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The legacy of abstinence-only discourses and the place of pleasure in US discourses on teenage sexuality

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14681811.2010.515098

1472-0825

Claire Greslé-Favier,

Gender Roles and Identity Studies

Abstract This paper aims to examine the potential long-term legacy of abstinence-only discourses in the USA in order to consider the extent of the changes that might actually occur as a consequence of the 2009 presidential election. It first provides a brief overview of the history of discourses regarding youth sexuality and sex education over the past 30 years in the USA to underline the evolution towards a discourse on teenage sexuality as 'risk' behaviour. It will then examine the cultural support in the USA for sex education approaches that, while not necessarily focused on abstinence only, privilege abstinence as the most desirable behaviour and thus fail to or avoid underlining the pleasurable dimension of sexuality and the legitimacy young people have in seeking it. Finally, hypotheses on the possible evolution of discourses on youth sexuality in the USA will be formulated. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Dr Shyam Thapa for his support and for securing the funding that allowed participation in the sre2009 conference. Notes 1. For a further discussion of this question, see Fields and Tolman (Citation2006). 2. For example, while abortion was an issue that could be displayed and discussed in movies of the 1980s like Fast Time at Ridgemont High (Heckerling Citation1982) or Dirty Dancing (Ardolino Citation1987), it disappeared from movies for teens and adolescents and young adults in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which were also increasingly defined by sexist stereotypes of young women interested in love not sex and of 'hormone-driven' young men (see American Pie; Weitz Citation1999). 3. For further discussion of this 'epidemic', see Moran (Citation2000, 200). 4. For further discussion of this topic, see Greslé-Favier (Citation2009). 5. The curricula examined to ground the present analysis were five of the seven 'Curriculum-Based Sex and STD/HIV Education Programs' classified by researcher Douglas Kirby in his review of evaluated sex-education programmes Emerging Answers 2007 as 'programs with strong evidence of positive impact on sexual behavior or pregnancy or STD rates' (Kirby Citation2007, 23 and 193). A textual analysis of the facilitator's manuals of the following programmes was done for the purpose of this article: Jemmott, Jemmott, and McCaffree (Citation2006), St Lawrence (Citation2005), University of California, San Francisco, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies and ETR Associates (Citation2003), Coyle and Fetro (Citation2007) and Barth (Citation2004). 6. The Mexico City Policy, more commonly known as 'Global Gag Rule', was established in 1984 by President Reagan and revoked for the first time by President Clinton. It was reinstated in 2001 by President G.W. Bush and revoked once more by President Obama on 23 January 2009. 7. A 2007 poll on the issue conducted by the firm Lake Research found out that 88% of the 1011 adults polled in May 2007 'agreed that public schools should teach sex education that includes information on abstinence and contraception' (Wetzstein Citation2007). 8. For further discussion of this topic, see Greslé-Favier (Citation2009).