Youth and Sexualities

A new collection that addresses the problematic pathologization of queer youth, this book argues that the majority of educators and youth workers still know little about queer youth's negotiations of identity and community. The contributors examine the dangerous effects of heteronormalizing practices, and look at how young people negotiate labels and stereotypes in and out of school settings. What makes this project unique is that the contributors go beyond the discussions of homophobia young people experience on an everyday basis - the look at how youth subvert these experiences into those of pleasure, power, and confidence. In addition, the contributors look at how youth organize communities and negotiate positive identities in different settings.

'Every so often new scholarship constitutes a powerful political act. In its analysis of adolescence and naturalized models of gender and sexuality, Youth and Sexualities goes beyond the liberal discourse of identity, tolerance, safety, and equity. The authors of the essays in this volume are skilled at presenting radical critiques of constructs that emphasize oppression and victimization in the lives of GLBTQ youth, even as they take into account their own appreciation for these more popular approaches to civil society.

In its efforts to contribute to a transformation of cultural understandings of sexuality and youth, Youth and Sexualities invites readers to consider 'institutional multicultural approaches of integrity'. On this point alone, the work is an invaluable resource for courses in critical education theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. The editors of this text present a set of well written essays that will gain the attention of queer studies scholars. Yet the structure and language of these essays-offering historical, ethnographic, psychoanalytic, critical, interpretive, and Foucauldian analyses-make them accessible to the general reader interested in GLBTQ issues. In prompting us to rethink our conceptions, politics, and practices, Youth and Sexualities promises a fuller understanding of all youth-queer and straight alike.' - Karen Graves, Denison University

'Fraught knowledges, genealogies, dividing practices, gaybonics, and heterotopia: this astutely-edited collection performs pleasure, provocation, and per(e)-version.' - William F. Pinar, St. Bernard Parish Alumni Endowed Professor, Louisiana State University

'highly original and provocative.' - Richard Taulke-Johnson, Sexualities

'...a powerful collection of essays that challenge universalizing assumptions and representations of queer youth.' - Emma Renold, Gender and Education

Autorentext
MARY LOUISE RASMUSSEN is Lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies in Education at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.

ERIC ROFES is Assistant Professor of Education at Humboldt State University, California, USA.

SUSAN TALBURT is Associate Professor of Social Foundations in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, Georgia State University, USA.

Inhalt
Introduction: Transforming Discourses of Queer Youth and Educational Practices Surrounding Gender, Sexuality, and Youth; S.Talburt, E.Rofes & M.L.Rasmussen PART I: RETHINKING ADULTS AND YOUTH Intelligibility and Narrating Queer Youth; S.Talburt Martyr, Target, Victim: Interrogating Narratives of Persecution and Suffering among Queer Youth; E.Rofes The Historical Regulation of Sexuality and Gender of Students and Teachers: An Intertwined Legacy; J.M.Blount & S.Anahita Subject to Scrutiny: Taking Foucauldian Genealogies to Narratives of Youth Oppression; V.Harwood Between Sexuality and Narrative: On the Language of Sex Education; J.Gilbert PART II: RETHINKING YOUTH PRACTICES Safety and Subversion: The Production of Sexualities and Genders in School Spaces; M.L.Rasmussen Scout's Honor: Duty, Citizenship, and the Homoerotic in the BSA; A.Coleman, M.Ehrenworth , & N.Lesko Agency in Borderland Discourses: Engaging in Gaybonics for Pleasure, Subversion, and Retaliation; M.V.Blackburn Bent as a Ballet Dancer: The Possibilities for and Limits of Legitimate Homo-masculinity in School; D.Youdell Melancholy and the Productive Negotiations of Power in Sissy Boy Experience; D.McInnes