The ‘Second Sexual Revolution’, Moral Panic, and the Evasion of Teenage Sexual Subjectivity
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09612025.2012.658169
ISSN1747-583X
Autores Tópico(s)Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
ResumoAbstract Across much of the Anglophone West, the 1960s played host to a moral panic over the sexual behaviour of young people. Claims of rapidly rising rates of premarital sexual experimentation, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases filled media reports and prompted government, community, and medical action. This article examines an Australian response to this 'crisis' of teen sex. It argues that despite the widespread cultural acknowledgement of teenage sexual subjectivity and practice, the figure of the sexual adolescent was placed under erasure. Notes John Kobler (1968) 'Sex Invades the Schoolhouse', Saturday Evening Post, 29 June, p. 27, cited in Jeffrey P. Moran (2000) Teaching Sex: the shaping of adolescence in the 20th century (Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press), pp. 167–168. Michael Schofield (1969), in collaboration with John Bynner, Patricia Lewis, Peter Massie, The Sexual Behaviour of Young People (Harmondsworth: Penguin), p. 23. Editorial (1967) The pundits, Sydney Morning Herald (hereafter cited as SMH), 5 June, p. 2. American Medical Association (1965) Venereal Disease Task Force, Journal of the American Medical Association, 193(10) (6 September), p. 174, emphasis added. British Medical Association (1964), Venereal Disease and Young People (London: British Medical Association). Anon. (1965) Venereal Disease and Young People, book review, Probation Journal, 11, p. 32, emphasis added. Child Welfare Advisory Council of NSW (1967) (hereafter cited as CWAC) Social Problems Arising in Relation to Premarital Intercourse, The Medical Journal of Australia (3 June), pp. 1146–1150. This is, of course, Michel Foucault's (1990) phrase, The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley (Harmondsworth: Penguin), p. 34. British Ministry of Education (1960) The Youth Service in England and Wales (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office), p. 29. For prominent examples see Anon. (1964) Morals: the second sexual revolution, Time, South Pacific Edition (24 January), pp. 40–45; Anon. (1964) The Morals Revolution on the U.S. Campus, Newsweek (6 April), pp. 44–49; Brian Buckley (1966) Morals: the sexual revolution, The Bulletin (14 May), pp. 19–24. Jeffrey Weeks (1989) Sex, Politics and Society: the regulation of sexuality since 1800 (London & New York: Longman), p. 250. Anon., Morals: the second sexual revolution; Anon., The Morals Revolution; Buckley, Morals. For a survey of these well-recognized changing social and material contexts for 1960 adolescents, see British Ministry of Education, The Youth Service, pp. 13–28. The phase 'bulge generation' is taken from this report, p. 13. The phrase 'storm and stress' is G. Stanley Hall's (1904) description in Adolescence, 2 vols (New York: Appleton). British Ministry of Education, The Youth Service, p. 29. Craig McGregor (1965) Sex and the Adolescent: are we growing into a hedonist society? SMH (24 November), p. 2. Ibid., p. 2, noted that 'nowhere are the effects of the [of the sexual revolution] seen more clearly than in the much-maligned group, Australian adolescents'. See Moran, Teaching Sex; Janice Irvine (2002) Talk About Sex: the battles over sex education in the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press). Anon. (1964) VD Upsurge in the West: too many drive-ins? The Bulletin (29 August), p. 20. McGregor, Sex and the Adolescent, p. 2. Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society, pp. 251–252. G. Logan (1980) Sex Education in Queensland: a history of the debate 1900–1980 (QLD: Dept. of Education), p. 38. Jeffrey Weeks (2003) Sexuality, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge), p. 108. Anon., Morals: the second sexual revolution, p. 42. See also Anon., The Morals Revolution. CWAC, Some Problems, p. 1146. Schofield, Sexual Behaviour, p. 225. For an example of similar reports from the US context, see Elizabeth B. Hurlock (1967) Adolescent Development (New York: McGraw Hill). John K. Collins (1970) Sex Education: by whom, when, and where, Medical Health in Australia, IV (1), pp. 4–10. Anon. (1967) Sex education, SMH (6 January), p. 2. Schofield, Sexual Behaviour, p. 226; Collins, Sex Education. Anon., Sex education. Editorial (1967) More than the facts, SMH (11 January), p. 2. The British Medical Association was cited in this editorial. Peter Bowers (1967) Some Will Be Frank: sex lessons, SMH (30 January), p. 6. On the US context, see Irvine, Talk About Sex; Moran, Teaching Sex; on British context, see James Hampshire and Jane Lewis (2004) 'The Ravages of Permissiveness': sex education and the permissive society, Twentieth Century British History, 15 (3), pp. 290–312; and for a comparative US, UK, and Australian account, see Nicole Vitellone (2007) Object Matters: condoms, adolescence and time (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 13–21. Irvine, Talk About Sex, pp. 132–134. Ibid.; Moran, Teaching Sex; Hampshire and Lewis, 'The Ravages of Permissiveness'; Vitellone, Object Matters. Anon. (1967) Sex Education for Young People, New Life (29 June), p. 2. Anon., The pundits, p. 2. On the recommendation about contraceptive techniques see CWAC, Social Problems, p. 1147. Anon. (1967) Sex Lessons at Primary Level Urged, SMH (3 June), p. 1. Anon. (1967) Need in Sex Education, SMH (31 January), p. 2. For instance, Collins' study, Sex Education, of parental attitudes to sex education seems to confirm this. A majority of principals responding to a 1972 Department of Education survey on sex education favoured the introduction of comprehensive sex education, also lends some weight to this observation. See Anon. (1973) Principals 'Favour Wider Sex Education', SMH (9 January), p. 3. Alison Bashford and Carolyn Strange (2004) Public Pedagogy: sex education and mass communication in the mid-twentieth century, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 13 (1), pp. 71–99. Janice Irvine (2007) Transient Feelings: sex panics and the politics of emotions, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 14 (1), pp. 1–40. Anon. (1967) School Sex Proposal Rejected, SMH (6 June), p. 4. Anon. (1967) Sex Instruction Report Backed by Church Group, SMH (2 July), p. 4. Moran, Teaching Sex, pp. 156–193; Irvine, Talk About Sex, pp. 17–62. See Anon. (1967) Humanist Manifesto, excerpt from the Humanist Manifesto of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, 1965, The Australian Humanist (June), p. 40. On the history of the International Humanist and Ethical Union see their book: International Humanist and Ethical Union 1952-2002—Past, Present and Future. http://www.iheu.org/node/2224 I.S. Edwards (1967) Sex Education in Schools, SMH (2 March), p. 2. John A. McCluskie (1967) Sex and the Humanists, SMH (14 March), p. 2. Beatrice Faust (1969) S-E-X, Sex, Australian Humanist (December), pp. 6–7. I.S. Edwards (1969) Sex for Modern Teenagers (Adelaide: Rigby). Faust, S-E-X, Sex, p. 9. Schofield, Sexual Behaviour, p. 106. Edwards, Sex for Modern Teenagers, p. 5. 'Crisis for teenagers' was a highlighted sub-headline of a news story about violent sex crime and the need for sex education. See Anon. (1969) School Sex Education Essential—Committee, SMH (8 August), pp. 1, 8. Anon. School Sex Education Essential, p. 1. See also Select Committee on Violent Sex Crimes in New South Wales (1969) Report from the Select Committee on Violent Sex Crimes in New South Wales (Sydney: NSW Govt. Printer), esp. p. xxii. Report from the Select Committee, p. xvi. Schofield, Sexual Behaviour; Hurlock, Adolescent. John K. Collins (1972) Adolescent Sex Education, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 7 (2), pp. 124–131. This study was reported in Anon. (1972) Pupils Give Views on Sex Lessons, SMH (11 July), p. 3; Anon. (1972) Catching up on Sex Lessons, SMH (16 August), p. 7; and Anon. (1973) Teach it at School Say Youngsters, Daily Mirror (24 September). This last newspaper clipping is held at State Records NSW, 'Sex Education reactions to draft policy on sex education in schools', Item number 72/46591. The clipping does not have a page number. Anon. (1971) Committee to Review Sex Education, SMH (12 November), p. 9. Stefania Siedlecky (2006) Sex Education in New South Wales: the Growing Up film series, Health and History, 8 (2), p. 114. Ibid.; Anon. (1972) School Pupils Report on Sex Education, SMH (31 May), p. 12. David Dale (1972) Catching up on Sex Lessons, SMH (16 August), p. 7. Ibid., p. 7. Anon. 'Teach it at School' say youngsters. Dale, Catching up on Sex Lessons, p. 7. New South Wales Department of Education (1974) Personal Development in Secondary Schools—The Place of Sex Education (Sydney: NSW Department of Education), p. 5. Dale, Catching up, p. 7. Government school principals were overwhelmingly in favour of the report. See Anon. (1973) Principals 'Favour Wider Sex Education', SMH (9 January), p. 3. NSW Department of Education, Personal Development, p. 9. Anon. (1974) Sex Education, SMH (29 May), p. 6. See, for example, Anon. (1974) Sex Course—No Restrictions Plea: women concerned, SMH (5 June), p. 13. J. D. Buggie (1973), letter to Marion C. Linley (28 February), held at State Records NSW, Sex Education Reactions, Item number 72/46591. For example, see Schofield, Sexual Behaviour, pp. 82–97, where it was suggested that young people's knowledge of birth control and VD was 'sketchy'. CWAC, Social Problems, p. 1147. Schofield, Sexual Behaviour, pp. 14, 230. NSW Department of Education, Personal Development, p. 5. Anon., School Sex Education Essential, p. 8. Moran, Teaching Sex, p. 35. Ibid., p. 216. Additional informationNotes on contributorsSteven Angelides Steven Angelides works in the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University. He is the author of A History of Bisexuality (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and winner of the Modern Language Association's Crompton-Noll Award for his work on child sexuality.
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