Sex Panics, Secularism, and Debates About Sexuality Education

• In Event: Sexuality, “Sexualization,” and Media Sex Panics: The Implications for Young Sexualities Research and Sexuality Education

Abstract

Objectives

Research on sexuality education has drawn on the notion of moral panic in order to better understand opposition to the implementation of sexuality education programs. I interrogate the tendency to classify religious opposition to sexuality education curriculum as illustrative of a ‘moral panic’. I first consider the notion of moral panic in academic debates about sexuality education and I go on to provide some recent examples of newspaper reports and blogs that may be constituted as indicative of a moral panic related to sexuality education within Australia and the United States.

Perspectives

In his text Moral Panics, Kenneth Thompson (1998) argues that, in the context of a moral panic, ‘something or someone is defined as a threat to values or interests, this threat is easily identifiable by the media, there is a rapid build up of concern, and a response from authorities or opinion makers, the panic recedes or results in social change’ (1998: 8). Thompson goes on to argue that ‘it would be wrong to assume that the motive of actors involved in generating a moral panic … is that of cynical manipulation for ulterior ends; they may genuinely believe what they say. (Although there might be a happy coincidence of principle and interest.)’ (1998: 8–9) This last claim, regarding the authenticity of moral panic, is a principal subject of interrogation in this paper.

Methods and Data Sources

The principal data is academic analysis of media debates focusing on sexuality education in the United States and Australia. In particular I focus on Janice Irvine’s (2006, 2007) analysis of US debates on sexuality education. I also consider some Australian research relating to recent South Australian controversies related to sexuality education in schools (Gibson, 2007).

Results

Heated debates about the content of sexuality education are to be expected - there can be no easy agreement about whose morality should be reflected in the curriculum. What are the effects of characterizing these debates using the notion of moral panic? What might be the value of thinking differently about the tendency to characterize religious objections to sexuality education as attributable to a moral panic?

Scholarly significance

The notion of ‘moral panic’, as mobilized in “progressive” academic research on sexuality education, can operate to curtail dialogue on important points of tension relating to the subject of sexuality education.

References
Gibson, S. (2007) ‘The Language of the Right: Sex Education Debates in South Australia’, Sex Education, 7 (3) pp. 239–50.
Irvine, J. (2006) ‘Emotional Scripts of Sex Panics’, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 3 (3) :pp. 82–94.
—— (2007) ‘Transient Feelings: Sex Panics and the Politics of Emotions’, GLQ, 14, (1): pp. 1–40.
Thompson, K. (1998) Moral Panics, Routledge, Hoboken, NJ.

Author

• Mary Louise Rasmussen, Monash University