Talk about Sex

How Sex Ed Battles Helped Ignite the Right

Janice Irvine

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781439924228
  9781439924211
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439924235
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Educational Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Praise for Talk about Sex

"Must reading for scholars, sexuality researchers, activists, and public policy and public health planners engaged in efforts to promote education on sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV infection prevention for adolescents in schools."—JAMA 
 
Talk about Sex is a rich social history about the political transformations, cultural dynamics, and emotional rhetorical strategies that helped the right wing manufacture controversies on the local and national levels in the United States. Although the emergence of a politicized Christian Right is commonly dated at the mid-seventies, with the founding of groups like the Moral Majority, Talk about Sex tells the story of a powerful right-wing Christian presence in politics a full decade earlier. These activists used inflammatory sexual rhetoric—oftentimes deceptive and provocative—to capture the terms of public debate, galvanize voters, and reshape the culture according to their own vision. 

This 20th Anniversary Edition includes a new preface and epilogue by the author that examines current controversies over public education on sexuality, gender, and race. 
 
Demonstrating how the right wing draws on the cultural power of sexual shame and fear to build a political movement, Talk about Sex explores the complex entanglements of sexual knowledge, politics, and discourses.
 

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface to the 20th Anniversary Edition
• Preface to the Paperback Edition (2004)
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Redefining Sex, 1964: A Prologue
• 2. Days of Rage
• 3. Born-Again Sexual Politics
• 4. The New Sexual Revolution
• 5. Victims, Villains, . . . and Neighbors
• 6. Doing It with Words
• 7. The Passions of Culture Wars
• 8. The Politics of Aversion
• 9. If Asked, Don’t Tell: A Final Comment
• Epilogue to the 20th Anniversary Edition
• On Methods and Terminology
• Appendix: Opponents of Comprehensive Sex Education
• Appendix to the 20th Anniversary Edition
• Notes
• Index