Investigating Young People's Sexual Cultures

This book examines ways of developing research on young people’s sexual cultures in the context of a media-saturated and technology-focused contemporary culture, an area of study that remains relatively unexplored despite heightened concern about young people, sex and culture. Unlike the widespread sensationalist reporting about the ‘pornification’ of young people’s lives and the policy documents which have emerged on ‘sexualization’, the book foregrounds the need for a critical approach which recognizes the complexity of culture and is able to unpack what is at stake in the construction of particular views and practices. It emphasizes how concerns about ‘harm’ and ‘risk’, however well-intentioned, can work against young people’s interests and argues that education will only be effective if it engages with young people and is based on a commitment to young people’s rights and to the broader notion of sexual rights. Drawing together key researchers in the area the book examines health policy, sex and relationships education, sex abuse therapy, television production, sport, internet use, and the production and consumption of commercial goods and media. This book will be of interest to the many academics and groups who are concerned with young people’s sexual cultures and their place within society.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Sex Education.

Feona Attwood is Professor of Cultural Studies, Communication and Media at Middlesex University, UK. Her research focuses on onscenity; sexualization; sexual cultures; new technologies, identity and the body; and controversial media. Feona is the editor of Mainstreaming sex: The sexualization of Western culture (2009) and porn.com: Making sense of online pornography (2010) and the co-editor of (with Vincent Campbell, I.Q. Hunter and Sharon Lockyer) Controversial images: Media representations on the edge (2013). She co-edits the journal, Sexualities and is the founding co-editor of the journal, Porn Studies.

Clarissa Smith is Professor of Sexual Cultures at the University of Sunderland, UK. Her research focuses on sexual cultures, practices and representations. In particular, she is interested in pornography and other sexually explicit media: their institutional practices, representational strategies, uses and meanings. Her publications include One for the girls! The pleasures and practices of pornography for women (2007), (with Michael Higgins and John Storey) Cambridge companion to contemporary British culture (2010), and (with Niall Richardson and Angela Werndly) Studies in sexualities: Theories, representations, practices (2013). She is the founding co-editor of the journal, Porn Studies.