Feeling abstinent? Feeling comprehensive? Touching the affects of sexuality curricula

Abstract

This interpretive study draws on interdisciplinary scholarship on affect and knowledge to ask: toward what feelings do abstinence-only and comprehensive sexuality education curricula direct us? A methodology that is attuned to double exposures is discussed, and one abstinence-only sexuality education curriculum and one comprehensive sexuality education curriculum are reviewed. The interpretation provides an alternative to the usual representation of these curricula as oppositional. Both of the curricula direct knowers to feel sure, optimistic, and free. Both curricula evidence longings for stable knowledge and guaranteed meanings. Finally, learners are directed to feel that knowledge can solve all problems smoothly and happily. Mistakes, negativism, and confusion are excluded from both sets of sexual knowledge. Implications of this interpretation for changing sexuality education are discussed.