.
2. Determine the unique position of sexual reform in Scandinavia and Europe.
3. Historicize current activist movements (e.g. for LGBT rights, reproductive rights, sexual liberation).
4. Critically reflect upon the relationship between historical context and the formation of cultural norms and concepts (related to sexuality) in relation to present-day reformed sexual education.
5. Critically explore your own sexual norms and behaviors and understand how they are shaped by history.

 

Approach to Teaching:

This course relies heavily on in-class participation. Class time will be largely discussion-based, with some lecture and interactive activities. You should read all material prior to class and will be expected to actively participate in both all class discussions and group work. 

Some assignments will require independent fieldwork.

Late work will be deducted by one letter grade per day it is late.

 

Expectations of the students:

In order to pass the class, you must:

1. Read all material before the class.
2. Actively participate in discussions of your readings.
3. Be active participants in group work.

Computers and phones are not allowed in class unless specifically agreed to in advance. You are therefore not allowed to keep your phone on the table throughout class. You are expected to take notes throughout the semester in a notebook, which you yourself are responsible for getting before the course begins. Please be aware that failure to comply with these rules will negatively affect your participation grade.

Assignment	Percentage of final grade	Deadline
Final presentation: The Perfect Sex Ed.	30 %
Active participation in class discussions and group work	30%	Ongoing
four 300 word academic reflections on Canvas	40%	Ongoing

 

Schedule of classes:

Our schedule is subject to change if necessary with as much notice as possible. Complete all readings BEFORE CLASS unless the readings are in (parentheses).

 

Module A: Collectively conceiving sexuality:

Class 1: Welcome, presentations and introduction to the syllabus

Readings:

A: Your syllabus

 

Class 2: What is sexuality?!

Readings:

A: The invention of Sexuality, (chapter 2 in A very short introduction to sexuality)

B: Queer: A graphic history

 

Class 3: Sexuality and power

Readings:

A: Understanding Patriarchy. Bell Hooks. 

B: Mies, federici and Biopower

C: In the shadow of Freud

 

Class 4: Sexuality and norms: binary genders and heteronormativity

Readings:

A: The Fruit of knowledge

B: Gender identity: Changing Rooms. Natalie Fiennes

 

Module B: State intervention and reform

Class 5: Criminalizing Sexuality: the invention of (homo)sexuality

Readings:

A: Rydström. Crminalizing queer.

 

Class 6: State interventions and the early history of sexual reform in Europe

Readings:

A: From Fragile Solidarities to Burnt Sexual Subjects: At the Institute of Sexual Science.

 

Class 7: Intervention and reform during and after WWI and II

Readings:

A: Herzog pp. 45-131

 

Class 8: The 1970s sexual liberation movement

Readings:

A: Herzog, pp. 133-175

B: “Sexual Liberalism in Sweden,” Lena Lennerhed

C: (Hot Love, Cold People. Carl Marklund)

 

Class 9: The 1980s AIDS crisis

Readings:

A: Herzog pp. 176-198

B: 100 BPM (beats per minute) film

 

Class 10: The 1990/2000s Islam, borders and the making 'the other.'

Readings:

A: Herzog, 198-215

B: We're here, we're queer, we're racist

C: The savior complex: muslim women and gendered islamophobia. Lola Olufemi

 

Class 11:  The 2010s laws of sexual offence

Readings:

A: https://www.thelocal.se/20190712/negligent-rape-has-swedens-sexual-consent-law-led-to-change

B: Rape in the nordic countries p 101-137

 

Class 12: Moving forward- contemporary and future context

Readings:

A: TBA

B: TBA

 

Module C: Sexual education in Europe

Class 13: Sex Education in Sweden:

A: Shaping sexual knowledge p 55-70

 

Class 14: Sex education in Europe – comparing national models

Readings:

A: Policies for Sexuality Education in the European Union 7-11 + 16 (Denmark) + 18 (Finland and France) + 20 (Germany) + 24 (Netherlands) + 29 (Spain) + 30 (Sweden) and 31 (UK).

 

Class 15:  Children's sexual rights

Readings:

A: In ignorance and in knowledge: reflections on the history of sex education in Britain, Shaping sexual knowledge

B: Sex positive families (instagram)

 

'Class 16: Children and sexual education today – when, where, and what?

Readings:

A: Ponzetti, Early Childhood Sexuality education, 201-218

B: The case for starting sex ed. In kindergarten

C: How a German Elementary School Taught Sex Ed

 

Class 17: Sexual education and youth

Readings:

A: Ponzetti, Sexuality education through adolescence

B: Sex your way, RFSU.

 

Class 18: Sex, young people, and the internet

Readings

A: Sexuality Education in the digital era intrinsic and extrinsic predictors of online sexual information seeking youth

 

Class 19: Disability and Sex Education 

A: Disability experience on trial. Tobin Siebers

B: Ponzetti chapter 16 Sexuality Education and Persons With Disabilities

 

Class 20: Learning through literature - Children's literature on sexuality and reproduction through time 

A: Representations of Pregnancy and Childbirth in (West) German Sex Education Books, 1900s–1970s

 

Class 21: Workshop on final project - creating the perfect sex education

Class 22: Presentations in class

Class 23: Wrapping up, evaluating, and saying goodbye