Children And The Politics Of Sexuality

American political and legal culture is uncomfortable with children's sexuality. While aware that sexual expression is a necessary part of human development, law rarely contemplates the complex ways in which it interacts with children and sexuality. Just as the law circumscribes children to a narrow range of roles—either as entirely sexless beings or victims or objects of harmful adult sexual conduct—so too does society tend to discount the notion of children as agents in the domain of sex and sexuality. Where a small body of rights related to sex has been carved out, the central question has been the degree to which children resemble adults, not necessarily whether minors themselves possess distinct and recognized rights related to sex, sexual expression, and sexuality. Children, Sexuality, and the Law reflects on some of the unique challenges that accompany children in the broader context of sex, exploring from diverse perspectives the ways in which children emerge in sexually related dimensions of law and contemporary life. It explores a broad range of issues, from the psychology of children as sexual beings to the legal treatment of adolescent consent. This work also explores whether and when children have a right to expression as understood within the First Amendment. The first volume of its kind, Children, Sexuality, and the Law goes beyond the traditional discourse of children as victims of adult sexual deviance by highlighting children as agents and rights holders in the realm of sex, sexuality, and sexual orientation.

This book discusses already established accounts about the sexualization of children through a theoretical and an empirical framework which bring together popular culture, consumption, sexuality, selfhood and childhood. Adopting the view that the debate about the sexualization of childhood is socially constructed, it pushes beyond the dominant preconceptions about ‘the risks of childhood’. Moral judgements about children’s welfare are perhaps nowhere more transient and controversial than when it comes to children’s sexuality, something that has deep historical roots. However, and contrary to recurrent fears and moral panics about the loss of childhood as a result of a tidal wave of a sexualizing culture, this book theorizes the notion of children’s sexualization within the social construction of myths of childhood innocence while also taking into account the extent of young people’s actual engagement with media and technology in contemporary Western societies. It is within such a contextual framework that this book unfolds, bringing together a historical contextualization of childhood, sexuality and pornography with contemporary empirical accounts regarding the ‘presentation of the self’ and self-management.

Continued public outcries over such issues as young models in sexually suggestive ads and intimate relationships between teachers and students speak to one of the most controversial fears of our time: the entanglement of children and sexuality. In this book, Steven Angelides confronts that fear, exploring how emotional vocabularies of anxiety, shame, and even contempt not only dominate discussions of youth sexuality but also allow adults to avoid acknowledging the sexual agency of young people. Introducing case studies and trends from Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America, he challenges assumptions on a variety of topics, including sex education, age-of-consent laws, and sexting. Angelides contends that an unwillingness to recognize children’s sexual agency results not in the protection of young people but in their marginalization.

This volume presents a ground-breaking collection of interdisciplinary chapters from international scholars which complicate, and offers new ways to make sense of, children's sexual cultures across complex political, social and cultural terrains.

An innovative study of the establishment of 'age' as a political category in late colonial India.

Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Gold Medal Winner This is an illustrated children's book for ages 7-11 that makes gender identity, sexual orientation and family diversity easy to explain to children. Throughout the book kids learn that there are many kinds of people in the world and that diversity is something to be celebrated. It covers gender, romantic orientation, discrimination, intersectionality, privilege, and how to stand up for what's right. With charming illustrations, clear explanations, and short sections that can be dipped in and out of, this book helps children think about how to create a kinder, more tolerant world.

Praised and denounced when it was first published in 1970, Sexual Politics not only explored history but also became part of it. Kate Millett's groundbreaking book fueled feminism's second wave, giving voice to the anger of a generation while documenting the inequities -- neatly packaged in revered works of literature and art -- of a complacent and unrepentant society. Sexual Politics laid the foundation for subsequent feminist scholarship by showing how cultural discourse reflects a systematized subjugation and exploitation of women. Millett demonstrates in detail how patriarchy's attitudes and systems penetrate literature, philosophy, psychology, and politics. Her incendiary work rocked the foundations of the literary canon by castigating time-honored classics -- from D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover to Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead -- for their use of sex to degrade and undermine women. A new introduction to this edition draws attention to some of the forms patriarchy has taken recently in consolidating its oppressive and dangerous control.

American political and legal culture is uncomfortable with children's sexuality. While aware that sexual expression is a necessary part of human development, law rarely contemplates the complex ways in which it interacts with children and sexuality. Just as the law circumscribes children to a narrow range of roles - either as entirely sexless beings or victims or objects of harmful adult sexual conduct - so too does society tend to discount the notion of children as agents in the domain of sex and sexuality. This book reflects on some of the unique challenges that accompany children in the broader context of sex, exploring from diverse perspectives the ways in which children emerge in sexually related dimensions of law and contemporary life. It explores a broad range of issues, from the psychology of children as sexual beings to the legal treatment of adolescent consent.

This book explores how children engage with sex and sexuality. Building on a conceptual and legal grounding in sexuality studies and the new sociology of childhood, the authors debate the age of consent, teenage pregnany, sexual diversity, sexualisation, sex education and sexual literacy, paedophilia, and sex in the digital age. Whilst Moore and Reynolds recognise the necessity of child protection and safeguarding in the context of risk, danger and harm, they also argue that where these stifle children’s sexual knowledge, understanding, expression and experience, they contribute to a climate of fear, ignorance and bad experiences or harms. What is necessary is to balance safeguarding with enabling, and encourage judicious understandings that advance from a rigid developmental model to one that recognises pleasure and excitement in children’s nascent sexual lives. Exploring that balance through their chosen issues, they seek to encourage changed thinking in professional, personal and academic contexts, and speculate that children might teach adults something about the way they think about sex. Childhood and Sexuality will be of interest to students, scholars and professionals across a range of subjects and disciplines including sociology, social work, criminology, and youth studies.

“Silin shows us how we culture ignorance in children and in each other by refusing to hear and respond to what they and we already know.” —From the Foreword by Madeleine Grumet “This book is not for the meek, because it talks straight from the heart—and from an educated and serious heart. Argue, disagree, get angry—but don’t ignore what Jonathan Silin is saying.” —Jonathan M. Mann, Harvard School of Public Health “Will play an important role in the current debate about what the ‘canon’ underlying early childhood education is and what it must be to equitably educate all children in the 21st century.” —Louise Derman-Sparks, Pacific Oaks College “Brings together a lifetime of advocacy and action—for children, for human rights, for people with HIV/AIDS, for gay men and lesbians—into a seamless argument for social justice, fairness, and respect for all people.” —William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago “The importance of Silin’s message for educators cannot be overstated.” —David M. Halperin, MIT