Bodily excess and the practice of wonder in sexuality education

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of excess is often used to exclude or render deviant marginalised individuals and groups, reifying hegemonic structures of control and domination. Feminists and other critical scholars, however, have utilised the concept of excess to resist such normalising efforts. In conversation with these critical scholars, this paper advances the concept of bodily excess as a tool for reimagining the project(s) of sexuality education towards capaciousness and curiosity. Specifically, we wonder about the practices, body parts, desires and discourses that exceed formal knowledge production efforts in the sex education arena. We outline five definitional features that serve as touchstones for the pedagogical possibilities of embracing bodily excess: overflow, uncertainty, the sensory, the political, and affective complexity. From our scholar-practitioner positions, we argue that bodily excess is an important conceptual tool for including and centring the fullest range of embodied experiences within a given learning community, and for stretching our politicised and relational bodily imaginaries. In other words, we ask for more.